A storefront youth room!??
I just read about a church that has their youth group meetings in a storefront in a mall! I think that is the best idea that I have heard in a long time. Expensive, I'm sure, but good. Now how can I adapt that type of creativity to Small-town USA, low/no budget youth group?? How do we increase our local "presence"??
posted by Todd Paris @ 3:37 PM
8 Comments:
On the "storefront youth ministries" front, we just saw one in Mt Morris. I didn't have enough time to figure out what brand of ministry that they were, but they had the dish network mounted right to the front of the store! Imagine! Wouldn't that have the potential of being counterproductive? You pump them full of God's Word only to have the Desperate Housewives flush it all away!
Creativity is not limited by the size of your budget. Did you ever see the Princess Bride? In it there is a scene where Wesley (the brains of the outfit) is forming a plan and asks this very important question: "What are our assets?" The team mentions their personal strengths (good) and Wes asks them for some equipment. Then he wonders out loud, "If only I had a holocaust cloak..." One of the other team members produces one in a flourish. "Why didn't you list that amongst our assets?!" Wes complains.
MORAL: Be creative when you consider your assets. Do not forget anything!! You have some assets that are inexpensive/free/ accessible that you may be overlooking. You probably can't afford a mall storefront.
Let's brainstorm about assets,
Mike
I have a pretty big park in my backyard.
Does that count?
I was just discussing a "downtown drop-off" kind of place with our youth pastor this week. We are currently considering the possibilities of using our facility to host some type of after school activity. By using a downtown storefront as a "satellite" church center, we could accommodate a whole different group of kids that we normally wouldn't get to come out to our church.
P.S. We also have a dish on the outside of our church (we "hide" it out back so that it can face the southern sky). You can subscribe to several different networks via one of these dishes. in our case, it's used for a service called Sky Angel Network. So, rather than fill their heads with Jerry Springer, we fill it with Christian Music Videos. Now there's a topic for discussion......Christian Music Videos.
What about early morning breakfast and devotions at a participating restaurant. What we do is have a Bible Study at 6:00 AM - 7:00 AM and then if anybody wants to stay after that for food and fellowship that's OK. Might not work for kids.
Also not too much of an enticement for a restaurant since Kids are not the biggest tippers and probably wouldn't buy any food.
Dad, You need to hang with teens more often. Most have an incredible expendable income! Good idea though meet in a visible, public place and demonstrate our love for one another. Maybe a coffee shop or a pizza joint???
I like the idea of a Timmy Ho's Bible Study. (although I don't think that our local one really gets the whole social networking idea!) There are a couple of Bible studies that go on there already.
Some other ideas:
a. Have a "first cup of joe or soda free" card. Have members of your community offer to subsidize (build a pool of funds to accomplish this task) these cards. Pass out the cards to everyone that you meet. It serves as a welcome and they don't have to pay for the first cup. Remember to tell them about the study, but do not make it a "string" attached to your gift! This is a simple act of kindness (or showing love to others)
b. if your local restaurant has a separate dining room, rent it
c. rent your own storefront and start a coffee shop (aka "buy a strategically located house and start a ministry in your garage!")
d. our local presby church just got a gov grant to form a local free coffee and danish spot at the local library three times a week. The goal is to build community and construct a place for free interaction, information and assistance. (I hate when someone else beats me to the punch)
e. I love the park ministry idea. I know that visibility in the ADK park is lower, but could you adopt a trail or build an impromptu rest stop (specialty c4C gorp with a tract/business card on bio-degradable recycled paper inside a little bag? Neoprene (is that the right trade name) bottles with church/community logos?
Think assets, including who is on the team (team roles/spirit gifts/personality etc.).
Mike
To those of you who are reading this, I thought of the bottle material in the middel fo the night last night--
it is nalgene (tough plastic with no aftertaste), not neoprene (wet suit material)!
Mike
Good mike, I was hoping that you would come up with that, since you live so close to Rochester.
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