Who are these young people in the lower picture? Why are they hanging out at Old First Reformed Church?
I love this picture, because it tells us what Club Loco has accomplished. (Thanks for the photo, Hugh Crawford.)
The kids on the steps are not church members or from our church families. But they have come to think of Old First as a place for them. The band is “Cool and Unusual Punishment,” one of the bands that plays at Club Loco, the hang-out place that Old First hosts for neighborhood young people on Saturday nights. All we want to give them is Sanctuary.
The band is playing out into the street, which is crowded with a hundred people. It’s taking place on Sunday afternoon, during the Seventh Heaven Street Fair. For a full report, scroll down the page at http://onlytheblogknowsbrooklyn.typepad.com/.
The kids on the steps are not church members or from our church families. But they have come to think of Old First as a place for them. The band is “Cool and Unusual Punishment,” one of the bands that plays at Club Loco, the hang-out place that Old First hosts for neighborhood young people on Saturday nights. All we want to give them is Sanctuary.
The band is playing out into the street, which is crowded with a hundred people. It’s taking place on Sunday afternoon, during the Seventh Heaven Street Fair. For a full report, scroll down the page at http://onlytheblogknowsbrooklyn.typepad.com/.
This is just one of the Club Loco bands. Others played as well. We had music on our steps all afternoon, whether a vocal chorus, a dance group, a woodwind quintet, or a folk singer. We had church people at tables with our stuff: Handcrafting Justice, Chocolate Chip Chamber Festival, Julia’s cartoons, and info about the church.
Thousands of people walk pass the church during this street fair. And I’m happy to say that this year we were able to make Old First one of the chief locations of the fair. Our volunteers worked hard. And that included volunteers from the community who are not church members.
Thousands of people walk pass the church during this street fair. And I’m happy to say that this year we were able to make Old First one of the chief locations of the fair. Our volunteers worked hard. And that included volunteers from the community who are not church members.
What I like about the upper photo is that it shows how this great ark of a building, for all of its burden, is the center of our community.
What I like about the lower photo is that shows how Club Loco expresses both our Third and Fourth Missions: “To offer sanctuary” and “To offer hospitality.”
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