Pastors on opposite sides of pulpit on Steelers-Browns game
CONNELLSVILLE – Two pastors of the Connellsville Church of God are on the opposite ends of the field when it comes to today’s playoff football game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cleveland Browns. Associate Pastor Kay Kurtz, who was born and raised in Ohio, is rooting for the Browns, while Pastor Jeff Matas’ heart beats for the black and gold.
Both, however, are on the same team when it comes to their congregation and teaching the word of God.
Kurtz, who is married to a retired Ohio State highway patrolman, grew up in southeastern Ohio and is a lifelong Cleveland Browns and Indians fan.
And, although she said she loves this area, she also admits that she has gotten comments in the grocery store and at the mall when she wears her brown and orange Cleveland Browns jacket.
“I was at Shop n’ Save in Connellsville a couple of weeks ago when a man behind me wearing a Steelers jacket said, ‘Browns fan, huh?’ said Kurtz. “I said, ‘Huh, Steelers fan’ and he asked me what I was doing here. I told him that I came here for employment and we talked a little bit. It was nice.”
However, happenings at the church are much more interesting, said Kurtz.
“My mother (Margaret Mitchell, 83) lives here in Connellsville, too, and she’s really a big Browns fan,” said Kurtz. “Sometimes, when Jeff’s preaching, he uses sermon illustrations putting down Ohio or the Browns, and I know what he’s doing, but it’s really hard because I don’t get to get him back, because I don’t preach.
“I lead worship, so there’s not a whole lot of opportunity to get back at him.”
Matas admits that his comments are all in good fun: “I heard on the radio the other day that Art Modell should be hailed as a hero because he rescued 55 people from Ohio by moving the team out.” Modell, former owner of the Cleveland Browns, moved the team to Baltimore and renamed them the Baltimore Ravens. The Browns got their name back after a legal battle in the courts when the league expanded.
Kurtz laughingly told Matas, “That’s terrible. At least I have two teams to root for in big games this week. The Ohio State Buckeyes and the Browns.”
Fortunately for Kurtz, the Buckeyes won the Fiesta Bowl on Friday, claiming the NCAA collegiate football title.
Still, Matas said, “Come Monday, you might be really depressed,” after the Steelers-Browns game.
Kurtz and her husband, Russ, moved to Connellsville in the summer of 1990 after she accepted the associate pastor position at the Breakneck Avenue church.
She received her nursing degree from West Virginia University and did her ministry studies in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
She and her husband are the parents of five grown children, four of whom live in Ohio, while one lives in Virginia.
Matas, originally from Johnstown, said he’s always been a Steelers fan. He did his ministry studies at Anderson University in Indiana and Temple University in Philadelphia and admits that he doesn’t even like driving through Ohio when he and his family visit relatives in Indiana.
Matas and his wife, Carla, who moved to the Fay-West area in 1995, are the parents of two children: Joe, 13, and Kelley, 11.
Matas said Sunday’s sermon may have a couple of “sly” Steelers remarks in it, but he said he’d try to keep them at a minimum.
“Sometimes it’s hard, because when I look over at Kay, I see her sitting with her saintly mother,” he said. “If I do say something, it would probably be something sly like, ‘Don’t forget to get your shots before you travel to Ohio.'”
While Kurtz and Matas continue to debate which team is the best and which has the better quarterback, they both agreed that no matter what the outcome of Sunday’s game, life as they know it will not change.
In fact, they agreed that they might get together with their families and some members of the congregation on Sunday to watch the 1 p.m. game.