Skateboarding and religion: The wheel deal

Several years ago, unbeknownst to them, the members of First United Presbyterian Church of Guthrie, Okla., had the very group they desired to include in their congregation right in their midst.

Members were keenly aware that the church lacked the presence and vitality of the young people it needed to thrive, and they voiced a concern to their new pastor at the time, the Rev. Karen Rogers.

"Where are the youth?" Rogers' parishioners asked her repeatedly after her arrival in 2002.

About the same time, Rogers said she began noticing a group of kids gathering after school in the church parking lot. She could hear the kids outside her study window, and they were skateboarding.

These were the same kids the town had shut out with a noskateboarding ordinance on downtown streets, and even the church had sent them a message by erecting signs proclaiming "no skateboarding" on church property, Rogers said.

So, one Sunday morning, the pastor said, she used her sermon to challenge the congregation to do something differently. Rogers said she told them, "You want to know where the youth are. They're out in our parking lot, and you keep wanting to shoo them away."

"I challenged them that Sunday to pray for the skateboarders each day for one week," she said. "I thought, that is something that they could do."

Rogers also took the initiative to reach out to the skateboarders herself, inviting them to come visit the church's tiny youth group. No one came at first, she said, but eventually a couple skateboarders came in.

Then, over time, "more and more skateboarders started showing up and coming into youth group," Rogers said of the youngsters, many of whom came from broken families and were unchurched.

Those small steps of prayer and reaching out slowly evolved into what is now a vibrant youth ministry at the church, which has fewer than 100 members. Today skateboarders and non-skateboarders alike make up the congregation's youth ministry, which has grown from word of mouth and averages some 21 youths, Rogers said. In the last six months she has baptized 11 of the kids.

Rogers said food became a connecter and an integral part of the youth ministry, with the group sharing meals and learning the value of gathering together around the table.

"We realized that a way to minister to them was to feed them," Rogers said. "We ended up teaching them how to eat as a family. We were able to start teaching these kids to cook."

Members of the congregation joined in, preparing meals or donating money for food, she said.

Other efforts occurred, including the congregation's Presbyterian Women donating money to build skating ramps on land the town converted into a skate park.

"These young people have brought joy back into First United Presbyterian Church of Guthrie, and that was one of my prayers years ago when I first got here," Rogers said. She said the youths also give immensely and are "very, very committed."

Anything going on at the church "they are right in there," Rogers said. The youth help set up tables for congregational meals or special events, are in the kitchen washing dishes, have been involved with the deacon's ministry, and "they put money in the offering plate every single Sunday," she said.

For the last four years "we couldn't have had Vacation Bible School without them," Rogers said. "They have been just involved in every aspect of the church."

The youths are studying the Bible, applying it in their lives and providing spiritual discipline for other kids, Rogers said.

This story was written by Toya Richards Hill for the Presbyterian News Service and is provided by Worldwide Faith News.