Young Adult Ministry Attends Parties?

A couple weeks ago I talked with Jason Lara, leader of Threesixty - the youth and young adult ministry of Phoenix First Assembly. My eyebrows went up as my interest was peaked when he began sharing about their Red Ministry on the campus of Arizona State University. I love this ministry because it is truly a fulfillment of the great commission. I don't know how many times I've been asked, "how can we reach young adults that aren't in our church?" I believe Jason helps answer that question.

Jason shares about this ministry below...

Threesixty Red Ministry is designed to reach college students at Arizona State University by building a bridge to our weekly Young Adult service. Every weekend we have between 15 and 20 young adults that infiltrate ASU dorms and parties focused on serving the ASU students. We have partnered with a variety of companies who donate coffee, bagels, otter pops, water, to give away free of charge to those attending parties.

In the midst of parties and student-organized events, our ‘Red Crew’ t-shirts easily identify our team members. When allowed entrance into the parties and dorm rooms, our teams that are equipped with bags and ice chests, begin to distribute otter
pops, water bottles, etc. In the parties, we are strategic in promoting our Young Adult ministry, by letting the students know we are there to serve the needs. This provides an opportunity to speak with the students and let them know who we are and why we are there. Team members carry invite cards with them and take the opportunities to personally invite students to our weekly Young Adult service. On most occasions, our team will have the opportunity to not only talk with the party goers and build relationships but also pray and lead them to Christ.

After the party is over, our teams stay and clean up, or schedule a time for the next day to come and cook breakfast after cleaning up beer cans, cigarette butts and thoroughly clean the venue. Cleaning the venues allows relationship building between the students and ministry teams. Students are taken back by the selfless service and begin to ask questions as to "Why, and what do you benefit?” Again, it gives individuals on our team (some who have been set free from this lifestyle) the opportunity to share why we are there, and what God has done for them.

Three months ago, local news in Phoenix focused their media resources on a story about an ASU college student that had disappeared over the weekend. It was a top story in Arizona for several days. Immediately following the first newscast, I began receiving messages from young adults on the Red Crew team, sharing that this young man named Willie was one of the students we had been ministering to. The team began reaching out to the friends and family of Willie. The relationships with Willie’s friends had already been established due to the consistency of serving them at the different parties. It was incredible to see how his friends opened up during this difficult time and our ministry was prepared to respond. Our ministry posted on Facebook that we would take time out of our service to pray for Willie and his family. We were shocked at the response from the ASU students. Though the community was hosting a candlelight vigil the same night, many students came to our church, because of the connection Red Crew made by serving them on the weekends. We had a flood of new young adults that would not fit in our building that Wednesday night. Local news media picked up on our Young Adult service remembrance for Willie and became the top story in Arizona. Many ASU students received Christ for the first time and we are still seeing the fruit of that night.

The more we begin to get out of the four walls of the church and just serve people where they are, the more God is blessing the ministry. We are seeing an incredible move of God as our Young Adults are finding a cause bigger than themselves and finding and filling the needs of the hurting and broken.