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Daniel Would Have Loved This 'Lion's Den'
By Craig Pinley
SPRINGFIELD, MA (August 1, 2002) - The lions den of Babylon was a dangerous place
to be in the world of Daniel the prophet.
However, the "Lion's Den" of Springfield, Massachusetts, is THE place to be
in the world of Greg the youth pastor at the Evangelical Covenant Church
(ECC) of Indian Orchard.
Greg Dyson has been the catalyst behind a youth outreach center called the
"Lion's Den," which opened June 17. He has received assistance from nearly
a dozen area congregations, in addition to his own congregation, in an
effort to reach adolescents that the church might not otherwise reach with
its regular programming.
More than 150 teens have come to the Lion's Den since it opened. On
average, more than 70 teens use the youth center each week. The center is
open Mondays through Thursdays from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. with a Bible study
available for teens each afternoon. On Saturdays, local churches have
access to the building. The building is generally closed on Fridays and
Sundays.
"We know from the plethora of stats available that only 15 percent of teens
will actually come out and see what's going on in youth ministry," said
Dyson, now in his second year at the church. "The question that presses the
limit is about all the rest of the teens that
will never darken the doors of our churches or youth programs - what about
the (other) 85 percent? We had no idea what this outreach piece would look
like, but we knew that churches function like hospitals, helping to provide
spiritual nourishment for those in need. God was encouraging us to build a
M.A.S.H. type unit to help the wounded."
When he arrived in Massachusetts after serving three years as a youth
pastor in New Jersey, Dyson started The Loft, a drop-in play and study area
at the church. However, Dyson wasn't attracting non-churched youth at The
Loft and sought to find another avenue in which to do so. Dyson has gotten
plenty of support from pastor Don Olson, who has helped the church to
quadruple its attendance in four years and assisted the
congregation in refocusing its vision toward urban ministry. Springfield, a
city with about 185,000 in its metro area, has a diverse demographic
profile with 51 percent of its population African-American, Hispanic and
other ethnicities (including a large Portuguese population).
"The church had a clear vision about what it wanted for urban ministry - it
wanted me to spend half of my time in urban ministry, although we didn't
know what that would look like," he said. "It (the Lion's Den) came out of
an idea my wife, Gina, and I had about 16 years ago. We had served as lay
leaders in a church in Southbridge, Massachusetts, and
rented a building in the downtown area. We found that a lot of kids came to
youth group that never would have come to our church."
Initially, Dyson struggled to find a home for the youth center. A friend
from the Springfield church alerted Dyson to a two-story, 4,000-square-foot
building that now houses the Lion's Den. And Dyson's mother, Lenneth, also
played a part in the acquisition phase. She had been a positive Christian
witness while working in that office building
18 years earlier. The owner remembered, and he sold the building to the
church for $1 last December.
In recent months, Dyson has been working with site manager Louvenia
"Vinnie" Burgess to ready the building for youth. Straight Ahead
Ministries, a prison ministry based in Framingham, Massachusetts, has
helped lead volunteer training. Dyson is executive director and a board has
been set up involving members of three local churches.
The Lion's Den facility includes a coffee house area, an Internet Café with
eight online computers and a game room. It hopes to eventually add a
weight/workout room and a recording studio where teens can tape music,
drama, and talk shows that can be broadcast on the Internet. (The upper
photo shows Nina Serrano working with one of the computers. The photo at
lower left shows volunteers from Springfield Christian Academy (local
Christian School) helping to get the Lion's Den ready.)
"We felt strongly that in order for the center to sustain itself we needed
to start this project, but not own it," Dyson said. "We've got a
congregation of about 150 people and we've gotten great support. But a lot
of the muscle for this program will come outside of our church. We have
asked other churches in our community to 'buy into' this M.A.S.H.
unit concept with us and it has worked out fabulously. About ten churches
contributed in various ways to the Lion's Den. Local businesses have also
taken part in the project and local police also have connected with the
Lion's Den."
Representatives from the Lion's Den will visit the Covenant Church of
Thomaston, Connecticut, August 4 and Fellowship Covenant Church in Bronx,
New York, September 29, to discuss how their ministry has evolved.
To learn more about the Lion's Den and its ministries, call Dyson or
Burgess at 413-543-4444.
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
