Chili cook-off helps fund new young adults' group
Posted On: Sunday, Mar. 21 2010 11:52 PM
By Don Bolding
Killeen Daily HeraldCOPPERAS COVE – A problem faced by many modern churches is the gender gap between youth and older adults. Churches may pay attention to youth, but often they grow up, marry and start families and drift away from the church in the maelstrom of juggling careers and personal life.
But the church misses them, and young adults are often aware of a spiritual void in their lives, said the Rev. Amy Forsythe, associate pastor of Grace United Methodist Church of Copperas Cove. After studying the problem in seminary and praying about it on her first appointment after graduation, arriving at Grace United Methodist Church in June, she started trying to form a group for spiritual formation for themselves and service to the community.
Since its start about six months ago, the group has drawn a core of about 20 married and single people who threw their first fundraiser after Sunday's 10:30 a.m. service – a chili cook-off that made about $450 to start a treasury.
Besides the young adults, about 200 sampled and voted on 16 entries to select winners in three categories. Several in the crowd said they hoped the event, proposed by Rebecca Foster, will be annual. Forsythe called about 15 members of the young adults group, a few with children in arms, to the front of the fellowship hall to thank their supporters.
The cook-off committee was composed of Foster, Erin Johnson and Michea Rinehart.
The group is intended as a ministry within the church but also as an outreach for young adults in the community. Most of the chili contestants were not members of the group. Senior Pastor Stephen Schmidt said the church has about 875 members and said the congregation is growing.
With Johnson's husband, Chad, as the master of ceremonies for the awards, a three-way tie for the prize for "most creative chili" was broken by a contest of cheers in favor of Jessica Raines. Bob and Becky McDonald's "firehouse hot" recipe won the prize for the hottest, and Trey Lyons took the prize for the best overall chili.
The group's first service project, assistance with the Keep Copperas Cove Beautiful annual waterway-cleaning project this weekend, was rained out, but the group plans to help with games at the church's Easter picnic and egg hunt.
April will see a cookout at the park and a planning meeting at a lunch after church and participation in the waterway project, which is expected to be rescheduled.
"We intend to start planning more service work and spiritual formation activity," Forsythe said. "This will probably include small groups. The church has a small-group ministry, but we can start a ministry within that to address our needs and concerns."
Megan Amaoko-Addo said, "Most churches have youth groups and then ministries for middle-aged and older people. It's really filling a gap for me to have a place to have fun and talk about God."
Johnson said, "People ask what there is to do in town, and now I can tell them that you can go to church. It's really awesome to have a place to hang out with people with the same values as you."
Forsythe said people can e-mail the group at
graceumcyoungadults2030@yahoo.com or join its Facebook page at
www.facebook.com/pages/Grace-UMC-Young-Adults/319652827104?ref=ts.
Contact Don Bolding at
dbolding@kdhnews.com or (254) 501-7557. Follow him on Twitter at KDHbusiness.