 Who are the Sharks? They're entrepreneurial leaders in the North Texas Conference Churches with a passion for reaching new people for Christ. The Reverend Debbie Lyons serves as the senior pastor at First United Methodist Church, Winsborough. Her passion for community engagement has earned her the mayor's key to the city. Phillip Neely, a lay member at Whaley United Methodist Church in Gainesville, has more than 20 years of experience in business development. And currently serves as president and CEO of Trident Process Systems. The Reverend Sylvia Wang serves as the senior pastor at First United Methodist Church, Archer City. As chair of the conference's journey towards racial justice coordinating team, she helps develop strategies to create an equitable future for all people in the North Texas Conference. Greg Hickman, lay leader at Whitesboro United Methodist Church, is the owner and CEO of First Texas Home Health, a leading home health care system. The Reverend Dr. Andy Stoker is an interfaith leader who has served as a United Methodist pastor for more than 20 years. Today, he is chief engagement officer at the Thanksgiving Foundation. Jessica Vargas, mission coordinator in the North Texas Conference Center for Church Development, supports leaders across the conference as they identify new ways to engage their communities for Christ. First into the spark tank is Abram Escutia with The Loft, a new young adult ministry from Casa Emanuel United Methodist Church. What really sparked the idea for this is that our community currently has no young adult ministry in our area and just the location of our church. It's a great idea to start young adult ministry. We have a recreational center right next door and we have Brian Adams High School across the street. Good morning shards. My name is Abraham Escutia and we are from Casa Emanuel United Methodist Church and I'm here with our Reverend Pastor Paul Barton. And we're looking for a $10,000 investment in our new space called The Loft. The Loft is a young adult ministry that we're looking to start in Casa Emanuel United Methodist Church. So this idea started because of a need. I remember sitting down at an administrative council meeting and one of the members said, what Kim Martinez said, what people are going to be asking, why would we want to join United Methodist Church besides all the other churches that are on our street or in our area? And what we notice is that no other church in our street has a young adult ministry. We also came with the need that at our church, I'd say about the average age of our members is 65 years old. So there's a need to rejuvenate the church, bring younger members to the church, become leaders that will serve in the church and disciples of Christ in our church. We're looking to start a young adult ministry and our church is located at a great area to where we can fill that. Next to our church we have a recreational center and right across the street we have a high school. So we're really positioned in a great area so that this can take off and grow. At the loft we are planning to give evangelism teachings and discipleship teachings and we're looking to make it to where we talk about topics relevant to the young adult today, to the generation today. And we have the support of our church members. We have the hope and desire to do it. All we need is the funds to to get this thing rolling. So what do you say? What don't you provide us with those funds so that you can come chill with me at the loft? I really like this idea. This is close to home here in White'sboro. We're facing the same type of situation. Our average age in the congregation is older. We're really trying to reach out to those young adults and it's hard to do that. So we're going through a lot of the same stuff. What age range are you talking about whenever you talk about young adults? We want to focus on 18 and up to 35 years old but we're not rolling out completely going a little bit under the age of 18 just because of the area that we are in. Well I mean obviously church attendance is down nationwide and that's the only way that we're going to build it back up on doing that. I have four boys myself, all young adults, two of them recently married and I think it's important that you focus on young married couples as well to get them in the church so that their kids are going to grow up in the church. So I mean I'll jump in right now for $2,500 to you guys. I think it's a good project. Thank you. Thank you very much. But I would give you this advice. You need to go ask for money because there's money out there, not just here. But one thing you need to do in your application is be very detailed. So you kind of had your furniture. You had a budget but it was the two budgets didn't match exactly but get your budget very detailed on how you want to remodel that room and down to the dollar. I mean and then when you're talking to someone and asking for money the more details the better. So you want to do that and if you say you know if you say my remodel is going to be $1250 and I'm going to spend $3,000 on furniture and it ends up your remodel is $3,000 and you spend $1250 on furniture that's fine just when you read me with whoever you're working with just telling me here's what happened and why. So the communication about the details and communication when you're asking for money is very important. I think you have a really good concept. I think you have a good plan. That would be my advice though is when you're go ask for money and put that detail in there and don't worry if it's not right. Your things are going to happen where it doesn't work out like you thought and you're going to spend money where you didn't think you would. But then when you come back say here's what happened here's where we spent it and here's why and here's what I need now. So I don't know if this invests for me but that's the advice I'd give you and I think you're on a good path. Thank you sir. I also want to add I really am so touched by your both your passion your church's passion for young adults. I also want to just encourage you that even if the loft is not fully renovated might there be another possibility to gather some young adults by invitation and go out to a restaurant and have a devotional and a light meal there together and have that going on while the renovation is happening