Youth have place, space in Apple Valley

Blue painter's tape was still wrapped around the electric fireplace last week, and the gym floor hasn't been installed yet. But even though Mount Olivet Assembly of God's youth building still smells new, it is already well loved.

"It's awesome," said 17-year-old Paul Estes, who just graduated from Apple Valley High School. "I use it as a place to talk to God."

Last weekend, the youth group at the Apple Valley church celebrated the opening of the building, which took about eight months to build and several years to plan.

The youth group has been using the not-quite-finished building for the past two months, and having a place of its own has already started to transform the group, according to Rev. Benn Stumph, the church's student ministries pastor.

"They have a place where they can work on just being them," he said. "They come and they know there are adults here who care about them."

The building -- which brushes up against Cedar Avenue on the church's site on 142nd street -- is a gift to the youth group from the congregation, a place where they can play loud music and video games, and worship God in their own raucous way.

The approximately $1.5 million, 16,000-square-foot building has a contemporary look, with clean lines and a warehouse feel that is free of many of the more ornate, traditional elements of church design.

In 2006 the congregation voted overwhelmingly to fund the building through three-year pledges and a mortgage -- the pledges totaled about $400,000.

"In the [church's main building], we couldn't be loud or play basketball," said Bethany McKay, 17, because other groups using the church could hear the stomping from the sanctuary on Wednesday nights, and younger children would be running around. "It felt like we were getting in the way of everyone else. ... This place is less intimidating -- it's less proper."

The building has flat-screen TVs and two Wiis for the students to use. The multipurpose room has an impressive sound system and a large projection screen on the wall. There's also a room that was intended to be a student classroom -- until someone donated an old pool table.

According to Stumph, students have taken ownership in the building and in the decisions about how it should be used. Students help run the coffee shop, and the high school students work with junior high students to help develop their relationships with God.

"In this building, it's not like it has to be about coming to a church," said Estes. "It's more about having a group of friends on the same path as you."