Meanwhile, Back In Hinsdale...

By January of 2001 (10 years ago- seems like so much longer) I was eleven months into my work and fully involved in trying to change the culture of youth ministry at the Union Church of Hinsdale.  On one hand, there were some positives.  The Youth Ministry Team was up and running, and there were some wonderful adults who were a part of that effort.  For the first time ever there was a real middle school ministry at the church.  Our Bible study group was growing in number and wisdom.  Plans were being finalized for Work Tour 2001, a mission trip to an orphanage in Tijuana, Mexico.  But I still had not been able to change the culture of student ministry at UC.  I had been unable to get any "extra" things going.  SHO-Time had bombed.  A Ski Trip had fallen through.  And unlike every other church I had served, no youth ever just stopped by to hang out.  It was very frustrating.

The reasons for the above frustrations were many.  "Church" was always going to be low on the list of priorities for the folks of UC.  There were so many more important things- what you wore, what you drove, how you looked and who you were seen with.  Parents passed these along to their kids.  Mark Toole (a fellow staff member) and I used to watch the children arrive for the UC pre-school each day and joke about the moms with their "SUVs and buns of steel."  They would drop the kids and head straight for the gym.  Self-improvement was a key issue for the congregants at UC, but that seldom included spiritual growth.  When the youth you serve have a list of priorities and you are last on that list, it is difficult to change the culture.

Another reason we made little progress in changing the habits of our students is that there was no place to "hang-out" at UC.  My office was tiny, so that was not really a possibility.  As far as the actual youth room- well let me give you a little history lesson.  At New Garden Friends Meeting we had a giant, unfinished basement that was ours.  We could play wild indoor games, get messy, and pretty much use it however we wanted to.  We hosted birthday parties and other special events.  We had square dances on New Year's Eve.  It was a great space.  At Springfield Friends Meeting (pictured) we again were in the basement, but this time it was actual youth room full of couches, a pool table, a ping-pong table and a TV.  We decorated however we wished, and it was OUR space.  Again, the youth used it for all kinds of special events because they felt so at home.  At FUMC-Kissimmee it was another step up, with The Attic, our giant upstairs youth room with video games and all kinds of other stuff, and my huge office which was just down the hall.  It seemed like there were always students around when school was not in session- and even occasionally when it was (Right, Ben & Nate?)!  It was awesome.

Which brings us back to Hinsdale, IL.  The "youth room" was an ancient class room on the third floor of the building.  Only one set of stairs in the entire complex led you to the space.  It was a small room, decorated in an early Hippie motif.  There was nothing in the room or the halls leading to it that gave you any indication that it was there or that a Christian youth group might be found when you reached your destination.  In short, it had no personality and was not a place any teenagers were likely to hang out, much less the well-to-do youth of Hinsdale.  It was OK as far as a meeting place, but that was all it would ever be, and no amount of posters and paint could fix it.  Some building renovations were being planned that might or might not include a new youth space, but I already knew I would not be around long enough to see them.  Still, I put posters all over the place, posted scripture verses everywhere, and prayed for a miracle.

I knew that God was still calling me to Plow the Road.  I tried to arrange some gathering times away from the church with very little success.  I also continued looking for a new church to serve.  But God wasn't ready for me to be gone yet.  I had much to learn.

Because of Jesus,