4 January 2012, 5:56 am
I live in a small town. The center of town is our church, but after a scandal the church pretty much started to die. All that's left in it is a bunch of the elderly and only a few families. I'm 17, and there's only four other kids in high school. No effort has been made to try and bring back the old members. The scandel long story short was the pastor was found cheating on his wife with the secretary. This happened about 7 years ago, and this guy is long gone. Many people were so upset by this and this was coupled with rumors of other instances; so they up and left. Quite a few of them haven't returned to a church since then. Our town also is rampant with drug addicts from about 10-18, plus plenty of adults. The problem is most of my friends who use drugs use the excuse that there's nothing to do. So, I proposed using the church annex as a youth center. We have the resources to turn it into a good place to hang out. A lot of people actually said they'd go if there were one. We have an old fooseball table, ping pong table, TV's, and space. There also are plenty of people in the church willing to volunteer. I proposed this idea to the family pastor a few months ago and offered to help with it. Her response was that "Being a teenager, I don't know what other teens need in life and the future." basically saying I was incapable of designing a functional program because of my age. My mom and I decided that we'd try and work up the plan more together; and just put her name on it. We need some more ideas though. Here's what we have so far: * Outreach to old members. Most of their kids are about my age now or older with their own families. * Youth center * Organize local missions trips * Collaborate with other churches youth groups, sports teams, etc. * Have an active roll in town events and provide entertainment geared towards younger audiences and families Anything else? @ M: I'm not saying the youth center would be completely Christianity based. Since I need funding from the church it has to have a little basis, but I wouldn't want a place where you'd get hounded about your beliefs. Really guys? Brainwashing? Can't we all just agree to disagree?... Read More »
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