Click here to see the Outreach Calendar - upcoming dates and opportunities!

- Make Contact & Gain Trust
- Be Available & Accessible
- Serve Physical & Spiritual Needs
- Advocate For At-Risk Young People
- Host Positive & Safe Events

Outreach: To effectively serve at-risk young people, Source combines "going out" with hosting events, in order to make contact and gain trust. Staff need to go to where people are and build relationships in order to serve them and speak into their lives. Hosting events not only communicates hope in a variety of ways, it also allows us to be available and accessible when individuals are ready for more. People move at their own pace. And it's important that when they're ready, we're there as friends who can serve their physical and emotional needs, and as voices of God's love and forgiveness

Why Outreach?

- To gain trust before we can speak into lives
- Because people will listen to those they relate to
- "leave the 99 and go search for the lost", Jesus said.
- Because the postmodern culture does not see Jesus as relevant
- Because the Bible references reaching out 100+ times
- Because there are 15,000 Homeless Youth in Minnesota every year
- Because there needs to be a light in the darkness
- Because this generation is hungry for family.

Hospitality- set an extra place at the table

Celtic Christians historically have made a habit of setting an extra place at their tables, ready to welcome whoever might visit. We try to follow that same principle in every aspect of our lives as ministers, ready to welcome those with practical needs, spiritual needs, or simply a friendly listening ear. Here's a challenge for the American Church: If you want to love your neighbor, start with an invitation to dinner.

Drum & Easel to the Streets

The heart of Drum & Easel is taking drums and art as an act of prayer and worship to the streets, shelters, and public venues. We invite everyone to celebrate and express God's kingdom creatively through music, percussion, dance, and art. Drum & Easel 2005 outreaches included:

Bus painting with homeless youth in the woods inspired by Psalm 33, "Our hope is in the Lord."	"Love Your Neighbor" 96 sq. ft. interactive mural at Minneapolis Mosaic Block Party and Aquatenial Parade	"Human Easels" at the MayDay Parade
Interactive Art Stations at Red Hot Art Fest located less than a mile from the Fallout.	Local shelter outreach: treating residents with dignity by not just doing soup-line outreach, but also using creative energy for music, painting, dancing	Going out in Two's or Three's: taking art supplies into the city to connect with individuals and initiate spiritual conversations. These have resulted in interaction with young people and become instrumental in beginning relationships.

Four Baptized On Fallout Sidewalk
One of this year's UMT highlights happened during our closing time together on Saturday morning when we baptized four people on the sidewalk in front of the Fallout. An inflatable swimming pool was set up outside the Fallout, and Troy performed the baptisms. On Friday night, we hosted a Gloria Dei Gathering that included a sidewalk full of drums and easels. It was interesting watching cars come around the corner and slowing down to see what was going on, both on Friday and then on Saturday for the baptism. Pictures!

Fallout SEDER
During Easter week, we hosted a traditional Passover Seder. For months, Source has been looking at what Scripture says about the Passover story. Young people in this generation are more open to spirituality, and especially more intrigued by the meaning behind rituals and traditions. It was encouraging to see young people there that we have been building relationships with all year. We packed over 80 people into "Warehouse 1" for the formal sit-down dinner at the Fallout that included Christians and non-Christians. Many participants told us how much it enriched their appreciation and observance of Easter. Pictures!

Dis-Grace: Good Friday Service- 150 Attend "Dis-Grace"
This service was a great example of creatively communicating the real meaning of the Christian faith by taking a tradition and expressing it in a very non-traditional way. This was the third annual Dis-Grace performance, an experimental art collaboration depicting the Last Supper and the Stations of the Cross. The Stations of the Cross are the progression from the time Jesus was condemned, until he died and was laid in the tomb. The presentation was a combination of visuals and films projected on two screens, live music by 10 different musicians, three monologues, 15 visual art works, and more. Many came away with fresh insight about the cross and its meaning, took communion, or participated in parts of the night. Fifty people were involved in brainstorming and creating this event, and over 150 attended. Pictures!

Fallout Art Fest

Fallout Art Fest is annually held in July that started in 2003.
2,000+ people
1,800 free meals
400 screen printed shirts
250 pounds of clay
100 volunteers 50 plus artists
40 musicians
30 gallons of paint
15 partnering congregations
12 films & a puppet show
5 hours of kids' activities
3 indoor/outdoor stages
1 unforgettable worship drum/fire/dance finale

More than 100 performers and artists filled the street, Fallout Urban Art Center, and the 18 studios of the FAI Coop Building. The five stages anchored the indoor/outdoor event boasting a crowd teeming with unprecedented diversity. Hosting such a grand event allows us to interact and build relationships with young adults, neighborhood residents and businesses, and the arts community. An unlikely mix of contrasting individuals stood shoulder to shoulder making conversation, watching performances and participating in interactive art.

