Skate Ministry

As part of our transition from a youth group to a small group ministry we recognized the need to include opportunities to serve God.  With a few of the younger generation involved in skateboarding and inline skating, we wondered if we couldn't reach out to the "skate" generation.  Our first foray into this ministry was to go to the local park and serve a free dinner to the skaters and boarders.  One of the gang helped "drum up" business.  That evening we met at the park served dogs, chips, and pop, all free, to the skaters.  We were amazed at the turnout and they were amazed that we would just do this for free.  We brought along a digi camera and shot mpeg clips of them in the skate park, then played them back on a laptop.  We were able to make some neat connections, and got to know a lot of people who now hang out at our house regularly.  And we learned an important lesson; if you reach out to people, be prepared for them to be around a lot.  As a result of this night we ended up having a mini-skate park built in our backyard, and our home (and garage) opened to skaters, boarders, and bikers for the summer.