Church signs are known for being funny and sometimes offensive. But what about prophetic?
For one Maine church, “prophetic” seems to be an appropriate word to describe its most recent church sign that predicted the final score of Sunday’s game between the New England Patriots and the Kansas City Chief.
On Friday the Rev. Mark Tanner of the Skowhegan Federated Church, who happens to be a Patriots fanatic, directed the church’s office secretary to post his prediction on the church’s big sign outside.
The sign presciently read, “God doesn’t have a favorite team but the pastor does!!! Patriots 37. Chiefs 31.”
Although Tanner would like to think his prediction was divine intervention, he is wise enough to not take it that far. For the 62-year-old pastor, the sign was not intended to be taken seriously, but to amuse the locals.
“I wanted to put that sign up in Skowhegan. I’ve been here long enough, and I thought people would just get a kick out of it,” he told the Morning Sentinel.
Completely unaware of how accurate his prediction would be, Tanner confesses that he did not think any more of it until the game went into overtime.
“I asked my secretary to put the sign up, and I said, ‘I want you to put the score up. I want to make the score 37-31’ because it’s going to be a high-scoring game and that was it,” Tanner stated, “I never thought any more about it until [Sunday] night when it went into overtime.”
The Reverend is not the only Patriots fan in his family, however. His wife and children are also huge Patriots enthusiasts. As they gathered together to watch the game Sunday night, Mrs. Tanner reminded her children that if the Patriots scored in overtime, their father’s prediction would be spot on.
And then it happened. The Patriots scored the final touchdown to clutch the victory and the Tanner house erupted in celebration. The Reverend’s phone immediately began to ring as his prediction became reality.
Tanner’s son went to Instagram to praise his dad’s prediction with the caption, “When your dad calls the score of the game, puts it on the sign at his church, and then calls it exactly right!! PATS NATION BABY #SB53 #patsnation”
With the Superbowl only weeks away, not surprisingly Tanner predicts the Patriots will win. He also has a prediction for the final score, but he hasn’t posted it to the church’s sign just yet.
(Photo: Tanner/Instagram)