history
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taking the past...
birthed to meet the spiritual and social needs of young adults (ages 18-30) at zion chapel in goshen, indiana, DownTown@808 identifies its earliest roots in small groups. before saturday night services, young adults from zion chapel met in each other's homes for informal bible studies on sunday nights and social events, such as super bowl parties and weekend camping trips. eventually the home meetings became known as YAG (young adult group).
though earlier meetings were mostly unstructured and smaller in size, the heart of YAG focused on building relationships with other young adult believers and encouraging one another to grow with Jesus Christ. today the same heart of YAG can be found in DownTown@808's own small groups, known as EPIC groups.
to accommodate the growth and needs of YAG, two small groups were formed and bi-weekly larger group meetings were conducted. when large group meetings (usually with 50 people) could no longer be hosted in people's homes, space was rented in the ballroom of the old goshen theater. as YAG continued to grow, so did the vision to reach more young adults in the goshen community.
changing the future...
on june 5, 1999, the first saturday night service of DownTown@808 was held. while other churches in the area encouraged young adult ministries, zion chapel was the first to target 18-30 year olds with relevant messages and an alternative worship style. 808 was a place young adults could call their own.
as a church-within-a-church, 808 helped generations X and Y connect with other believers in their community, develop their own personal relationship with Christ, and identify God's plan for their lives.
in June of 2002, we realized that we were more of a church than a church-within-a-church. in order for DownTown@808 to continue developing our own identity, vision and purpose, the zion chapel elders released us to become an autonomous church.
though there have been many changes in the leadership of what was YAG and what is now 808, the vision of the ministry remains the same:
to take the past, with life's challenges, heartbreaks, mistakes, triumphs, and whatever
and change the future, to fulfill the will of God as an individual and as a member of the body of Christ to impact the kingdom of God.