in your space. And so so that way you know don't wait for the space to be up and running before starting young adults ministry. It sounds like you all have some young adults already. This proposal was put together by four of our young adults of the church. So it is not it's not the older members are the long term established members who say we want to reach this population. It's the young adults themselves who thought about it and developed it and brought it forward. It's a good grassroots start for sure. So we do have some young adults and they're very excited about reaching out to their friends and other persons activating this group. So as Mark Cuban would say he's going to start the 24 second clock and 24 seconds. Can you tell us how you're going to reach these young adults? What's your marketing plan? I agree with you that the budget wasn't very clear. So what are you going to do to reach these people? So we want to implement a plan that's called invite one. So everybody has somebody that will invite. So that's that's our main goal of reaching out is just doing once have to say that hey we'll meet these days and just invite somebody. Don't even say that. Don't tell them that we're going to the church. Just say hey we were inviting you to go bowling. We want to start meeting and creating those relationships outside a church and then move them into church. And then that's how we would start our our plan. And then after that we would from those invite one people we want to give them something about what it means to be a disciple of Christ what it means to evangelize so that we they can multiply and one friend reaches one friend and that friend knows another friend and it'll kind of be like a tree. I want to join Greg in on investing in this project at $2,500 as well. I think the value add I would bring to to this vision is I've been involved in youth and young adult ministry my whole career and would love to articulate what it might look like for for some developmentally appropriate ways to connect with with this community especially if you're dipping under 18 and some of the developmental differences that that would need to be there. I'm excited about joining joining this because of the biliterate bicultural bilingual way of being that that custom and well is bringing to the to the table. So I'm really excited about this and with Greg's help I think we could probably have a wonderful support system for you as you get this launched. That would be great. That's great. Well we're 50 percent. What would you like to see for for a full hundred percent funding of this? The last row of raw muffins. I love that you have the courage to ask for the rest. You got to keep looking you got to keep asking don't you? Well I think you got two great charts besides the funding you have two great charts that are going to be working with you helping you develop and develop this idea and also giving you guidelines and guidance on how to actually get that more funding that you might need and might be looking for. We appreciate your idea. Gracias. I appreciate that you're here. We appreciate that you're trying to reach that young adult because they are key in helping grow the church and with that we appreciate that you're coming and you're here with us. Thank you. Fantastic. Thank you very much. We're going to Disneyland. No, it feels wonderful. Yes, we're so thankful, thankful for their support, their excitement and their encouragement. We are looking forward to being able to use those funds to start this new ministry for young adults at Casa Manuel. Yeah, we really have some charts that really support and what we're doing. We have a chart that kind of relates to what's going on and it's kind of on the same boat with the same church that we need to grow our young adults and we also have a chart that has worked with young adults and youth for many many years so their their their input is going to be phenomenal. Next into the tank is the Reverend Melissa Hatch of Button Memorial United Methodist Church. Their Buttons and Bowes foster closet will serve foster families in the area equipping them with clothes supplies and support as they care for children in need. Our desire is to help foster families and we're going to start with the foster closet although we have an idea that we think will will grow well beyond just a closet but at its initial stage it'll be making new and gently worn clothing available to foster families for free. Foster closets have been something we've been blessed with over the years that we've been fostering and we wanted to bring one closer to home and bless other people how we've been blessed. And the hope is is that it will grow from there that it will be a community of support and she says one of the things that has been hard is to be able to have those conversations with other foster families and so hopefully we'll do some small groups or maybe bring in some speakers that can come and be a nurturing part of their their families and really create a community where they know that they're supported not only by us but each other. Good afternoon sharks. Good afternoon. I'm here today to tell you a cautionary tale. A warning. Our God answers prayers so be careful what you pray for. Case in point on Sunday September 18th 2022 our pastor Melissa asked our congregation to dream big. Our God is a God of big dreams she said. Jordan and her partner Rachel did exactly that and dreamed big. They dreamed about a foster closet. Do you know there are over 3,000 children in foster care in the in the metro place? It's amazing right that 900 in Dallas County 800 in Tarrant County there are 200 foster families in Denton County alone. That's where our church is located. New places. Our project is to start a foster closet. In our church what is a foster closet? A foster closet is a place making new and gently worn clothing available to foster families for no cost. Leading regularly absolutely. The foster closet will be open once a month on Saturday morning or by appointment as needed. Discipleship absolutely. We will build a Christian community among the foster families of our barrier. It's our vision to be a concierge service for foster families. It starts with a foster closet but as we offer as we start to connect and grow the foster closet we will offer support for the families. These support groups that's one