By Rev. Dorothy S. Boulware
Overview: Growing up a preacher’s kid, or P.K.,Taja Barnes doesn’t smoke and doesn’t like to be around places that serve alcohol, which limited her options when she wanted to socialize. So she created her own social space, A New Thing, where she hosts social hours for like-minded young churchgoers. The hangouts have expanded from Baltimore to Northern Virginia.
(WIB) – Taja Barnes makes no bones about it: she’s a P.K. — if you know, you know — whose lifestyle reflects the strong Christian values instilled by her father, Pastor George Barnes of The Purpose Church in metropolitan Baltimore.
Like most people her age, though, Barnes, 30, wants to have a good time socializing with her peers. That, she says, presents a challenge: there aren’t many spaces for young people of faith who don’t smoke or drink alcohol, and prefer a more wholesome kind of entertainment that most clubs don’t offer.
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”There are not a lot of places for young Christians to enjoy themselves without having concerns for safety and being courted by entertainment beyond their choices,” says Barnes, a behavioral health consultant. “There are Bible studies, there is church, there are youth groups, et cetera. But where do we go if we just want to get cute and go out and have a good time, but it’s still Christian good fun?”
Barnes decided it was time for something different: A New Thing.
Good, Clean Fun
That’s literally the name of the weekly Baltimore-area gatherings she arranges, which are part mixer, part game night, and all clean fun. Aimed at younger Christians ages 25 and older, and held at various venues, it’s described as a social hour, a “safe space” that helps people with similar values mingle and enjoy themselves rather than sit at home alone.
One of the keys to A New Thing’s success is Barnes herself. She finds direction is needed to keep things moving, so that shyer guests don’t settle in a corner or hold up the wall.
”As soon as they get there, we’re breaking them up into group teams,” she says. “We push them toward a certain game on a certain team, because the goal is that they will have socialized with at least five to six new people during the evening.”
And she makes it easy for people to relax, let their guard down, and get to know one another.
“I create question cards that people can select and use to start conversations,” she says. “With the card, they go around the room and meet new people. In the next meeting, the cards will be electronic. So with the app we created, they can swipe through questions, and they mingle throughout the night.”
We don’t waver on the standards that the word of God sets. – Taja Barnes, creator of A New Thing Social Hour
Although A New Thing definitely has more women than men, men do show up, and its marketing is done almost exclusively through social media and word of mouth.
”I started in Baltimore and branched out to Towson,” a city suburb, last year, she says. “We’ve had some in Parkville and then in January we launched the first one in Washington, D.C.,” with nearby Fredericksburg, Virginia, in sight.
Playing Games
At first, Barnes wasn’t confident her concept would work.
I talked to my dad and asked if he thought people would keep coming,” she says. “We have so many people that have come to two, three, four or five events. So that really blows my mind, and lets me know there’s really a need for sure.”
Because A New Thing doesn’t have a permanent home, Barnes has hosted the event in various places — restaurants and cafes. But her favorite places to host the event are the co-working spaces.
“We’ve been using a lot of them, specifically in Towson,” Barnes says. “There’s this place called Haven and really trendy, it’s newer with a ton of seating that’s kind of grouped together. ,” Barnes says. “And they have a kitchenette area. So people can mingle freely and then bring tables together and play games.”
And in Washington, D.C., there’s Sost.
No Secular Music
”It’s a restaurant with a rooftop level. They have a speakeasy level on the bottom,” Barnes says. “It’s one of those environments that are inviting. Some of them have a kind of more chill vibe, like Sost, and then Towson is more lit up. We don’t want it to feel intimidating.”
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For Barnes, the most important thing is “the clean fun for me; that we don’t waver on the standards that the word of God sets,” she says. “So I don’t want it anywhere with a bar. We don’t serve alcohol. I’m not playing any type of secular music because I think it’s important. We already have spaces for that.”
At the same time, ”I don’t want it to feel stuffy because sometimes people are intimidated by church or Bible study,” Barnes says. “So it’s a more easy access while the standard that God has called us to is upheld.”