It’s that time of year. It happens every March. Some students in your youth groups are excited for it and others could care less. Here’s the good news, your group doesn’t have to have a lot athletes for you to use March Madness as a fun tool to have fun or spiritually challenge students.
For those of you who don’t know what March Madness is all about, it’s college basketball’s playoff system. Teams are bracketed, they play and move on or they do not. One and done. It goes like this, Sweet 16, Elite 8, Final Four, Final 2 for the college basketball championship.
If you want some fun bracketing type games and challenges, check out my 20 Fun March Madness Bracket Competitions for Youth Groups.
For 2025 these are the dates for March Madness
- Selection Sunday: 6 p.m. ET Sunday, March 16 on CBS
- First Four: March 18-19
- First round: March 20-21
- Second round: March 22-23
- Sweet 16: March 27-28
- Elite Eight: March 29-30
- Final Four: April 5 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas
- NCAA championship game: April 7 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas
If you’re reading this in the future, just Google March Madness (year) dates and it will come up.
For each week of youth in March, you could have a theme leading up to the championship. Take some ideas from my brackets post and combine it with some of these ideas and BOOM! you got a killer youth meeting.
Message Driven (Devotion, posts, etc)
16 Questions for Spiritual Growth: Reflecting on Your Faith Journey (Provide 16 thought-provoking questions for personal reflection and group discussion on their faith journey.)
From Chaos to Clarity: 16 Verses to Guide Decision-Making (Explore 16 verses offering guidance on making wise decisions according to biblical principles.)
Building Bridges, Not Walls: 16 Verses on Forgiveness and Reconciliation (Focus on 16 verses about forgiveness and discuss the importance of letting go of resentment and pursuing reconciliation.)
16 Ways to Pray for Others: Deepening Your Prayer Life (Explore different ways to pray for others, such as praying for specific needs or using specific scriptures.)
The Power of Words: 16 Verses on Choosing Your Words Wisely (Explore the impact of our words and discuss 16 verses emphasizing the importance of using them for good.)
Mission Driven
16 Random Acts of Service (Challenge the youth group to do 16 random acts of service over a set period and reflect on the impact.)
Grow 16: Challenge students to invite 16 new students to youth group.
16 Acts of Gratitude: Challenge the youth to practice daily gratitude by doing 16 simple acts of expressing thanks to God and others.
Go 16: Share the gospel with 16 people face to face.
16 Minutes: During the week of the Sweet 16, challenge students to take 16 minutes to pray or read their Bibles that week.
Fun Driven
Impossible Basketball Shots: Only 16 shots can be taken. If you have a large group, shooters are chosen by lottery.
Sweet 16 Scavenger Hunt: Discovering Faith Through Exploration (Set up a scavenger hunt within the church or community, with clues based on biblical themes and values. Find the 16 items on your list)
Sweet Stack 16: Stack 16 Oreos or whatever kind of food that might topple as it gets higher.
Guess 16 Letter Words: Give clues to the words and let students guess what they are. You could also do this Wheel of Fortune style with a spinner that has various amounts of “money, candy, points, etc.” they could win.
16 Word Story Challenge: Each person in the group has to add a word to the story, starting with the first person and going clockwise. Count off to see who will get the last word.
16 Second Friends: Spend 16 seconds getting to know as much as you can about someone and then tel them as much as you can about you.
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