of the key concepts we're working towards support groups. What Jordan has shared with us is that foster parents need safe encouraging empathetic Christian connection. We offer our space for that purpose. Beyond that we offer training for foster families. We will invite hosts. We'll host speakers that come in and talk to us about parenting, the joy of fostering, etc. These foster parents are truly angels. They're truly being paid a feat of Jesus in our world. I have some questions. I'm mentioning myself on the foster parent currently and so is my husband. I'm aware that there's services available to foster parents that come through various agencies. What can your new space ministry provide for foster parents that other agencies might not be able to help out with? Given that time is very difficult for foster parents with all the home visits, all the recarvest routines and all that. What can be the invitation that will help a busy foster mom be thinking like, oh, this is something I want to try out? We do have an agency and we get lots of support for our agency. I've told them before, too, there's lots of places on social media for foster parents to connect and things like that. But I think it's a little bit different when you actually get to sit in front of someone face to face and talk to them about things that you go through and say understand. And I think sometimes that gets lost behind a keyboard when you're on social media and your agency understands to an extent, but they're not in the trenches with you, per se, day in and day out as a foster parent. So I think just being able to sit in front of other people to understand that will be a huge help. I think there's a level of flexibility, too, we can offer. So if there's a scheduling issue or just a need, if we need to drive someone, to take close to someone, things of that nature, all that stuff is another realm of possibilities. Right now, the closest foster closet to us is in Wiley, which is what, 30, 40 miles away? I think one of the things that we offer is it's a Christian-based. It's a place where we will have people available to pray in with a foster family that maybe they're getting ready to have to give their foster kids back. And they're going through a tough time. We've walked out with Rachel and Jordan just two days before Mother's Day and we walked that journey with them. And that's probably not the support she got from her agency, but it's the place that she got support from her church family. So while it's not necessarily indicated that we want everybody to join the church, but that could happen. And so we offer a Christian-based environment where that support can be given, where love can be given. We've already taken on that several of us will consider being trained through the foster care system. So moms come or dads come with their foster kids that will have trained into this list that can watch their kids while they shop, while they sit and talk, have coffee, whatever it is. And that's a huge thing too, because our family alone, I think both of our moms are trained and then we have one friend on each side that's trained. Other than that, we don't have anybody that can babysit for us. And I've seen that a lot on the foster care side, because people are constantly asking for people to do respite and things like that. So it would be nice to have more people to lean on and trust with our kiddos. I know as time goes on, there's adaptability just to see what's needed by the people who come, by the parents who come. How will this deepen the discipleship of the foster moms and dads who come? How will that create more of an intentional Christian community and help them to get to know Jesus more? Well, I think down the road we can offer small grief industries, Bible studies, parents night out certainly is a way that parents can connect and then we keep their kids. But to be able to have those small groups where parents get to connect with each other, so maybe that's in the form of almost like a celebrate recovery around round tables where people get to sit there and talk about a subject. Maybe that subject is about Christian parenting. Maybe it's not. I think we have to start where people are and I think oftentimes, and when we start new ministries, we want to go too far and we want to go, we got to get them into the door and have them join the church because if they're not joining our numbers, we aren't doing anything. And unfortunately as a conference, we get judged on our numbers. But I think it's the lines that we make a difference with. So whether they join the church or not is not what's our basis. And it's our basis to share them with them the love of Christ. That we love them and we support them and we want to walk with them on this journey and make that easier in any way possible. In my discovery going through this journey right now is that there is still stigma in our societies in the foster care system about the kids who are not wanted, which is not true. They just need the right home for the right time, I guess. I don't have a good word for that. And by no means am I judging any system or commenting on that. But I just want to share with you, I really applaud your effort. And when I, when I reviewed your application, I teared the pletka down. That's true. That's true. So before I cry all the way out, so let's start laughing. I will devote $2,500 and invest and walk alongside with you on the right queue. Thank you. And what a blessing that you have that hands-on experience. I could not foster a puppy. So I know this figure request for the budget was pretty broad and not very specific from $5,000 to $10,000. Have you considered, you know, when I first looked at this I thought, wow, it's such a specific ministry, foster children. In our community, we have a lot of grandparents that aren't official foster parents, but that's what they're doing because their children are drug addicted whenever they're raising their grandchildren. Have you considered expanding the ministry to reach a little beyond just fall starved? And then my second question of that is what specifically is the money used for? I have to, working in many volunteer capacities and going through clothing, I want these kids to have new clothes. Gently used is great, but there's something to be said. When a kid goes into like a CPS system, I've seen the trash bags