Ministry Monday: March Madness

One thing I love about ministry is the ability to leverage the culture around me and use it for the cause of Christianity. I wrote in the past about how to use Fantasy Football as a tool for ministry and I believe another opportunity is coming on us very quickly. Yes, I am talking about bracketology, March Madness, and the NCAA tournament. Right now the talk of the week is about bubble teams and who is in and who is out. Which conference is going to have the most teams represented this year? Who gets the #1 seeds?

The best thing I think about all of this talk and excitement around the tournament is that it is mostly men. My new found ministry and passion for reaching the dads of the ministries I lead has me thinking of ways to get them to connect with each other. What is a better way than to fill out some brackets and talk a little smack about each other's alma mater?

So how does this work? How do you turn this into ministry? It is quite simple if you are strategic. Set up a league/group on your favorite website. I prefer Yahoo for this but you pick your favorite. Invite all of the dads that are in your ministry. Let them know that there is a prize for the winner and make it a good one. The better the prize the more participation and that is a great thing. Don't make the prize cash either. Then plan a party for the final game. It is on a Monday night and guys want to watch the game with other guys anyway. Just make sure that it is a place with incredible HD and you are good. Then let the connections happen by themselves. Sometimes the best ministry that can happen is when non-Christ-followers figure out that Christ-followers aren't freaks.

I can't wait for the tournament to begin. It truly is the best time of year.