|
Stories from around the synod Undergrounds Café: A New Outreach Venue at Lord of Love Lutheran Church, Belton, MO, Offering a Youthful Approach to Care for their Community As the 2006 Visioning Task Force of Lord of Love Lutheran Church (LOL) gathered around the table we heard people express over and over again the desire to reach the youth. This is not an unusual desire in many of our congregations where youth participation is fading or virtually gone. Our token youth on the Visioning Task Force finally spoke up in response to this desire. He quietly said, “A group of my entertainer friends have formed Youth for Community Change. We want to donate the admissions we would charge for our performances to local community service agencies, like the local food pantry.” That was all “Bill” said the rest of the evening. My brain began to imagine how we could use this young man’s wonderful and award winning talent for performing magic and all his other talented friends to reach out to community kids and to support the local community service agencies. One day, as “Bill” was leaving church, I said, “I have a crazy idea.” Bill’s response to that statement was to tilt his head to one side as if to say give me your best shot. I began by suggesting that the basement, which had become the graveyard for unwanted stuff, be rehabbed into a performance venue for Youth for Community Change. Bill’s head straightened up and his eyes lit up. He and his girlfriend, a musician, were on board with the project and began actively recruiting their friends’ participation in the project. Through the winter months, our facilities council chair and local high school shop teacher brought his shop classes to LOL to make the structural changes and to build tables for the café. We had an estimated date of opening in late February. The closer we came to that date, the more we knew we would not be ready to open, “Undergrounds Café” the place for coffee, friendship and fellowship (and oh yes, Internet.)” The opening of Undergrounds Café was postponed until the end of April 2007. That date seemed to be achievable even though there was still much work to be done. We needed publicity. We needed to figure out how we would provide the coffee. Who would be our staff? Many, many more questions seemed to loom larger as the date got closer. Finally, at two weeks away the team was pretty certain that the opening celebration could happen as scheduled. However, we didn’t anticipate during the last two weeks before opening a member of the Undergrounds planning team (the pastor) would get sick and not be able to help at all. I wasn’t even in the same city. The only support I could provide was prayer, a few e-mails, and my confidence in the youth planning the project. I emailed Bill and suggested two options: 1) Postpone the opening since it seemed like there was much yet to be done. 2) The team goes forward as scheduled and I would provide as much support from the sidelines as possible. I quickly received a return email response from Bill, “Only one option…we are going forward.” I wondered how this would happen. Who would serve the coffee? Would the room be half presentable? Would anyone show up? The questions went on and on. April 28, 2007 is one of the best examples at Lord of Love Lutheran Church of how the Body of Christ worked together to make this outreach venue happen. A long-time member of the congregation, probably old enough to be some of the youth’s older uncle volunteered to make the coffee and he even provided a “fancy” coffee maker. The youth worked right alongside him learning from him, even mentioning of how much fun they had. Parents of the youth team pitched in many hours to help prepare the space. The room, that when I had left two weeks earlier had items strewn all over it, was described that evening as a “Tuscan Living Room”. The entertainment was great. The Undergrounds Café was filled to capacity for both shows. There were donations collected for Heart-N-Hand, the local food pantry. Kids connected with those in attendance and provided email notices of future events. Undergrounds Café is a growing outreach venue of Lord of Love. Since our grand opening, we have had “Harry Potter Month”, several Magic shows, and the local high school theatre group hosted an impromptu night. We have a game night scheduled for the future. It is a space that is being claimed by the youth where they can come for “coffee, friendship, fellowship, and oh yes, the Internet.” God is truly at work reaching out to the world with his love, mercy and grace; even sometimes through a cup of coffee and an Internet connection. Rev. Lesley Radius Jesus
said, “You are the light of the world….let your light shine
before others.” Matthew 5:14, 16 |