The Log College Project needs your help!
But let’s take a step back before we get to that. As you hopefully know, the Log College Project is the partnership that we have entered with the Institute for Youth Ministry at Princeton Seminary, which is working with us and 11 other congregations of various denominations across the U.S., on building innovative and intergenerational models of youth ministry.
Over the first year we will receive a series of resources to help us imagine fruitful possibilities for youth ministry and begin designing them. About every other month, a “kit” of resources is sent to us to guide our work. Sometimes that is a series of tasks for us to work on; sometimes it is an online training course to help us dig into key questions or issues. And most significantly, in late June 2019, it will be a multi-day gathering at Princeton of the various Design Teams to present and refine our vision and ideas together in a community of collaboration.
Our FPCB Design Team has already been hard at work on the first “kit” in this process, which is focused on understanding the church’s history of innovation in terms of both youth ministry in particular and its larger ministry in general, but especially in terms of engagement with the larger community and world. So in about a week, on Sunday, October 28, the Design Team will unveil a display that interprets what they have been finding about our history here.
This is where you come in, in terms of helping, especially if you have a long history here at the church. First, the Design Team needs copies of photos or memorabilia from the church’s youth ministry through the decades: mission trips, YCX or SNL group meetings, service projects, and so on. If you can scan the photos (including photos of memorabilia, you can email them to aphilpotts@fpc-bethlehem.org ASAP, but not later than Tuesday, October 23. Or you can drop off items with the Church Receptionist; if you want them back, though, please clearly label them with your name!
Second, we need your feedback on what we’ve found so we can report that back to Princeton! So I’m asking you to make a special effort to be in worship on October 28. Please plan to stick around for a few minutes after the service to view and respond to the display that the Design Team is developing. You can do that simply by speaking with members of the Design Team there or by leaving a note, but you will also have the chance to offer a memory, story, or reflection of your own by recording a 2-3 minute video in Fellowship Hall.
It is a very exciting time for youth ministry in this church! I look forward to hearing your stories about our history as we build this future together.
Grace and Peace,
J.C.