Cheerleading At Christmas
Stories
Lectionary Tales For The Pulpit
Series IV Cycle C
Cheerleading is big -- especially in Texas and Oklahoma. You remember the cheerleader mom who shot the mom of her daughter's rival in a cheerleading competition? Cheerleading is huge in some regions of the country.
Someone was bound to notice. Jeff Webb was a yell leader at the University of Oklahoma in the early '70s. After graduating, he opted out of his plans to attend law school, and instead joined a company that ran cheerleading summer camps. After three years he left to form his own company, and in his first year, 1975, posted an $850 profit.
Fast forward 25 years. Now he's the president and CEO of Varsity Spirit Corporation, a company that now pulls in $150 million annually. His company and others like it run cheerleading camps and competitions. But the big money comes from the sale of cheerleading apparel and accessories.
What does a cheerleader need to make it big? You've got your body suit under the uniform, the shirt and the skirt, hair accessories, briefs, pom-poms, megaphone, socks, and shoes. Add to that the cost of summer camp, camp wear, and personalized warm-ups and it can easily cost, according to one cheerleader mom, over $1,000 to keep her daughter in pom-poms.
No industry of this size can make it without magazines to drive the cheer culture. At least eight magazines now market to cheerleaders, including American Cheerleader, Dance Spirit, and others.
It's not all fun and games. The practices can be brutal. Injuries are common. Cheerleaders train in gymnastics, mastering the vault and handsprings. They run laps to stay in shape. They work out. They practice twenty hours a week learning stunts and routines, practicing their tumbling and pyramids. And when they have time, they go to class!
Some are specialists within the genre. Fliers are the cheerleaders who get tossed into the air. Catchers are those who grab them on the way down.
So what if schools didn't have cheerleaders? Would the fans in the stands sit on their hands and keep their mouths shut when their team is on the two-yard line threatening to score? Probably not. But it's cool to have people designated to lead the cheers.
And that's what Paul is doing here, writing to a church that arguably was the closest to his heart of any of the churches he founded or visited. "You're the greatest," he says, "and I'll tell you why."
He cheered them on in their faith. He cheered them in spite of his own problems (he was writing from prison). He cheered in spite of their imperfections. He was the yell leader of the faith. He knew how to pump up the Philippian crowd and get them going.
Years earlier the angel had said to the shepherds in the field, "I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people" (Luke 2:10).
Great joy! Christmas is a time for good cheer! Why shouldn't we be pumped up? God is with us! And why shouldn't we, too, seize the moment to bring good cheer to those around us?
Someone was bound to notice. Jeff Webb was a yell leader at the University of Oklahoma in the early '70s. After graduating, he opted out of his plans to attend law school, and instead joined a company that ran cheerleading summer camps. After three years he left to form his own company, and in his first year, 1975, posted an $850 profit.
Fast forward 25 years. Now he's the president and CEO of Varsity Spirit Corporation, a company that now pulls in $150 million annually. His company and others like it run cheerleading camps and competitions. But the big money comes from the sale of cheerleading apparel and accessories.
What does a cheerleader need to make it big? You've got your body suit under the uniform, the shirt and the skirt, hair accessories, briefs, pom-poms, megaphone, socks, and shoes. Add to that the cost of summer camp, camp wear, and personalized warm-ups and it can easily cost, according to one cheerleader mom, over $1,000 to keep her daughter in pom-poms.
No industry of this size can make it without magazines to drive the cheer culture. At least eight magazines now market to cheerleaders, including American Cheerleader, Dance Spirit, and others.
It's not all fun and games. The practices can be brutal. Injuries are common. Cheerleaders train in gymnastics, mastering the vault and handsprings. They run laps to stay in shape. They work out. They practice twenty hours a week learning stunts and routines, practicing their tumbling and pyramids. And when they have time, they go to class!
Some are specialists within the genre. Fliers are the cheerleaders who get tossed into the air. Catchers are those who grab them on the way down.
So what if schools didn't have cheerleaders? Would the fans in the stands sit on their hands and keep their mouths shut when their team is on the two-yard line threatening to score? Probably not. But it's cool to have people designated to lead the cheers.
And that's what Paul is doing here, writing to a church that arguably was the closest to his heart of any of the churches he founded or visited. "You're the greatest," he says, "and I'll tell you why."
He cheered them on in their faith. He cheered them in spite of his own problems (he was writing from prison). He cheered in spite of their imperfections. He was the yell leader of the faith. He knew how to pump up the Philippian crowd and get them going.
Years earlier the angel had said to the shepherds in the field, "I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people" (Luke 2:10).
Great joy! Christmas is a time for good cheer! Why shouldn't we be pumped up? God is with us! And why shouldn't we, too, seize the moment to bring good cheer to those around us?
