Youth Room Dedication

Sunday night we had a fantastic turn out for the dedication of the new youth room, a space dedicated to be used in reaching students to discover life in Christ. I'm glad to be a partner in a church that has a passion for reaching students. Nags Head Church has made a huge investment in the youth ministry to finish out this 1600 square foot space. I was impressed by the church partners who showed up for the dedication who had no connection to the students other than the fact of being a partner in the church, their participation in the dedication showed their passion as a church to invest into the lives of the youth.

The room was dedicated also in the memory of Shana Lawler. Shana was a youth in the NHC youth ministry several years ago. Her life ended in a tragic car accident. Shana was a 17 year old who loved the Jesus Christ. Her family came back to town for the dedication and her sister, Erin, shared some great words both about Shana and also challenged the students. NHC loves the Lawler family! A picture and plague will hang in the youth room.

The youth room has a kitchen/coffee bar, comfortable seating areas, flat screens and a projector, ping pong, foosball and table games, a space for chairs for gathering for worship. The room has lots of windows with a great view of Jockey's Ridge, the largest sand dune on the east coast.

The whole space was designed to be open and easily reconfigured for different events or needs. Their are several bistro tables for students to gather and play games or just sit and snack together and talk. A couple of seating areas with sofas and comfortable chairs to encourage fellowship and offer space for the youth ministry team to build relationships with the students. The spaces are separated by different paint colors which were taken from a retro surf design. The look is like a coffee shop/restaurant feel complete with brushed metal pendant lights.

We look forward to using this room to reach students!

A shot of the room from the west end.
50 folding chairs allow us to configure the room in different
ways to meet whatever need of the event taking place
in the room.

The Hukilau Surf Camp surfboard. Hukilau is an outreach of NHC and is led by
Pastor Steve. Each summer several camps are held and use surfing as an
avenue to share the gospel.

Pastor Steve is allowing us to store some of his antique surfboards. A great way
to dress up an open ceiling.

There are several tables around the room that allow for space for students
and the team to play games together. The tables are easy to move
to change the configuration of the room.

We used a couple of garage type tool cabinets that are fairly inexpensive to house
the tech equipment.

Currently we have two flat screens up on the walls. We have the cable and
outlets run for 3 more. The TV's are all hooked to a switcher and a distribution amp. We streamed the big game on this system which is also tied to the projector.
We did this "in house" saving the church a couple grand.
These flat screens and projector can be used for showing videos, movies, games
and presentations.

A shot of the door that leads out of the room. Our lizard.

During construction. Cork floor which is awesome and sound absorbing. A view of
the coffee bar and kitchen. We put up mirror tiles above the sink so
while cleaning up a person can still keep an eye on what's happening behind them
as well as a giving those sitting at the bar a view of what's happening in the room.

The cabinets and counter top. We put electrical outlets in the counter so we
can plug up crock pots and roaster ovens to keep important youth ministry tools
like queso and hot wings hot and tasty.

We purchased 50 folding chairs with cushy seats. The projector and screen are
recycled from the old church building.

A shot of one of the seating areas. We were given a couple of sofas and then
I went around the church and "stole" other chairs to put in the space. The blurry
dude is Chris who helped me paint the room.