Skating Toward a State of Grace

Hundreds of teenagers worship God in a place that would have been unimaginable a generation ago.

These kids don’t get up on Sunday morning, put on neatly pressed church clothes and ride along with their families to a chapel down the street.

Their Sabbath is on Tuesday nights, when they learn about God at Skate Street, a 25,000-square-foot indoor emporium for skateboards, inline skates and BMX bikes. The worshipers wear jeans, T-shirts and helmets as they sit quietly on wooden ramps instead of pews.

Usually it costs $12 to play at the facility, where skaters ranging from beginners to near-professionals practice their skills. But on Tuesday nights, the price of admission is listening to a short sermon from Ryan Delamater, the youth pastor at Ventura’s First Assembly of God Church.

The Skating Sabbath is the latest innovation to join coffeehouses, disco warehouses and bowling alleys as unconventional venues used by ministers to attract youth to the Gospel. American teens are widely reported to be spiritually hungry, but religious researchers have found their interest to be broad but shallow, their commitment weak and their resistance to traditional church services strong.

Some youth ministers tackle these challenges by using Christian alternative rock music, for instance, or short sermons peppered with personal stories and pop culture references. Delivery is important too: When Delamater preaches, some in attendance don’t even know it.

The minister doesn’t stand behind a lectern or sound like an orator--nor does he look like one. Instead, the boyish-looking Delamater, 25, stands among the teenagers and speaks to them as if they are his very best friends.

And they listen.

“I want them to be godly people, to live lives of integrity, to know how to be a good friend, to keep their promises and to be honest,” Delamater said.

During one recent sermon, Delamater spoke about a trial he and his fiancee faced when her father had a stroke and the two of them rushed across the country to be by his side in Cleveland.

“I was supposed to take 50 kids to the mountains camping last week when I was out of town. I called on a good friend of mine and he took those kids camping in my place,” Delamater said.

Friendship, he was saying, is important. So too, he said, is prayer--describing how he and his fiancee had prayed for her father and the role that prayer can play when life becomes difficult. But he also spoke of the necessity of praying when things are going well.

“We should pray because we’re thankful. Like when we’re thankful for good friends,” he said.

Short and Intimate

His talk featured what experts say are critical hallmarks of a sermon aimed at youths. It was short, lasting only about 10 minutes (although Delamater says his usual talks are half an hour or so). It drew on his own intimate experiences, allowing his teenage listeners to begin forging a personal relationship with him. Such techniques can successfully capture the attention of teens, feeding a hunger for relationships based on “emotional authenticity,” according to studies of preaching done by the Ventura-based Barna Research Group, Ltd.

In Delamater, the Ventura teenagers find the real goods. Not so long ago he grew up skating, surfing and snowboarding, just like them. His transforming spiritual encounter occurred on a surfboard.

He was 17, surfing in San Clemente, when he happened to hear some other surfers talking about God.

“I paddled over to them, and they talked to me about God and invited me to go to church with them,” he said.

Delamater learned they lived near his Orange County home. He soon went to church with them. Within months, he began a Bible study group at his high school. It began with Delamater and one friend; by the time he graduated, it had grown to more than 100 students.

“I knew then I wanted to work with teens,” Delamater said. “

As a youth pastor, he organizes Bible study dinners on Sundays, coordinates a game night with pingpong and video games on Mondays, preaches at the skating rink on Tuesdays and holds a prayer session on Wednesdays.

When he first took the post at First Assembly of God two years ago, Delamater wanted to build a skate park at his church as a way to reach out to youth. Like many other youth ministers, he was all too aware that few teens are excited about attending church. Studies have shown that attendance at church drops sharply as soon as young people begin living outside their parents’ homes.

“I wanted to reach out to kids doing something I did,” Delamater said. “It’s a natural thing for me. I’m kind of an insider and they pick up on that.”

But last year, Skate Street offered its facilities. The skating park wanted to “provide a positive place for kids to come,” said Nicole Field, the park’s manager.

The first Skating Sabbath in April 1999 attracted about 200 people; now more than 400 often come. Only about 10% are “really, really committed” to Christ, Delamater said. “But that’s OK. I can only provide the format.”

On this night, after his short sermon on friendship, the pandemonium returned. Bikers, inline skaters and skateboarders--nearly all of them boys--resumed their high-speed play, just missing each other as they took turns with their daring, skillful maneuvers. Delamater soon joined them on his own skateboard.

Some “got air”--flying up four or five feet above a ramp--and others practiced flips.

“I’ve been coming for about a month to listen to the sermon. I like to hear how God’s helped people and coming here gives me some form of God in my life,” said 18-year-old Matt Lagerstrom of Ventura.

Some of the skaters credit Delamater as being the only person in their lives who has taught them about God. They ask him to pray for them--often about divorce issues or relationships with their parents.

“I like coming here because I think Ryan’s cool and I know he would be there for me if I had any problems I needed to talk about,” said 12-year-old Shaydon Towe of Ventura, adding that he enjoyed the message but not the large crowds.

Ashlie Glaze, 15, of Camarillo, said Delamater “teaches us about God in a good, fun way. It makes me feel more positive about things when he tells us the good things in his life.”

Oxnard mother Susan Thompson said she enjoys bringing her son Ryan, 9, and his best friend Ricky, 10, to Skate Street on Tuesdays to learn religion from a good male role model.

“We come on Tuesdays because of the sermon,” she said. “It’s good for them to hear, and they like it because they can relate to what he says.”

Sariah Chun went to the park to videotape her boyfriend, C.J. Kester, as he worked out on his skateboard. The 17-year-olds from Thousand Oaks both attend Moorpark College. Chun said she was glad to learn there also was a sermon.

“I wonder if he realizes when he gives a sermon what a good and important influence he is on these kids’ lives,” she said.