Ubuntu has inspired me. In the spirit of this open source OS I’ve decided to try a little experiment with my youth group.
Ever since I started serving at my church (2 years ago) I’ve made snacks available to the students at our weekly youth group meetings.
No one is “charged money” to attend a church service
They’re simple snacks: soda, candy bars, pop corn, chips, etc. I’ve always charged money for these things. 25¢ for a soda, 50¢ for a bag of pop corn and so on and so forth. But last night at youth group I had an epiphany! Why not make this snack system run the same way open source software works? Here’s my idea:
- I will purchase the initial supply of snacks out of pocket.
- Set in place a system where everyone, regardless of how much (if any) money they have, can have a snack.
- Encourage those who do have money to donate to “the cause” and stress to them that what they give will directly affect the amount of and quality of snacks that are available.
- Encourage students who don’t like the snacks provided to “own the cause,” purchasing and providing snacks (to share) that they do like instead of just complaining about it. This will encourage them to get involved with the ministry, albeit in a minor way.
I think this can work. After all, isn’t this how a church functions? No one is “charged money” to attend a church service, it’s provided free of charge so that everyone can participate; those that have the means are encouraged to donate money to keep things running. Pot-luck dinners and fellowships function the same way. I see no reason why I should have to charge money at youth group for the food there. I think my biggest challenge with all this is to “sell the vision” to the youth group.
Maybe it’s a little too Utopian, maybe it’s an idea doomed for failure. Only time will tell, but in the mean time I’m pretty excited about my open source snacks!
