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Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Skateboard Church

Yesterday in my Theology and Culture class, we watched a video about a "skateboard church" in the U.K. in which the worship consisted of skateboarding and bmxing on ramps, and which the pastor likened to liturgical dance.

I’m trying to keep an open mind about all of this, but it seems like one of the key elements of the “church gathered” has to do with the corporate aspect of it. If this is so, how do a bunch of separate skaters and bikers avoid the individualism implicit in the act of skating/bmxing? In other words, while these activities seem to be an excellent form of personal worship (like Eric Liddle’s running), they seem to present problems when applied to corporate worship. And what of the priority of word and sacrament in the divine service, which goes all the way back to the birth of the church in Acts?

It seems like the idea being put forth by this church is that, as opposed to having a heavy skating ministry within a church, the service is actually composed almost entirely of skating. If I am mistaken, and this really is a church with an Acts-type service interpreted through the lense of skate culture, then this isn’t really very revolutionary. Churches have been doing this type of thing for years.

Another question that arises is this: What happens to this church when these kids lose interest in skating? I personally skated in Jr. High and High School, but I have since left that hobby, and picked up and dropped many other fads over the years. Is this church destined to be a transient church, which only has a limited amount of time to disciple young people? What type of impact on the culture will this church have, or will it be forced to constantly follow the culture wherever it leads?

It really seems like this church is doing the reverse of “being all things to all people” and instead being one thing to one people. And what if this formula were used in other recreational “cultures?” For example, I love college football. How do you create a church for people who love college football? Would it be appropriate for me to invite a bunch of guys over to eat nachos and drink beer in front of my TV on Saturday morning as a form of corporate worship?

Any thoughts?

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