A Place to Talk About God

Matthew Lucio
May 22
4 min read

Matthew J. Lucio

Assistant to the President for Communication

I was listening to a book while I mowed my lawn recently which emphasized the anthropological distinction between spaces and places. Spaces are structured, bounded, measurable, like a city or an empty warehouse; places are spaces with meaning. It's the difference between an empty room in a house and that same room once you've added the art and furniture that turns it into a place that represents you, like that Roman armor in the corner that never fails to provoke a conversation. As I marched up and down the lawn, I was suddenly aware that the act of cutting the grass was an act of making a place out of a space.

The Downers Grove Seventh-day Adventist Church recently turned a space into a place—the ministry room. "We wanted to create a place that is between church, school, and home," Pastor Ira Bartolome says. "It's about making the building more useful to the mission of the church."

Pastor Ira is on to something. Winston Churchill once said, "We shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us." There is a particular kind of conversation that rarely fits neatly into the spaces Gen-Z already inhabit. School hallways are loud with assignments, sports, and schedules. Church services can sometimes feel formal or multigenerational. Somewhere between those worlds, a group of young people found in the ministry room a place to talk honestly about God, faith, and life together.

For Gloria, the idea began years earlier: “It all started a long time ago when I told my mom there were no youth events nearby that I could attend and hang out with new people,” she explained. What began as a passing frustration in middle school stayed with her throughout high school. Even with the social connections school provided, she still felt there was “a need to do something more church-related.”

Then, during the second semester of her junior year, a conversation in the car with her mom turned into action: “Long story short, my mom and I decided in that car that I should start a vespers at my church.”

Downers Grove Adventist School's outdoor classroom has also served as a suitable place

The first meeting was small but meaningful. Around ten teens gathered to study a chapter from Ephesians. They ate, talked, and spent hours discussing topics that rarely surface during a normal school day.

“After we finished, I felt so elated because it was a feeling that we did something outside of the ordinary,” Gloria said. “Meeting with people to talk about our beliefs and Jesus is something that really brings us together in spirit.”

Now meeting monthly, the vespers gathering has become an open space for youth to explore faith together and encourage one another in daily life with Christ.

For attendees like Joshua, curiosity was what brought him through the door the first time:

“I decided to come mainly out of curiosity and a desire to learn more about God with my classmates and people I feel comfortable with,” he shared.

What kept him coming back was the honesty of the environment.

“I think young people need places where they can be honest about faith, doubts, and life,” Joshua said. “A lot of teens feel pressure to pretend they have everything figured out, so spaces like this help people feel heard and understood.”

If he were inviting a friend, his message would be simple: “It’s a place where you can talk honestly about real life and faith without feeling judged.”

Ania believes the atmosphere itself is part of what makes the gatherings meaningful.

“A vespers like this is different from school because it’s a time that’s specifically set apart for talking about, learning about, and praising God, away from the stress of assignments and the normal conversations of the day,” she explained.

She also noted that the youth-centered setting helps people open up more naturally.

“It’s often easier for youth to open up when they are with people their age who are also looking to learn about God during vespers,” she said.

For Ania, one of the most valuable aspects of the group is the sense of safety and openness it creates.

“When we’re in a space where we’re all ready and excited to discuss God, it becomes easier and more natural and it helps bring me closer to Him as well as my friends.”

The conversations themselves have become central to the experience. Questions that might otherwise remain unspoken are welcomed into the discussion, allowing students to connect with one another while growing spiritually together.

“We open up and have honest conversations, we make connections with each other and often realize that we relate to one another,” Ania said. “These conversations also often include questions that we might not get the chance to ask much, and when they’re answered it can bring us clarity and better understanding of God.”

What began as one teenager noticing a gap has quietly become something larger: a living room ministry of pizza boxes, open Bibles, late-night conversations, and young people learning that faith grows best when it is shared in community. Thank God there is a place for that.

Please send any news items of what God is doing around the Illinois Conference to communication@ilcsda.org.