In July 2008, 17 people from the First United Methodist Church Hillsville made a trip to Macon Georgia that changed all of our lives. The group was made up of 5 adult leaders and 12 Senior High Teens. We actually went to Macon on a summer mission trip and the mission work was to be done in a United Methodist Church in a Back Yard bible School. We had made arrangements to stay in a church called “Christ Chapel SportsTowne” in Macon. We had a friend of a friend who helped us to make contact with Christ Chapel and make these arrangements. Keeping in mind, we were not doing anything for Christ Chapel on our trip, only using their facilities.
We made the long trip to Macon, 417 miles that translates into several hours when you are traveling in a group. We pulled into the parking lot of Christ Chapel about 10pm on a Friday night and just as we pulled in we received a call from the UMC we were scheduled to work with for the week and we were informed their plans had fallen through, we had no work to do for the week. To say the least we felt really bad. Here we were more than 400 miles from home for a mission trip, staying in a place where we don’t know the people and we are not doing anything for them, and we have a mission project that has just been canceled.
The associate pastor of Christ Chapel, Beth White, met us there and we immediately explained to her what had just happened and we will never forget the reception that followed. Beth explained that it was fine, she just knew that God had brought us to Macon for a reason and we would eventually discover what God was up to. Beth showed us the facilities there at Christ Chapel and we were all amazed. There was an indoor football field where we ended up having devotions each evening, there was basketball, soccer, and this huge inflatable obstacle course that the youth and adults got a lot of miles and late hours out of. Beth explained to us where everything was and told us repeatedly to make ourselves at home. I will never forget some of the things that were said. Beth said I know you brought drinks with you but we have a soda fountain, drink our sodas, there is food in the cafe, eat what you want. As Beth was leaving for the evening to go home she handed me the keys to an office and said here is the key and the password to use the internet, I am sure you will need to check e-mail while you are here. To say the least we were amazed at the Radical Hospitality we were being shown. The other leaders and I just looked at each other in astonishment of the treatment we were being blessed with.
On Sunday morning Christ Chapel made an announcement that we were there and that we were willing to do work projects if anyone knew of anything that might be needed. We quickly had projects to do. One was to paint in a Christian School that was nearby, another was to work with a local Salvation Army Thrift Shop. We had also planned one special project on our own where we purchase backpacks, go to Wal Mart and buy t-shirts, socks, can food, bottled water, and other necessities for the homeless. We stuff the bags full and then we travel to Atlanta’s Piedmont Park and we walk around handing out these bags to the homeless folks who live in the park. We are always amazed as we have done this on more than one occasion now, that the people are more hungry for conversation than they seem to be for the bag of goods. How true this is in all walks of life, people are lonely and people want to know they are important to someone and most of all important to God our Creator.
A lot of amazing things happened for us that week. On the first night when we arrived back to Christ Chapel from a work project, we were greeted with a gift bag that had each of our names on it. In the bags were t-shirts with the church logo and name, CD’s, and snacks, with a note that just said something about us being special, Wow.
On the second night after working for the day we were greeted with a movie night, with a big screen television, popcorn, and all the goodies that go into making an awesome movie night, Wow.
On the final night we were greeted with a dinner prepared by several of the church members, wow.
We were amazed and on the last day we started to dream as leaders about going back to Hillsville Virginia and creating a new place for new people to get to know the God of the Universe. We talked about what such a place might look like, we knew we couldn’t do anything as large as SportsTowne and in our town there wasn’t the need for something so large, although there may be someday. We talked about the possibility of going on Main Street in Hillsville and renting a storefront and having a coffee shop atmosphere. We talked about having a pool table, Foosball, WII, Big Screens, Internet capable computers, and just creating a safe place for teens to come and hang out with their friends and find out about Jesus Christ. I remember someone in the group saying wouldn’t it be great if we could get the old Ben Franklin five and dime building. We had no idea what if anything was available.
We arrived back in Virginia that evening and I live 17 miles south of town so I was dropped off at home first. It must have been near midnight when my phone rang and it was one of the Youth Leaders who said, “you will never believe it, there is one building on main street that is for rent and it is the old Ben Franklin Bldg”, as our former pastor (Ramon Torres) would say, this had to be a God thing. We definitely sensed that God was speaking clearly to us about a new ministry opportunity.
We contacted the owner of the Bldg the next morning and immediately went to look at the site. We continued to dream and plan. On that Wednesday night we loaded up the youth that we had and took them to the site. we didn’t tell them what we were doing but when we pulled up in front of the Bldg. they immediately knew what it was about. We met the landlord there and went in and said to the youth, if God were to give us this building, what do you believe God would do with it, through us. We joined hands in a circle there in that empty building and asked God to give us the building if it was what He wanted and to give the plan favor in the eyes of our church body.
We went to work immediately on a plan, projecting what it would cost for utilities, rent, and any other incidentals that we might encounter. We started to talk to the Senior Pastor, Council leaders, and others in the church to see how they felt about us presenting the plan to church council in just a couple of weeks. We received good feedback and presented to the Church Council in August 2008. The meeting was one of those God moments, when you know that God is at work. We presented the plan to council and there were some questions but in just a few minutes there was a unanimous vote to move forward.
