The Kids Downtown

Let’s go downtown and watch the modern kids
Let’s go downtown and talk to the modern kids
They will eat right out of your hand
Using great big words that they don’t understand

-Arcade Fire, "Rococo"-

I had a meeting today with a nice young man who is doing youth work in my city. He filled me in on his work to train volunteer youth ministers and organize some youth outreach events through citywide effort.

One topic that came up, that always comes up when discussing Woodstock youth outreach, is the downtown Square (See my previous post, "The Public Square & Open-Air"). Every day of the week youth are hanging on the Square. They are with their friends, mostly just hanging out, passing time. On Friday and Saturday nights it grows as many youth hang on park benches, in the band gazebo, walking around, etc. 

By all appearances, there's a specific sort of youth in my city that hangs out in our Square. Generally speaking they aren't the kids in letterman's jackets or who attend math club meetings or who run for student council. Just by checking out their clothes and actions and hearing them talk (available to anyone who passes through the Square when they are around), folks see them as rebels, as troublemakers. They are probably the ones without a solid family life. They certainly are the ones who wear different clothes, have emo-ish hair, and, well, you have a picture in your head. Saw one dude who wears thick black all around his eyes. When they pop into Starbucks some adults seem intimidated. They are (again, generally speaking) loud and rude. But that's just by appearances.

But here's the truth, and it hit me like Mack truck today: I don't really know them. 

Sure, I can tell you what they look like and sound like and how a few of them have irritated me or someone else I know. But I haven't met more than one or two of them. I don't know what they've been through, what their parents are like, or anything else about them. 

So how can we reach them?

The idea most often discussed by pastors/church leaders I've talked to is to start some sort of youth center where they could hang, get a Coke, get tutoring, and so on. It will give them a place to go and things to do. It will keep them out of trouble. I think there's some merit to the idea (though it has problems), but no one has been able to make it happen. This youth guy just told me today of another concerted effort that was made by a local church that fell short on funds to pull it off.

Then I had this radical thought: We should just walk across the street and talk to them. 

It's simple. Anyone can do it. It takes no planning, no property, no rent, no decorating, no keys, no insurance, no staff. They are right there in front of us. It just takes someone who loves Jesus and loves their neighbor and a little time.

As I write this five youth resembling the above description stomped into Starbucks, didn't buy anything (probably no cash), sat in the soft chairs intended to make paying customers comfortable and goofed around loud enough to get shooed away by a barista. But we shouldn't see them as a nuisance to our clean, comfortable lives. We should see them as some of the only people in suburbia who wear their problems on their sleeve. They have issues, often easy to see ones, and we have answers and help. We have the gospel They are a mission field, and they are right across the street. Let's stop planning grand schemes and just go talk to them. 

Comments

[Chris in TAC]

Well said. Reminds me of another post I read this morning, thought you might want to check it out:

http://www.movements.net/2010/09/09/anyone-for-a-walk.html

[JamieandBelle Bickel]

Wow. and wow. Isn't that what Jesus did? How far the church has "evolved."

[Rob Freire]

Appreciating this focus on the public square. Reminds me that in our church neighborhood lots of young guys can be found at the local basketball courts almost every evening (at least during the warmer months). Many of them are evidently troubled and struggling in different ways. Some guys in our church have done a great job of just showing up, playing ball, and befriending these kids.
I just mention this because playing ball with strangers often gives us the opportunity to connect relatively quickly -- whether you're on the same team or playing against each other. Our church doesn't have a building (much less a "youth rec. center") but we do have local parks and playgrounds where folks already hang out. Thanks for your helpful thoughts, Steve.

[Steve McCoy]

Yep. We have some great places for that in Woodstock too. Simple, missional ideas man. That's where it's at. Thanks for adding to the conversation.

[Steve McCoy]

Thx Chris. I'll check out the post.

J&B, agreed. How far my heart and focus as devolved, too. Need the refocus badly.

By the way all, the GCM Conference in Austin in October is on top of this kind of stuff. It's going to be great. I highly recommend going.

[Mike Woodward]

I saw this exact scenario in action on a mission trip to an Indian reservation this summer. Our group had taken some kids to a park off the reservation for picnic and fun. Next to the playground and shelter was a skateboard park with several youth / young men having a good time. We had extra food, so what did me and the other elders present do?

Nothing.

We got smacked upside the head by the Holy Spirit when one of our other leaders simply grabbed a bunch of hot dogs / chips / water and went to offer it to them and talk to them.

Why is it difficult for us to do easy things?

[Eddie]

Just talk to them. Seems simple enough. I have been convicted of these ideas myself. Jesus diddn't have youth groups, tent revivals etc. He just talked to people or met their needs. I think we should pray for boldness and opportunities to meet other people and let the Holy Spirit go before us in our encounters. Such simple ideas yet we tend to make things complicated.

[Jim]

Steve, I followed the links from your facebook to here and what a "here" I find. I see those kids in the square all the time. I've been guilty of thinking the worst of them and I've even made comments to my kids about them. It's so much easier to tear them down than it is to talk with them.

The funny part of all this is that I was one of them when I was that age. All I ever wanted was for someone to stop and talk "with me", not "at me". Yet, I have never done that for them.

Steve, do it, engage them. Keep your religion out of it at first. If you approach them with Jesus they will feel talked at not with. First befriend them and get to know them. That is more than most people will do with them. Who knows, they might find Jesus in this simple act alone.

It doesn't always have to be us that is moved by the Holy Spirit, maybe LET the Holy Spirit move them.