Oasis in the “North Ridgeville Press”
New pastor brings youth outreach to city
North Ridgeville
By Jon Wysochanski
With a multitude of problems that could potentially send them down the wrong path, youth face a difficult world today. But a new face in North Ridgeville hopes to intervene in the lives of local kids and help them to make the right choices.
The Rev. Lisa Arledge, a Lutheran minister from Akron, has been involved with youth outreach for 28 years and is bringing her ministry to North Ridgeville.
At St. John/St.Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church in Akron, Arledge works as a ministries coordinator and also for Oasis Outreach Opportunity Inc., a nonprofit program helping inner-city youth. She was officially ordained as a Lutheran minister in 2009.
Arledge said St. John/St. Paul, which consisted of an aging white congregation, decided to reach out to area youth in 2006. Now the congregation has a core group of more than 50 kids who remain in Akron as a part of Oasis. Both the youth and the older populations have strengthened their faiths through one another, Arledge said.
“They essentially provide the energy for the aging congregation,” she said. “They’ve become a one-church family and that’s great.”
She hopes the results will be similar at Spirit of Joy in North Ridgeville, which has a congregation of about 25 people. Arledge replaces the Rev. Glenn Zimbelman, who moved to Arizona. The Rev. Rick Gordon, who works with Arledge at St. John/St. Paul, said Oasis has been highly successful in Akron. When Gordon came to St. John/St. Paul six years ago, Arledge was working at the church part time as a youth minister. He instantly started noticing her energy and willingness to reach out to troubled youth, and he recalled four young men who would hang out all day long at the church every Sunday.
“A lot of churches spend a lot of time trying to figure out who they should reach out to, and in our case, it was the people that showed up (at St. John/St. Paul) who were reaching out to us,” Gordon said.
The four youth are still involved with Oasis, and now the congregation has been transformed into a safe haven for Akron youth.
“Most of them are facing obstacles, from home situations to street problems,” Gordon explained. “We try to (provide) a safe place, while giving them the faith. We try to help them stay in school, and when we can, to seek employment.”
Even though North Ridgeville is not an urban area, Arledge said she knows kids in the area face the same issues, regardless of where they may live.
“There is at-risk youth in every community because every youth is at risk,” she said, adding her childhood in Fairlawn contributed to knowing how the decisions one makes growing up can affect one’s life later on.
“I was a teenager that made a series of wrong choices, and it led me into a bad spot for a long time,” she recalled. “I work with kids to try to get them to slow down a little, and to pause, pray and proceed, so they’re thinking through their choices.”
Stepping into Spirit of Joy, it becomes obvious the church is not the traditional brick-and-mortar congregation, where youth might be shuffled off to a basement room during services so older the adults can listen to the service in peace and quiet. Located in a storefront on Sugar Ridge Road, the church appears modest from the outside, but inside is a large open space with pool tables and foosball, alongside an altar and the cross.
Arledge said youth from Akron will visit Spirit of Joy one Sunday a month, and once youth in North Ridgeville and Lorain County become involved, the goal will be to expand mission outreach to more and more places. Oasis is collaborating with Faith Lutheran Church in Akron, Christ the Redeemer Lutheran Church in Brecksville and Bethel Lutheran Church of Richfield and Bath to bolster the North Ridgeville congregation.
“The goal is to build the outreach, and we hope Spirit of Joy becomes a place that ignites faith,” she said, adding youth from these locations will visit Spirit of Joy the last Sunday of every month, starting in January.
Oasis is for young people ages 12 through 21, and services are held at 11 a.m. every Sunday. A Christmas Eve service will be held at 7 p.m., and Christmas Day and New Year’s Day services will be held at 11 a.m. Spirit of Joy Church is located at 37150 Sugar Ridge Road. For more information on services or Oasis, contact Arledge at 330-715-4477.
