The Evolution of an Idea

I was with a group last night that served free hot dogs at Frank Olson Park, located just a few blocks north of Hillcrest. It was a fun event, and also a good reminder of how an idea morphs over time and even during the event.

Living in the neighborhood, the park is a busy place in the summer. It has two playgrounds, a pool, and several softball diamonds. When I thought about doing this event, I intentionally scanned the area on a Wednesday night in June and the park was packed. Kids at the pool, at the parks, and the diamonds were full of softball players and fans. I thought it was a fantastic opportunity to bless lots of people with some free food, so I asked Joslyn, our administrative assistant, to reserve both the shelters.

Last Wednesday night, before heading out to the furniture mission, I decided to drive by the park again just to confirm that the place would be packed. Apparently, they don't play ball there in July because the diamonds were empty. The pool was somewhat busy, but there wasn't too much activity outside of that. Needless to say, I was concerned, but still hopeful that it would be a good event. I realized I no longer needed both shelters, though, and asked Joslyn to cancel one and keep the one right between the pool and the playground.

Heading into the event, I honestly thought that we would serve 100 people. It was a gorgeous summer day- sunny, warm (but not hot), a light wind- perfect for the park. I anticipated the park could be buzzing. I had predetermined that the way we would track this was through how many individual bags of chips (we'll call them the good chips) we gave out. To insure that the count would be accurate (because I was sure I'd need an accurate count), I asked our Hillcrest folks and their families to eat the chips from the four big bags (the not so good chips) that I bought for them. Pretty smart, hunh?

10 minutes into the event, I found myself in "event modification" mode. There were more Hillcresters then people at the park. There were more lifeguards at the pool then swimmers. I told the group a couple of things. First, I told them that we could fail tonight, at least in terms of how many people we serve. I am used to failing, I've failed much in my ministry career, so I generally am ok with it and try to learn from it and move on, but I wanted to caution those I was serving with that we might be disappointed with the night's results. The second thing I told them was that they could eat the good chips, because tracking guests was going to be too much of a concern, as there were none!

And yet, good things happened. Tarina and other like-minded extroverts roamed the park and told people what we were doing. They went around the pool and told the swimmers there was free food at the park's shelter. They invited the lifeguards over as well, and later took them a bunch of hot dogs and chips. During the 10 minute break, the swimmers came. Their friends came. Some families came. And while we fell short of my pre-determined 100 people goal (and much shorter of the packed June night that inspired this idea in the first place), it was a fun night, and a night where those I served with took the time, the opportunity, and the risk to engage our community, not on our turf over at the church building, but at a neutral site like the park.