{"id":7733,"date":"2006-05-22T16:22:21","date_gmt":"2006-05-22T21:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/?p=7733"},"modified":"2011-07-06T08:32:00","modified_gmt":"2011-07-06T13:32:00","slug":"4917","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2006\/05\/22\/4917\/","title":{"rendered":"Doing a &#8216;180&#8217; With Skateboards &#8211; and Lives"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">REDWOOD CITY, CA (May 22<\/span>, 2006<span style=\"font-family: Arial\">)  &#8211; Chris Davidson hopes the teens who practice their skateboard rail  grinds, Ollies, and kick flips will also do a &#8220;180&#8221; with their lives as  well. <!--more--><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Davidson leads the Skatechurch ministry at Peninsula Covenant Church,  where teenagers who might not otherwise attend a Christian event are  reached with the gospel. He recalls a meeting during which he realized  his hopes were being fulfilled.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/old.covchurch.org\/uploads\/Z4\/N_\/Z4N_koDPAGtzGlZ21As07Q\/1340.jpg\" alt=\"Ready for action\" hspace=\"20\" vspace=\"15\" align=\"left\" \/> The small room was packed with tattooed teenage skateboarders who had  come, not with their boards, but with their Bibles, for the weekly  Thursday night Bible study. Davidson normally helps lead the studies,  but he was running late.<\/p>\n<p>When he arrived with only 10 minutes left in the scheduled time, he  discovered the study being led by two young adults who had come to  Christ through the ministry, one of whom was to be baptized in the  coming weeks. Teenagers were becoming Christians, and leaders were  developing and taking responsibility for the ministry.<\/p>\n<p>Three events are planned each week:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Tuesday is free skating that lasts two hours with no message presented.<\/li>\n<li>Thursday is a Bible study and skating.<\/li>\n<li>Sunday is a combination of both. Teens can skateboard for two hours and then a half hour evangelistic message is presented.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The different evenings are designed to reach teens at different  levels. The Tuesday event helps build relationships, Davidson says.  &#8220;Almost every kid who comes regularly (to Tuesday events) comes to the  Bible study.&#8221; Sundays give the opportunity to share the gospel in a more  direct way to the people with whom they are building relationships.<\/p>\n<p>Once a month, the Sunday event is replaced with a Saturday trip to  one of several skate parks that are within an hour-and-a-half drive. The  area between San Francisco and San Jose has the second-highest  concentration of professional skaters in the\u00a0country, Davidson says.<\/p>\n<p>The group also takes three longer trips during the year to give the  teens an opportunity to skate at different parks and learn more about  discipleship:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Students will sleep on the floor of the Evangelical Covenant Church  in Kingsburg during a four-day trip, when they will use a nearby skate  park and hear messages from a member of Prison Fellowship &#8211; a former  convict who became a Christian while in prison.<\/li>\n<li>On the seven-day trip to Huntington Beach, the teens will attend The  Sanctuary Church, attended primarily by skateboarders. Many of the  attendees are covered with tattoos and body piercings and arrive on  their skateboards.<\/li>\n<li>The skateboarders travel with the rest of the church&#8217;s high school  youth group on a nine-day mission trip, bringing their own unique style  of evangelism. Three years ago, the group took all their ramps with them  and attracted 200 youth who developed their own skills. The mission  workers also assisted at a church and orphanage, and passed out Bibles.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/old.covchurch.org\/uploads\/Y0\/is\/Y0is1tDvb0m5FrB7acfgnQ\/1341.jpg\" alt=\"Ready for action\" hspace=\"20\" vspace=\"15\" align=\"right\" \/> The next year, the skateboarders developed a permanent skate park,  leaving their ramps. More than 300 kids attended the event that was  coordinated with a local pastor, Davidson says. &#8220;At least 70 kids  accepted Christ.&#8221; Earlier this year, the skateboarders returned and  repaired ramps while bringing more equipment. &#8220;It was great to preach  the word to the kids,&#8221; Davidson says.<\/p>\n<p>The ministry at home is labor intensive. The equipment must be set up  and taken down each night. It is then moved to a secure location.  Several volunteers help each evening.<\/p>\n<p>Davidson says the ministry reaches kids that otherwise would never  hear the gospel. They often come from terribly broken families. He tells  the story of one young man he encountered who has two brothers &#8211; all  with different fathers &#8211; and has another man living with his mother. &#8220;He  doesn&#8217;t even have a context&#8221; for a moral family life, Davidson says.<\/p>\n<p>Others began the ministry in 1999, based on the model of a  longstanding Portland, Oregon, ministry, which sent an intern. The  26-year-old Davidson is a graduate of Multnomah Bible College and has  led the ministry since last June.<\/p>\n<p>He understands the teenagers who attend the ministry. An avid  skateboarders since he was 14 years old, Davidson faced some of the same  struggles &#8211; he completed two cycles of drug rehabilitation before being  able to get clean.<\/p>\n<p>The ministry has begun to influence other parts of the country. A  United Methodist crew filmed the ministry for a video to be distributed  as part of a Sunday school curriculum throughout that denomination. Many  churches around the country have called to get advice on how to start a  similar ministry.<\/p>\n<p>To learn more about the ministry, call Davidson at 650-364-6304, extension 248, or email him at chrisd@peninsulacovenant.com.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2011 The Evangelical Covenant Church.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-report-this\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire?moderation_action=report_form&#038;object_type=post&#038;object_id=7733&#038;width=250&#038;height=300\" class=\"thickbox\" title=\"Report This Post\">Report This Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>REDWOOD CITY, CA (May 22, 2006) &#8211; Chris Davidson hopes the teens who practice their skateboard rail grinds, Ollies, and kick flips will also do a &#8220;180&#8221; with their lives as well. Report This Post<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Doing a &#039;180&#039; With Skateboards - and Lives - Covenant Newswire Archives<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2006\/05\/22\/4917\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Doing a &#039;180&#039; With Skateboards - and Lives - Covenant Newswire Archives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"REDWOOD CITY, CA (May 22, 2006) &#8211; Chris Davidson hopes the teens who practice their skateboard rail grinds, Ollies, and kick flips will also do a &#8220;180&#8221; with their lives as well. 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