Evangelistic outreach to teenagers doesn’t need to be restricted to youth groups on a Friday night. Cornerstone Presbyterian Community Church in Sydney has started experimenting with something a little outside the box: during school holidays they run something they call Study Lounge, and though it’s continually evolving, it has been a huge success so far.
Cornerstone has eight congregations that meet at eight different locations, but their youth groups are combined and then split into two — Inner West and Northern. Matt works for Cornerstone part-time as a Youth Worker. He alternates his Friday nights between the two youth groups, and he’s been around since the conversation about Study Lounge first started.
To understand how the concept of a Study Lounge came about, it’s helpful to know that Cornerstone’s demographic is mostly professional, middle-class. As Matt explains, “It does mean that most of our youth have an expectation that they are going to be going to university after they finish school, and most of them would be aiming for those 99.95 ATARs.”
Matt says it’s difficult to pinpoint the exact origin of the Study Lounge, but he does recall a number of different people expressing an interest in providing a space for Year 12 students to study during the school holidays.
“I think for a lot of Christians, especially the Sydney folk in high school, you hear a lot about the study camps that people can go to during the holidays,” Matt shares. “But that’s quite a high bar to take friends along to, because you’re going away for a week with these people you don’t know, so how do you know you’re going to get any study done?”
The answer to that question was Study Lounge. The goal was to provide their youth group members — and their friends — with a local space to spend their day studying. It would be similar to a library, but with additional benefits such as tutors and snacks. Matt says the idea was embraced not just by youth group leaders, but even by other church members who up until that point hadn’t been involved in youth ministry.
The first Study Lounge kicked off in 2023, and Matt describes it as “a bit of a morphing beast” because they have been adapting it slowly each time they have run it since then.
The first time, it only ran for two days from 9am to 3pm. This year they have added a day and increased the hours. One of the reasons they extended the hours is because Cornerstone youth group members actually asked for it.
“They were like, ‘It was good, but I feel like I only really got into the rhythm of it, and then it was time to close up for the day.’ And so we’ve just been really adapting to what our youth wanted,” Matt says.
During the lunch break each day, one of the Cornerstone youth leaders shares their testimony. This has been a fantastic outreach opportunity, given that between 30 and 40 percent of attendees are not regulars at the church’s youth group.
Because Study Lounge is located in Eastwood, it has been easy to send everyone out to get their own lunch and then come back to eat together. One of Cornerstone’s goals for the future, however, is to actually cater lunch. At the moment they do provide snacks, and that has been a beautiful way for members of the congregation to serve.
Another way members have served is by giving up their time as leaders and tutors. Besides helping students with their actual study, Matt has been encouraged to see leaders being available during the breaks to just engage with the attendees.
He’s also been encouraged by what he’s heard from youth group members.
“Our youth really liked hearing the stories of testimonies that were shared,” Matt says. “I could see them chatting to those leaders afterwards about those testimonies, and they’ve just been struck by one thing they’ve said or another.”
Matt says Study Lounge has been fantastic for creating evangelistic opportunities outside of Friday night youth group. For teens who can’t make it due to tutoring or other commitments, the event during school holidays has been a game changer.
When asked about his advice for other churches considering the concept of a study space during school holidays, Matt says, “Go for it!” His main piece of advice would be to find out what the youth within your own congregation, and their parents, need — and go from there.
