“What would God’s March Madness look like?” asks David Mitchell in this week’s Acton Commentary. petition focus churches and church members the same way a college tournament focuses people on basketball?”

What counts as service to others?

If you prayed about it and decided that it was service that’s good enough. The intent is that service to friends and family might not count because that is something you are supposedly already doing. You’re already coaching your kids and mowing your mom’s lawn. But could you check in on shut-ins a bit more this month?

Can we make team T-shirts?

Yes.

How would you match up the churches?

Great question. Possibilities include random, geographic proximity, or size. Geography might be the most fun and that would make the final four especially fun with East, South, North, and Panhandle.

In the future will there be a way pare how many hours our church has done in various years?

I hope so.

If we win can we toilet paper the other churches?

No.

What are the prizes?

The happiness that you get from being closer to God isn’t enough? OK. How about bragging rights and the chance for other churches to see your work?

If we lose does that mean that we should quit doing service to others?

Hmmm. I think you know the answer to this one. You should continue to do service but it will only count for the big things in life not the UCC service tournament.

What do we need to do next?

1) Set up some message boards to get people to decide the rules and make suggestions. There might be much better ways to run this. 2) Find someone to run a website for us so that people can log in and record their service. 3) Get churches to participate. March Madness uses 65 teams. We would probably need at least 16 to have a good tournament. 4) Start doing service and keep track of it.

The full text of his essay can be found here. Subscribe to the free, weekly Acton News & Commentary and other publications here.