How to Leverage the Super Bowl for Gospel Outreach

For many Americans—whether football fans or not—Super Bowl Sunday has become a national holiday of sorts. Throughout the country, people gather to eat, cheer, critique high-priced ads, and sing along to a big-name halftime show at the Super Bowl.

Not only is the crowning of the NFL champion the year’s most-watched TV event, it’s also a great outreach opportunity for faith communities. Some churches host viewing parties while others collect soup or other donations for people in need. Other Christian groups use the game to raise awareness about sex trafficking and pornography.

Now a campaign devoted to game-day outreach is encouraging churches to impact not just their local communities on Super Sunday but to help transform the world. Read More

Hosting a viewing party is one way a small rural church can reach out to men who live in a 10 mile or larger radius of the church and who might not otherwise show their face in church. It will be even more effective if it is one of a series of events targeted at men. These events should be geared to the specific locality and the particular interests of the men living in that locality. These events should be planned well in advance and the men at which these events are targeted given ample notice of each upcoming event. A rural church plant in which I was involved organized fishing trips for men and youth in the surrounding area. The church then sponsored fish fries to which individuals and families living in the surrounding area were invited. The church also created other opportunities for members of the church community and those outside the church community to interact with each other and to get to know each other. The purpose of these events is not to evangelize those who attend them but to foster better relations between members of the church community and those outside the church community, create good will, and overcome negative perceptions of  the church. It is also to demonstrate that the church takes an interest in the well-being of those living in the surrounding area. If the church collects canned food or other donations in conjunction with a particular event, these donations should be for a cause to which those making donations can see the benefit of donating--the local food bank, the regional children's hospital, and the like.