Sunday School at Dunkin’ Donuts the last couple of weeks has been fun?and a nice break for the summer. Along with the funny things that happen?like spilling iced coffee everywhere-the times of talking have felt more genuine. In a classroom setting, it’s a struggle to make meaningful eye-contact with everyone. There is a certain intimacy around small tables while sipping iced coffee and eating donuts and breakfast sandwiches that is not easily duplicated in a classroom. We also run into other people while we’re there?and get more than a few looks from people?perhaps wondering why such an eclectic group of people is hanging out together or interested in our non-typical conversation at Dunkin’ Donuts.

There have been a few challenges however. It’s difficult to play video supplied for the curriculum we’re using now. I loaded all the video on my iPod touch, but the first external speaker we tried just isn’t cutting it. I’m gonna look for a different one this week. I might have to sacrifice portability for sound quality and volume.

The second challenge is the more serious one. We haven’t had any new people come. I wonder if it’s less comfortable for them to stop by and find us at a restaurant than it is to stop by a classroom. While the environment might be better for conversation, it might be less conducive to pulling in new people. Of course, this time of year may also be to blame for the low (in this case 0) new person turn out. If it is less “visitor friendly”, we’ll have to look at some alternatives to helping people connect?more aggressive follow-up/invites to come out or using a secondary event as the primary connection point for new people. (Honestly, the Sunday School wasn’t really cutting it anyway.)

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