that they've come out of their houses with at last minute and they don't have anything that's new. So while we could start this grassroots and do donations and gently use clothing that we wash, which is great, I would love to start this with new stuff and new clothing is expensive. So we'd like to buy, we don't have like much churches, we don't have a lot of storage space, so we're going to have to be creative. And Jordan helped us think about creative ways to do that. Find those big plastic tubs that they can be sorted in and stacked in various areas, probably in our sanctuary choir left right now, no one will know that. But we want to purchase clothing. We want to purchase clothing racks. That's the initial expense. And in terms of like grandparents and those kinds of situations, yeah, I think that applies to this as well. In terms of some of the parenting sort of, you know, Christian based support groups from a parenting perspective. It's a tough front, right? And navigating life as a Christian as a grandparent, taking care of your grandchildren as a full-time parent. I mean, that's, there's some challenges there. And I think that's some, but there's also a tremendous amount of wisdom, I suspect, and experience we can tap into. So just to build a community where there's just this theme of Christian parenting is pretty cool. To kind of add on to what they're saying, the foster closet that has blessed us the most. And I know the other one as well. They typically cater to younger ages because the younger ones don't understand when something's not new or anything like that. So you don't see older kids or teenagers or anything like that at these foster closets. So we would like to reach out to other ages and older kids want new things that in these kiddos have been through so much. They deserve something good. So we'd like to reach them as well. So I think it's a good presentation. And I think the word, the concept of a concierge for foster families is a good way to put it. Because that shows that you've got a plan to grow and do more down the road as you develop this. I think that's a good thing to say. One question I had and said you wanted to focus on families within 20 miles of your church. Do you have any idea what that number is within 20 miles? I think that was in your application. I think, well, you said that there are 200 foster families just in Denton County, which is a larger area. I don't know that we have the specific numbers within 20 miles. Well, I'd like to give $2,500 to your efforts there. And the one thing that I want to ask as we move forward in talking about stuff is sort of like what Dennis said, I think it's really important to get very specific on your budget and understand once you know what you have, then you can do that. But I think that's a really big first step and planning and de-organize them intentional. But I'm excited and I think you have a great time. So I hate you. Thank you very much. I'd like to join Phil and Sylvia with $2,500 as well. One of the gifts that COVID brought my life is partnering with a psychologist and pediatrician. We launched Parenting for the Present, which is now a non-profit where we're trying to connect with parents, especially of younger children, to develop a wider understanding of what it looks like to have a holistic child development into adolescent development, adult development program focused on body, mind, spirit. So not only what I'd like to offer what I have is the $2,500, but if there's anything that I could do along with Matthew Hausen and Dr. Early Denison to walk alongside you in some parent education and how that might be framed and be an encouragement to you and then maybe also amplify that marketing through our podcast and also further reach into connecting with more parents in more profound ways. Thank you all so much for this amazing presentation. Thank you. Praise God. That's awesome. I'm real curious and I've been watching you and there's a lot of emotion in your eyes. Yes. The weird script. What does this mean to you? We're sorry. That's okay. It means everything because these kids have got there so much. They're real parents have not seen them since they left the hospital. Then we would love nothing more than for them to be ours. But we have been blessed so much by other foster calls. I wish she knows this. Oh, please. We got a call and they were in our house within an hour. So being able to have a place for other families to go with that same situation means the world to us because we have been more blessed than I can ever tell you by these places. Dustin, you've gotten bassinets, crimps, things that you can't even imagine from these places. So we want to share that with other people. What I can offer is a lot of prayer. I think what you're doing is amazing and I applaud you because not many people have the courage to do that. I think it's really, it's cool. It is. So anyway. Well, congratulations. You're walking away with three charts and $7,500 in grants. We appreciate your time and effort, your heartfelt application and presentation. We're all in prayers for this, not just this space, but also for you as a family. And we appreciate again being here. Thank you so much. Thank you. Great. Anybody want to look at the baby soap? We feel great. I'm so elated. Excited. Answer to prayer. Bless. We have a fellow foster parent. That's really exciting. We have someone that's got connections to places that we can use for speakers and really create a, what did he say, mind, body, spirit? He actually had a whole, like he created this seems like the answer to prayers. It seems like the perfect person that has sort of already kind of thought out how to do the support groups from a Christian foundational basis. I mean, that's exactly what we were looking for. And then someone that can help us put some numbers and thought behind our budget and making sure that we're using being a good steward with what we've been given and go from there. Now we gotta go to work. Unfortunately. Yes. Now the real work starts, but we're thrilled. We're really, this is what a wonderful experience, asked a lot of great questions. I'm excited. We're thrilled to have professionals working with us. We're thrilled to get this started. So come check us out in Little Elm. Find us on Facebook, buttons and bows ministry, foster closet. We'll see you there soon.