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Hernando Today

Skate Church Is Quarter Pipe Dreams For Teenagers

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By ADON TAFT Hernando Today correspondent

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 28, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - It's Thursday evening. It's 6 o'clock. During the next half hour, one - two - three at a time, 15 teenage boys and three girls show up at the fenced in, concrete slab interrupting Orange Street on the south side of Liberty Street in downtown Brooksville.

Some are dressed in black. A few wear knit caps. Several have ring piercings, many not in the usual places. Almost all carry skateboards. They have gathered for Skate Church.

The liturgy for this weekly service is different. It begins by dragging on to what ordinarily is the basketball court for the Methodist school across the street a ramp, a couple of quarter pipes and a slide rail.

Jeffery Ellis, a 13-year-old who attends Parrott Middle School, does a couple of kick turns (changing directions by balancing on the back wheels and swinging the front of the skateboard in a different direction) and then zips toward a quarter pipe, hits it and flies through the air, fights to stay on his deck as the wheels bang back down to the concrete slab. Nearby, a big 14-year-old and school buddy, Dylan "Spike" Lamy, whips down the slab, does an Ollie (snapping the tail of the deck down, sliding the front foot forward and leaping to make at look as if the board is stuck to the feet as he flies through the air), picks up speed, jumps and grinds (wheels on either side) down the iron rail.

All over the converted basketball court, kids are trying such moves as a rock n'roll (going up on to the top edge of the pipe and rocking back and forth over the edge) or a manual (like a wheelie on a bike), often falling - sometimes hard - but jumping back up and trying again.

With awe, most of the guys pause momentarily to watch Charlie Nicol, a wiry 20-year-old business student (thinking of switching to music) at Pasco-Hernando Community College, whip up the pipe and soar high over a squatting Spike and does a 360-degree turn in the air before landing almost softly and upright. Charlie recently came here from New Jersey. He is a veteran of many regional competitions, some of which he has won.

Standing around "where the boys are," are three nonskating girls who just like to "hang out with our friends." Like most of the guys, none of them is a regular churchgoer at any traditional worship service. Felicia Post, 13, a New York transplant, confesses to attending St. Anthony's Catholic Church "once in a while." Neither McKenzie Osmond, 13, originally from Dunedin, nor Tessa Epison, 13, born in New Jersey, ever goes to a formal church.

Nevertheless, about an hour and 15 minutes into this outdoor "service," all the boys and girls gather around Jeff Wisniewski, youth director at the nearby First United Methodist Church of Brooksville, 109 S. Broad St., and "pastor" of "skate church" whose pews are the grassy banks surrounding the concrete slab of the temporary "skate park." It's time for the "homily" or the "sermon."

Perhaps only Patrick Tweak, a 14-year-old student at Hernando High and a regular attender at First United Methodist church, and "Spike," who goes to Christ Lutheran Church, understand the routine. But nearly all have described Jeff Wisniewski, a one time skateboarder himself, as "cool."

Wisniewski, like most of his "parishioners," was a nonchurchgoer until he was a student at Florida State University even though he had a "born again" spiritual experience one middle school summer. He couldn't find a church where he fit in back in his hometown of Minneapolis-St. Paul. So he relates to this group of kids.

Briefly, Wisniewski recalls last week's talk about "the cruelest torture in history - the crucifixion."

Then, in an informal, story-telling way, he recounts the incident one night after the resurrection when the down-hearted disciples were fishing without having any luck.

A voice coming from the area of a pit fire on the distant shore tells them to throw their nets on the other side of the boat. To their surprise, they immediately had 150 fish straining at the net.

"So what does that tell you about Jesus?" he asked. A number of tentative suggestions came from the group of teenagers. Wisniewski gave his own answer. "He either knew where every fish was or moved them there. So it showed he was in control of nature. And if this is true, he was alive then and he is alive today.

"He is the way to get to God. He's the way to go."

Without a prayer or an "amen," the kids went back to skating for another 15 or 20 minutes before the rain brought the benediction.

"What he said was pretty good," commented Felicia. "The way he talks about it makes sense," added McKenzie. But Tessa found that, "I listened but really don't know what he was saying."

All three said they would be back as did Spike who thinks "Jeff spreads the meaning of the Lord in a fun way so we can understand. He tells funny stories that don't sound like they have anything to do with Jesus but in the end, the stories have his message."

The reaction goes beyond Wisniewski's talk. "Jeff builds respect. He tells us how to treat others and to take responsibility," explained Patrick Tweak. Consequently, many of the kids show up to be with friends they have made at "church."

Others come to the weekly gathering that began a year and a half ago with 10 boys and has grown to some 20 kids who come and go because "there aren't many places to skate, none in the evenings," said Nicol, who describes himself as "technically a Catholic but I've pretty much been attending First Methodist because I like the music at the youth center." He sings, plays "almost any instrument - especially drums" and is a part of three bands - "one rock, one punk and one punk metal."

The aim of "skate church" is not a steady growth in numbers of worshipers, insist Wisniewski, but "to be a point of contact for kids unfamiliar with the Christian world, a bridge between them and God, a place where they can learn about the gospel."

Numbers also are not the aim of the other activities that Wisniewski, married and the father of three children, supervises in the effort of First United Methodist Church to reach middle and high school-age boys and girls. "We want to make them stronger in a more meaningful faith," said Wisniewski, whose background includes study at Arizona College of the Bible, a degree in secondary education from Arizona State University, teaching a year at Phoenix Christian High School, participation in a youth mission in Mexico and serving with an international student ministry in Colorado and Arizona.

In addition to their own Bible study classes on Sunday mornings, high school kids help lead a Wednesday night program for middle school students. The program includes games, music, a message and small group discussions.

As a Saturday night outreach, there are once-a-month concerts by various bands in the church's youth center. There always is a message during the breaks. Before the concerts there are small group discussions (led by older, committed kids) of issues young people will face as they go off to college.

And reaching out to the boys and girls of the community has been a long tradition of the 125-year-old downtown church through its K-8 day school.

The pastor of the church, Dr. William J. Oakley, appeals to the young people (and, perhaps surprisingly, to a growing number of adults of all ages) with a contemporary service featuring a praise band at 8:30 a.m. on Sundays in addition to a traditional service at 11 a.m.

For more information, call Wisniewski, at 352-796-3363 or 352-232-2805; or Dr.William J. Oakley at 352-796-3363.

Adon Taft is a regular columnist for Hernando Today.

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