Being in the rich end of town, and being in the Bible belt, the members of my Church are rather Homogenous. Most the men are either Engineers, Doctors, or variations of such. Most the woman are the same. This sameness goes down to the Jr. and Sr. High (middle shcoolers and High schoolers.), with most of the students reading teen magazines and getting manicures (among the girls).
Being a member of CREW, a group of High School students at our Church who help out with the Jr. High events, I couldn't help but notice that the oddballs were left out most of the time. Most of the talks were about accepting the geeks, instead of realizing we are all people in Christ. After a lot of prayer I talked to the youth leaders about this, and we have been arranging meetings together for a month now. Things have improved, but I'm thinking about taking it a step further.
Their is a Anime Convention coming to a place thirty minutes away from the Church, and I'm currently praying about a very cool idea. I'm thinking about bringing the group of Jr. High students to it. It's slightly radical, but it will stretch the students and show them a different subculture, one they have not even seen before. It will perhaps give them a chance to see that the people they label geeks are human too, and show them how many things we have in common. After all, too many times to count has a youth leader dressed up as a funny looking girl to get a laugh, so what's so different about cosplayers? And I think it would be safe since in the area I live, I doubt the costumes would be too wild.
So, if you all would pray that clarity would come to me, and God's will be done, than it would be much appreciated.