Can I See Some ID?

Last summer, we learned that one of Sioux Falls' downtown festival, Hot Summer Nites, took place on a Wednesday night. In hindsight, we wished we would have planned better and could have merged our Wednesday Night Service with this event and provided Downtown Sioux Falls with some volunteers for the party. So this year, upon learning that the event would again take place on a Wednesday night, we volunteered some Hillcresters to participate in this event that really attracts quite a few folks to downtown Sioux Falls.

Last week Downtown Sioux Falls notified us of our potential volunteer locations- we would either be working at the beverage tents or checking IDs on potential beverage tent patrons (which clues you in to what beverages the tents are serving!). Of course. Now, there's nothing wrong with alcohol or partaking in it, but churches (and by churches, the people who make up those churches) probably handle something such as this in very different ways, so too would they handle the propsect of volunteering in such an environment. So we checked on other service options. None matched the time we could do it. So we sent out an email to everyone who had expressed interest in the service opportunity letting them know what they would be doing and that if they were uncomfortable or uninterested, they could bow out with no worries. A few gracioulsy did bow out while a few agreed to the opportunity.

So this coming Wednesday, myself, my wife, and a couple other Hillcresters will be carding people at the beverage tents (I'm hoping they aren't expecting me to be a bouncer because then I am toast!). What's even more interesting is that when I saw the roster of who's all serving at the beverage tents and ID stations, there was another church, Mercy Church, who had also volunteered folks for similar serving options. I think it's great that churches volunteer to serve where people are already going to be. I think it's great that churches communicate care for the community by helping in events and festivals that people are already going to be part of. If the folks at Downtown Sioux Falls or the patrons of Hot Summer Nites think better of churches as a result of the serving, that's a great outcome as well.