Murals, sculptures, pottery, screen-printing, book making, stained glass, mosaics, juggling, blacksmith techniques, and kids' activities were represented in more than 50 interactive stations and displays. Volunteers offered free food to a line of visitors. A weaving wall invited participants to write prayers on woven cloth.

The Art Fest blesses our inner-city neighborhood by bringing a diverse group of neighbors together, generating youth participation, giving young, local artists exposure, and creating awareness of our community and Source's partnerships with Christian organizations. The Art Fest also was an illustration of unity: Over 15 congregations and organizations, and more than 100 volunteers partnered with Source. This large event also was an excellent opportunity to increase awareness, encourage future prayer and participation, and model Source's values for effectively serving and reaching diverse, urban neighborhoods and individuals who would not likely be found in a sanctuary of a church.

Partnering & Extended Family
Thank You to Psalters, Restoration Project, and Village Thrift (Worship Circle Records), traveling bands that joined us for our National Homeless Youth Outreach, concerts at the Fallout, UMT, and the Fallout Art Fest. These friends have a similar DNA for community and being a light in darkness. They also ministered to our city, staff, and training students through teaching and participating with outreaches.

May Day Parade

Known as a celebration of the liberals of liberal Minneapolis, the May Day parade drew more than 5,000 people to the parade and festivities in Powderhorn Park. Source had a group right in the midst of the Minnesota Society of Pagans, witch covens, urban activists, Green party, gay and lesbian rights groups, and theatre groups. Our parade group rolled scaffolding on wheels, along with worshipping musicians, "human easels" engaging the crowd to paint on placards around their necks, and handing out Fallout summer event flyers. The snow flurries didn't take away from the joy, creativity, worship and witness that Source brought to this public event. Being a light in darkness begins with going to where Christians are initially not trusted or respected, impacting culture, and building relationships that show and voice God's love and forgiveness.

National Homeless Youth Outreaches

Source has attended Rainbow Gatherings and young adult fesitvals since 1997. In 2005, and 2007 we partnered with another ministry that reaches out to the poor and traveling kids and ventured to a large hippie gathering in Florida to camp with the people and do what we do here in Minneapolis: be a friend and a voice to the wounded and alienated. for more info on this trip, click here.

In 2006, with the hurricane tragedy still fresh, a group traveled to New Orleans to do relief work for 2 weeks. They spent time cooking and serving food, taking work orders for people with damaged homes, working on the homes, listening to people's stories and praying for them. For more info on this trip, click here.

Contact us for info on future trips.

Urban Pioneers

The Urban Pioneers is a team that focuses on relevant ways to communicate God's love and forgiveness to young adults who are skeptical and would not go into a church. We call it "Impacting Culture."

The team is dedicated to being a Christian presence with people where Christians are typically not seen, trusted, or respected. The team is equipped and encouraged to go out and make contact in the city where young people gather. We build relationships and initiate spiritually significant conversations with young people that address the myths about what the Bible says about following Jesus. Many times people are surprised to meet Christians they feel they can relate to. Our conversations open doors to invite them to events where they can learn more. In the past we have hosted safe, inviting, non-threatening events at team members homes, the FUSE House, the Women's Growth House, churches, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and local coffee shops.

Gloria Dei Gatherings, FUSE rave/techno outreach, The Variety Show spiritual discussion group, Urban Monx art performance troupe, young artists, the coffee shop crowd, Detention Center Outreach, and homeless youth have all been a part of the Urban Pioneers.

Gloria Dei Gatherings

Gloria Dei Gatherings started in 1995 and have been at several locations around the Minneapolis area. They began as a creative and culturally relevant way to worship God that is safe and inviting for those skeptical of God and/or the Christian faith. You might see these expressions at a Gloria Dei Gathering: local bands, open mike, coffee and expresso bar, interactive art stations based on spiritual topics, drum jams, free food, DJ's spinning, electronic music, a prayer/intercession room, and collaborative worship with all kinds of instruments and voices. We continue to host an annual Gloria Dei Gathering on the Friday night of our Urban Ministry Training in June. Other gatherings with similar themes occur during the year.

Impacting the Arts

Student-led Bible studies at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design (MCAD) and Art & Faith artist forums focus on "being a presence" in the art scene, as well as addressing the controversies, misconceptions, difficulties and responsibilities of Christians in the visual arts. They feature relevant discussion and sometimes invite established Christian artists as speakers.