We wanted to call the place “Out Of The Box” because we wanted to get outside the box of the traditional looking church. Now, we have absolutely nothing against traditional churches, we are a part of one. However, the generations coming along today who have no church background know nothing about our traditions and to many they are intimidating. We decided on the name FUMC Downtown “Out Of The Box”. We had technically just become a multi-site church.
We launched with our first meeting on a Wednesday evening in October, just 2 months after God gave us the vision. We started with approximately 17 Youth and now 18 months later we average 60 Youth each Wednesday evening and we have often swelled to more than 100 youth at activities we have hosted. Each week we continue to see new faces at Out Of The Box. After 16 months we started to see some of the youth make the transition from our downtown location to getting involved with our 11am worship service at 1st Hillsville, several have now joined the church. We have also had the blessing of growth on our main campus through several of the youth who have introduced their parents to the ministries of 1st Hillsville. In the past 18 months we have seen thousands of senior high teens come through the doors of “Out Of The Box”, we stand in awe of the work God has allowed us to be a part of. I will be the first to admit that we had a vision and a dream but it was not as big as the vision God has for us.
One thing we were adamant about was to do a few things well before launching out into further territory. We have the building open on Wednesday afternoon at 5pm so the teens can come and do homework, hang out with friends, or just have fun. We start bible study at 7pm and often we will host a Free Wing night, we have also hosted many free pizza and monster energy drink nights. Be careful about doing monster energy nights, I found out that not all parents like for their teens to have those drinks.
One of the God moments has been when we were averaging about 30 or 32 youth I challenged the youth, if they could get 40 teens, 2 weeks in a row to come to bible study, then I would buy pizza for everybody. They did it. The week we bought the pizza 2 of the youth came to me and said “can we buy pizza next week” I said of course. I can’t describe to you the emotions that came over me at that moment, i knew at that moment that we were seeing discipleship in the making. These youth are not just coming for the pizza and games, they are coming because their lives are being impacted and changed. To make a long story short, the youth bought pizza the following week and 80 teens showed up. We had to go buy extra pizza but that was a good thing.
Here is a good story, that week I told the youth if they could get 80 the following Wednesday night that I would then but Monster Energy Drinks for everybody, there was above 80 the following week. I went to the nearest Sam’s Club that week and loaded up 150 Monsters. The closest Sam’s is 60 miles away. As I am walking through the story a man who lives in the community where our church is happened to be there and he wanted to know what in the world I was doing with all those monster’s. I explained it to him and he said “so you’re going to charge the youth for the drinks”? I said no, we are giving them to the youth. He then said “let me buy them”. Wow
Time and time again God has done things like this. We made a decision that the youth would never pay for anything at Out Of the Box because we want to show them Radical Hospitality. Every time we get low on water, sodas and snacks, it never fails that people start bringing in a new supply.
I could tell you countless stories of how people have given money to the ministry of Out Of The Box, as a matter of fact, we spent more than $10,000 on the youth last year and none of that money came from the church budget.
We also meet at “Out Of The Box” on Sunday mornings for Sunday School, We open the doors for the teens to come at 9am and Sunday School begins at 10am. we have grown from an average of 7 or 8 youth to more than 20 for that Bible Study, led by Tom Jackson.
We host 5th Quarters after every home football game and for these we average between 100 and 150 teens. There is free pizza and sodas and we are there from 9pm to midnight.
Our United Methodist Men at the church have started meeting for their 6:30am Bible Study at OOTB and this group has grown from 12 to above 20.
The Carroll County School System uses OOTB on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons for tutoring and this allows for 20 to 40 more youth to be exposed to the facility again.
Several people have used OOTB to throw birthday parties and showers for weddings and newborns. Out Of The Box has truly become a Community Outreach Center.
The two videos below show the story in pictures of Out Of The Box. The first video is the story of our trip to Macon and the second video is from the first visit we had to what is now Out Of The Box with our youth in August 2008.
We now have a New Vision to expand the ministry outreach downtown. This would include “FUMC Downtown Out Of The Box ” Teen Center and FUMC Downtown Out of the Box Worship Center.
We believe that God is visibly at work in the ministries of 1st UMC Hillsville and this is another opportunity to reach out to those in our community that do not have a church connection. We are dealing with 79% of the population in Carroll County who are un-churched. What a mission field. We will never change the message of the Gospel but we will find new ways to reach people. We envision a Sunday Morning worship service that is non traditional. We envision a service time that again is non traditional. We envision a place where people can come to learn about Jesus Christ, just as they are. No dress code or better no dress-up code. If you like to wear suits then wear one but if you like to dress in jeans and t-shirts you won’t feel out-of-place because the leadership will dress non-traditional as far as traditional church services go. We envision a place where the youngest to the oldest can come and worship together. We envision a place where the music style is different, a mixture, something that many different age groups and cultural preferences can enjoy and use for the worship of our Creator. We envision messages that will meet you were you are, practical teaching that will not only prepare you to die well but to live well. We envision a place where the expenses are kept low and the missions giving is a priority, missions locally and abroad. We envision a place where people can come and find the love of the body of Christ just as they do at 1st Hillsville UMC now, only in a different environment, an environment that speaks to people who have no church background and to people who are tired of church as usual.
We are excited about this new opportunity. Our church is in the midst of informational meetings currently to let the membership know the opportunity we believe God is offering us. we desire your prayers and I will blog more as decisions are made.
Ronnie