(I posted these ideas last year and over the last few weeks this post has been getting a lot of traffic from searches. So I thought I would repost my 5 tips on using the Super Bowl in your youth ministry.)
The Super Bowl is less than a month away (2.7.10) and we do not know who will be playing. But for most youth ministries, one thing is true - a lot of your students will be talking about it. This can mean the potential to connect with a greater number of students. There are several things you can do within your youth ministry to connect to the Super Bowl "hype." Take one or more of these ideas and use it within your ministry. And I'd love to hear what effect it has on your ministry.
5 ideas for using the Super Bowl in your youth ministry.
1. Host a Super Bowl Party
This includes finding a house with enough room to hold the students a big enough TV for everyone to watch. Or you could hold it at church if you have the room/technology.
Supplies:
- Food (I suggest pizza and chips & dip for sure)
- TV or multiple TVs
- Devotion or something for halftime
- Handout, trivia questions and ideas or quiz sheet
- prizes for winners of score contest. halftime and end of game
- prizes for contest sheet winners
- plastic silverware, cups, plates
Have the students come up with a 30 second commercial that they want to air during the Super Bowl. You could either have them make up a product or use a real one. You will want to set obvious guidelines; language and such. Have them turn the commercials early enough to give you time to watch them and get them ready be viewed. My suggestion is that you watch them during halftime of the game. Plus you can put them on your group's YouTube, Vimeo, or webpage - that way the students can watch them over and over again.
3. Discuss why the Super Bowl is such a big deal.
Take some time before the big game and talk about why this is the biggest sporting event all year.
4. Participate in the Souper Bowl outreach event.
This is a great way to raise some money and help out a local soup kitchen. Go to the website to find out more and get your students involved. Get all of your downloadable resources here that you'll need to promote.
5. Use the commercials to start discussion on a number of topics.
After the Super Bowl, you could take a few weeks and steer some discussion to the topics brought up during the commercials. Or use the commercials as illustrations or intro material for the your messages.
How do you use the Super Bowl in your ministry? What have you done in the past? We'd love to hear some of your past highlights, please leave a comment to share with the youth ministry community.
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