Hittin' the board for the Lord

KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Most of the middle- and high-schoolers who hang out by The Grace Place don't go to sing or pray or learn about Jesus.
They go to skate.
That's OK with the church's youth leaders. They know they're not going to reach everybody on the asphalt with the word of God. They just want the chance.
"I've heard these guys say it: 'Skating is life,'" said Jeremiah McGinnis, youth pastor for The Grace Place in Colorado Springs, Colo. "We want Christ to be their life, we want Jesus to be their life. This is a vehicle through which they can see that."
For the kids
The Grace Place runs what it calls a skateboarding ministry in its parking lot. As many as 40 skaters show up for its 90-minute, Wednesday-night free skate sessions. Smaller groups, mostly youths who attend nearby Horace Mann Middle School, skate there before school starts most weekday mornings, too.
The church provides equipment and supervision.
Skateboarding -- a teen-centric sport that owes as much of its popularity to its rebellious reputation as its athleticism -- has found a friend in the Christian church.
Eager to bring more young believers into their folds, some churches are trying to show that grinding and God can be compatible. And frankly, some skateboarders say that church is one of the few places they can skate and not get yelled at.
The Web is awash in Christian skateboard companies and, at last year's International Christian Retail Show in Denver, a corner of the convention floor was set aside for skateboarders who thundered through a portable halfpipe. While the merchants around them peddled earth-toned evangelical books and inoffensive trinkets, these skaters were marketing a lifestyle.
"The last couple of [Christian youth] events I've been to have been very skater-focused," said Christine Mendoza, who co-pastors The Grace Place with her husband, Lion.
The Grace Place, part of the evangelical Foursquare Church denomination, is one of a handful of local churches that allows skateboarding on church grounds. A few are actively seeking more boarder-believers.
The Grace Place draws about 160 churchgoers on Sundays. The skating ministry is a major undertaking for the church, which even operates an informal shuttle service for its Wednesday evening free skates, busing nearby skaters to its parking lot.
Religious outreach
After the skating session, the church hosts a 7 p.m. "UTurn" youth service.
Skaters don't have to go to U-Turn. The goal is just to bring kids close to church and leave the door open. If some walk in -- well, says the Rev. Mrs. Mendoza, that's a bonus.
"Are we doing this because we want numbers?" Mrs. Mendoza said. "Because we want these kids to be saved or try to change them? No. We're doing this because we want to love them, and they can't do this at their school. We'd rather them be here than somewhere else."
About 25 middle- and high-schoolers rolled across The Grace Place asphalt on a recent Wednesday evening, taking turns launching off a shallow wooden ramp or grinding along a portable rail. Broken boards decorated a wooden fence bordering the lot. The words "Wall of Fame" were spray-painted across the top of the fence.
One girl wore a black T-shirt that read "Satan Sucks."
"We don't get kicked out here," said 14-year-old skater Garrett DeWitt, an eighth-grader at Mann Middle School. "We don't have to worry about people yelling at us for just skating. It's just a really nice place to keep us out of trouble and stuff."
Garrett is a regular at The Grace Place parking lot, skating here most weekday mornings and Wednesday evenings. He stays for U-Turn on Wednesday nights, too -- when his mother will let him.
"I like it," he said of the service.
Not all skaters stay.
"It can be fun sometimes," said 12-year-old Andrew Gist, a seventh-grader at Mann. "Or it can be, like, really boring."
The Rev. Mr. McGinnis says this kind of ministry requires patience: lots of it. Youth leaders say it's easier to talk with kids when they're skating. They're more likely to open up to leaders and talk about school, their parents, their problems.
Criticism and results
The ministry also leaves itself open for trouble and criticism.
Skateboarding is a rough sport, full of spills and blood. Children sometimes get injured when a trick goes awry, and Mr. McGinnis says there are plenty of well-stocked first-aid kits on hand. The church is insured for such incidents and parents, so far, have been understanding.
Neighbors have complained about the noise, and some church members wonder whether the ministry is worth the effort. They point to scuffed walls and sigh over broken windows -- all part of the cost, Mr. McGinnis says, of opening church property to sometimes rough-edged teens.
That's exactly who the church wants to reach, he said. If the parking lot was filled with well-behaved, church-going teens, the ministry wouldn't be serving its purpose.
"It's a funky balance that we're still trying to figure out," Mr. McGinnis said. "It's a constant thing of trying to reach nonchurched kids, but understanding that we have churched kids, too.
"We don't want to compromise the message that we have here, but we don't want them [the students] to feel like they can't be here," he said.
Five or six skaters have become Christians since the ministry began last year, and two have been baptized, Mr. McGinnis said. Mrs. Mendoza said that during the church's most recent baptism, the front pew was filled with skaters who came to watch.
"These guys who have given their hearts to Christ, it can prove to those that don't like this kind of outreach that there's a purpose to it," Mr. McGinnis said. "That it's making a difference."