EP 29 — FOR REAL
Terrence Bogan
Youth pastor who runs Friday open gym and drives the van himself
SAMPLE PROFILE — FILM SLOT
His story is coming to the series soon.
Gary, Indiana
Terrence Bogan grew up in Gary, Indiana, with his father in prison and his mother holding the house together on a nursing assistant's pay. He was an angry kid, quick hands, quicker mouth, suspended enough times that the school knew his mother's work number by heart.
What kept him from going all the way wrong was an open church gym on Friday nights and a deacon who'd rebound for anybody, no sermon required.
You don't need another sermon from me. You need me there on Friday, so I'm there.
Friday Nights
He came to Champaign in 2014 to help a church start a youth program and never left. The program he built is the one that built him. Open gym on Fridays, food, homework tables, no sermon required. The preaching happens Sundays for whoever wants it.
He drives the church van himself, a pickup loop that runs along Bradley Avenue and through Garden Hills, because he learned kids come when the ride is solved. Some Fridays forty kids show up. Some Fridays nine. He's there either way.