You might not think free hot dogs are a good way to meet your neighbors, but they worked fine for us at West Park Christian Church on Indianapolis’s Near Westside.
Our church is in the Hawthorne neighborhood, just steps off old US 40 and the National Road. Its houses were built in the first couple decades of the last century. Our building is on Addison Street, but our parking lot is on the lot behind us and it empties out onto Holmes Street. As cars and pedestrians passed, we called them in. Many stopped.
Rob, the husband of our youth pastor, manned the grill. Here he is talking to our lead pastor’s wife, Sue.
On the left is Wanda, who brought one of her friends. At right is one of our neighbors who stopped by with her children.
Jay brought his DJ gear and provided the soundtrack.
He has quite a nice little setup.
He and Phil (right) are our sound engineers on Sunday mornings.
Our little church has its challenges. We’re small in number and often lack enough people to carry out our plans. Sometimes we don’t collect a large enough offering to cover expenses. Heck, sometimes we show up on Sunday morning to find we’ve run out of communion supplies. Frankly, we count our blessings every time our worship service happens without any glitches.
But we are good at just being easy-to-approach people in our community. People find quickly that we are the most non-threatening, easiest to talk to Christians they’ve ever met. The hot dogs were just our clever ruse to let our neighbors find that out.
Nikon FA, 50mm f/1.8 Nikon Series E, Agfa Vista 200
These are great. That Agfa film has a very nice genuine vintage look.
Thanks! I’m pleased with these too. I’ve had enough practice at candids that I’m starting to capture moments well. It’s nice to have built a little skill here!
What a great idea. I often wonder how many times a church in the city actually invites its neighbors over just to be neighborly.
And that’s all this was. Just people connecting to people with no strings attached.
How nice. Nice photos Jim.
Thanks Jon!
We have done that many times as well (setup on the sidewalk along Liberty Ave) but nowhere near the success you seem to have had. We keep trying.
It was a solid first time. Second time is today — hamburgers this time. Won’t be there though; it’s the anniversary of my first date with Margaret and she’s taking me out for dinner!
Based on how well these candids turned out…next stop…street photography!
Ha, yes, we will see – this was a friendly audience!
One could only wish that all church communities were as friendly and inclusive as this one…
Great idea, nice bunch of people and great snaps of course :)
Thank you! We are good at this kind of thing. We’re pretty disorganized otherwise!