i am currently living in chaos. i am glad it is happening, there were times the chaos was in doubt. the chaos being some major overhaul to our youth space.
three years ago our group asked if we could paint the walls. i said "sure" (something i didn’t have proper authority to say in methodist church committee-land) so that got into, "can we…?" add on and do more and more stuff to the space. so i wrote a letter to our trustees asking for permission to discern and explore better use of our designated space. we spent the better part of the year, sitting & praying in our various rooms asking questions like "what do we hope to learn here?" "what is the mission of this room?" we then went on visits to other churches. then we came together and talked about what we felt was the mission of our space, how it could better function, and how it could sustain for future years of youth communities.
what we came out with was this idea for a "industrial cathedral" look. we are putting together a feature piece which is a media center and small group gathering bar. it will also serve for our food service. we created eating booths out of old church pews we got from a camp, that i just happened to know they are stored away in a basement. we’ve painted colors on the walls, we have photographs and original art pieces to add the space. our stage we lowered down and will finish off with some wood flooring to give a more intimate feel. our obnoxious pre-school chairs are going.. somewhere.. and we will get new chairs, new flooring a recycled carpet that is pretty cool. it’s been a major project.
the two years to get to this point have been plugged up in that wonderful methodist system. i like the system as it has its checks and balances. but when you have folks that can’t capture the vision of stimulating a creative mind and only see trash wrappers or a broken chair, then one is set for a long ride. our team though, because of our invested time in hearing God in our midst and asking the hard questions, knew this was more than just a whim and have kept at it. soon we will be close to done. we are actually finishing phase three. like any good methodist building project, there are ‘phases’ assigned to it. anyways, i’ve posted some pictures of the space as it is today. it will look different tomorrow as a crew of us will clean up the construction bits and pieces for sunday gatherings.
it is chaos right now, but we are hopeful that this will stimulate the creativity and passion in our youth community to move deeper into that relationship with God. it is a lot to ask of a room, but just as a sanctuary can move someone we feel this is our expression..
