Alabama Church's Cyber Café Creates Safe Haven For College Crowd
by Jim Brown
March 16, 2004
(AgapePress) - A ministry in the basement of a Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Methodist church is steering college students away from bars and the party scene.After learning that the University of Alabama was rated one of the top 3 party schools in the nation, nearby Trinity United Methodist Church decided to provide students on the Tuscaloosa campus with an alternative to beer bashes.
That alternative is called Quirkey's Cyber Coffeehouse. Quirkey's has become a popular hangout for young college students, especially those who have not opted to play sports or join a fraternity or sorority. Trinity pastor Alan Head says the wireless cyber-café reaches out to students who are searching for themselves -- even "those that were already Christians when they came to school, that begin to struggle as they're searching for their identity and what their calling in life is going to be and then begin to feel isolated on the campus."
Head says Quirkey's has made a visible difference for students going through the angst of transition to campus life and adulthood. "What I've begun to witness is that through this they begin to realize that Christ hasn't left them, that Christ is here in that crazy time," he says
And the pastor says the coffeehouse had a tremendous positive impact on many of the small-town students who came to the large university and felt lost -- those students that would probably otherwise frequent bars because they feel lonely and detached as they confront the whirlwind of changes, chances, and choices before them.
"It is such a large campus that it can be overwhelming," Head says, "and you begin to feel like you're all alone in that process of making those decisions. So our hope is that, through ministries like Quirky's, they'll know that the people of God are with them, that the church is with them, and that Jesus Christ is with them in this difficult time."
Pastor Head says the coffeehouse not only provides an atmosphere where students can relax and meet friends, but also offers them small-group Bible studies a couple of nights a week. Also, he says, the low-key café connects those students to his church, with a congregation already largely consisting of college students.
