Mar. 1—GOSHEN — It’s March Madness at Harvest Community Church. Jesus’ March to Madness sermon series will bring basketball to the journey to the crucifixion.
“We wanted to create an experience that captures the excitement of March basketball while also delving into the deeper significance of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem,” said Harvest Community Church Lead Pastor Jeremy Gwaltney. “It’s about combining the joy of sports with the eternal message of hope and redemption.”
Throughout the month, there will be four competitions to sign up for. “Tickets” to sign up will be available near the entrance to the chapel, and competitions will take place inside the chapel.
This Sunday is the free-throw contest. Of four contestants, the winner will get four tickets to an Indiana Pacers game and a hotel pass.
March 10 will feature a game of PIG played against Gwaltney. Of three contestants chosen by free-throw after ticket entry, the winner will then play the game. The winner will receive a $100 prize pack to Big C’s BBQ. Former Bethel Univerity Basketball Coach Mike Lightfoot will deliver the message.
March 17 is a long-shot competition. Any of the three contestants drawn who can complete a layup, free-throw, three-pointer, and a half-court shot in 30 seconds will receive $10,000. During the service, the Goshen Pep Band will perform.
March 24 is a game of knockout. With six contenders, the winner will receive a basketball prize pack worth around $250. During the service, the Fairfield Color Guard will drop by for a visit.
“Going into Easter people are thinking about spiritual things, it’s a spiritual time. So it’s like let’s add a little bit of fun as well as to hear an eternal message,” Gwaltney said. “What we’re hoping will happen in this series is maybe someone is trying to find an answer but for whatever reason they’ve never thought about church before, but basketball is fun so they walk through our doors to see something interesting about basketball and they stick around for the eternal message, and we believe that we can build their life in a way to be the best version of themselves.”
They’ll throw T-shirts into the crowd, and there will be free concessions. There will also be youth basketball and high school teams joining to participate. Spiritual messages will be shorter than normal to accommodate the special activity each Sunday.
“I think sports has a lot of illustrations for life,” Gwaltney said. “When I was reading in the Gospel of Luke, Luke records a look that Jesus gets on his face as he’s going toward Jerusalem, and it kind of occurred to me, if you stand back and look at Jesus’ death, it’s complete madness. It doesn’t make any sense from our perspective, and so Luke literally records a ‘March to Madness.'”
Harvest Community Church, 17285 C.R. 34, Goshen, has two Sunday services, at 9 a.m. and a 10:45 a.m. Services are about an hour and 10 minutes, and the later service will be live-streamed.
Dani Messick is the education and entertainment reporter for The Goshen News. She can be reached at dani.messick@goshennews.com or at 574-538-2065.
