By:Tom Jordan
Troubled by the recent behavior of some youths who regularly hang out beyond the doors of the St. Mark's United Methodist Church, Pastor Roger Johns has concluded that the best way to help them would be to coax them inside.
Dr. Johns said the church, largely because of its proximity to South Side Middle School, has become the place of choice for teenagers and pre-teens to meet almost nightly to smoke cigarettes, drink beer and cause trouble. Countless hours have been spent, he said, wiping away graffiti and picking up empty beer cans. The police are regular visitors.
The greatest indignity, Johns said, is that he has been verbally abused by the trespassers each time he has tried to approach them.
But as angry as he is, Johns said he hasn't lost hope that, if given the chance, he can help these youths find direction.
"It's hard to have a great degree of charity after they've cussed me out, but I realize these kids are our future," he said.
So, Johns has begun developing The Mind, Body and Spirit Club, an after-school tutoring program that will focus on scholastics, athletics and counseling. He said the program also will have religious overtones, but that he doesn't plan on the guidance being "overtly religious" or exclusively Methodist. "I would invite rabbis and priests from all faiths to take part in this program," he said.
He also has applied with the Phillip Morris Employee Fund for a $20,000 grant. The money would help to pay the salaries of a program director and someone to work with kids in the gym, as well as provide the equipment for computer training.
Johns noted the irony in seeking help from a tobacco and alcohol company, but said, "It's a charity through the employees. I'm not so naive to think that the company doesn't put money in, but nowhere do we invest in anything having to do with tobacco or alcohol."
Johns said the program has the backing of local police, who he hopes will help refer at-risk youths, 11 to 14, to it once it gets under way sometime this year.
The original idea came from Rick Wolfsdorf, a former member of St. Mark's and a teacher of health and special education at Freeport High School. Wolfsdorf presented the idea to Johns in a letter in May 1999.
"I felt that the church had this tremendous building that wasn't being utilized to its fullest potential," Wolfsdorf said.
He said the idea to include physical activity as part of the program came to him while working with special-education students in the weight room at the high school. "I noticed an improvement in their grades and attitude. I learned accidentally that there is a correlation between athletics and spiritualism."
In addition to exercise and help with homework, Wolfsdorf believes the religious aspect of the program will be important to most kids. "We're not telling anyone how to believe. We're just trying to help kids identify more positive things," he said.
Johns said the idea for the program has taken many turns while being developed, but that the foundation has remained the same.
"I'm hoping the club can act as a catalyst for change," he said. "It would be great to make an impact on the life of one kid. All we're trying to accomplish is some type of improvement. I think that a program such as this will benefit the children and the entire community. That's what churches are about."
Meanwhile, the nightly congregations outside the church continue.
Johns told a story about an Alcoholics Anonymous group leaving a recent meeting at the church and finding their cars had been vandalized. Obscenities and swastikas had been written with shaving cream. He apologized to a member of the group, who said, "We'll probably see some of those kids in this group one of these days."
Said Johns: "That's what we're trying to prevent."
