February 26, 2010
Editor’s note: Community Church by the Lake’s ministries are made possible, in part, by the Alliance Development Fund (ADF), which has helped the church through tough financial times. “ADF is about helping churches,” says Pastor Don Foor. “Without ADF, we wouldn’t have the following stories.”
“We don’t want ‘that element’ hanging around our church,” said a handful of church members at Community Church by the Lake in Big Bear Lake, California. High in the San Bernadino Mountains, the Alliance church has played a key role in the community’s outreach to teens, specifically skateboarders. But some believers weren’t on board.
Already, the church had collaborated with the Parks and Recreation Department (Park and Rec) as well as a group of civic leaders and private donors to transform an old building on the church property into a teen center. Church member Reese Troublefield, who is the general manager for Park and Rec, approached Don Foor, who has pastored the church for nearly six years, with the idea of using the old building for a teen recreation center. “Through his job, Reese had been trying for eight years to find land to fulfill his vision for the city’s youth but to no avail,” says Don. “Land is too expensive.”
A Unified Effort
Reese suggested remodeling the empty church building. “He told me he could get the money but needed the church’s consent to use the building,” Don says. “With unity and funding from the county, local businesses, and Soroptimist International Women’s Club, the vision of a teen center at Community Church by the Lake became a reality in 2007.”
The center is staffed by Park and Rec employees from 2-5:30 p.m. daily and used by the church for its youth group meetings in the evenings. “The center is equipped with video, TV, games, billiards, and a small kitchen,” Don says. “It’s a fabulous place where all kids are welcome. When our kids invite their friends to stay for youth group, their parents readily approve, appreciating a safe place for their children.”
The Forbidden Element
But the center did not solve the problem of skateboarders with no place to skate. “Six months of the year, we are under three feet of snow,” says Don “When the kids aren’t snowboarding, they are skateboarding.”
The distance of Big Bear Lake’s only skate park, located at the opposite end of the city, kept the kids in the church neighborhood from utilizing the facility. So Don invited the teens to skate in the church parking lot. Word got around quickly, bringing skateboarders and their homemade equipment for jumps and stunts.
Residents had been complaining about skateboarders being a nuisance, skating recklessly past businesses and homes. Skateboarding was outlawed and signs went up, forbidding the favorite teen pastime. Don attended a public hearing where the problem was discussed. “We need another skate park,” he told Reese, who also was at the meeting. A councilman heard Don’s remark and asked, “What’s he willing to do about it?”
Walking With Jesus
Community Church’s property included a piece of land next to the teen center that had only a few shrubs on it when it wasn’t covered by snow. “I went to the church board with the idea to build a skate park on church property,” Don says. “The board agreed. Reese approached the county supervisors and again, funding was approved for the $100,000 project.”
But when Don announced the plan to his congregation, he was met with some opposition. “Some members were against it,” he says. “‘We don’t want that element here,’ they told me. They were afraid that the youth would vandalize the church.”
Don, who spent five years with his wife as pastoral couple at Simpson University, would not stand for such discrimination toward the young people of Big Bear Lake. “I remember as a kid, bolting silver wheels to a board and skateboarding down my street,” he says. “I wanted to do something for the kids here to let them know that they are valued.”
Don preached a sermon the following Sunday entitled “That Element.” “‘Jesus came and sat in the middle of that element,’ I told them. ‘We can’t demonize people because they put wheels under their feet. We’re a C&MA church, a missionary church. We don’t take the gospel to some and not others. We won’t do that.'” When he admonished the congregation not to use the term again, disgruntled members left the church.
A Safe Place
The Community Skate Park was launched in 2008. “It’s been an incredible collective message to the teens, who are very protective of their new turf,” says Don.
Recently, a boy who wasn’t a “boarder” broke a church window. Skateboarders called the sheriff, who later brought the boy and his father to meet with Don. The sheriff wanted Don to press charges, but the Alliance pastor had a better idea. “The father and son, both remorseful, agreed to my plan. The father paid for the window, and his son is working with the church janitor.”
For insurance liability reasons, skating is not allowed after dark “But one night I found a few kids skating and reminded them of the rules,” Don says. “One of the boys challenged me, ‘Who are you to tell me I can’t skate?’
“The other two boys stepped up. ‘We’ll tell you who this guy is. When no one else would let us skate, he made it happen.'”
Local police have thanked Don for the church’s contribution to the community. “It’s easy to monitor,” they say. “We can see the park clearly. It’s the best thing you could have done for the kids and for us.”
“Kids have been always been skating and will keep on skating,” Don says. “And today, they are so athletic and so brave. Most important, their overall attitude about church has changed. Close to a dozen kids from ‘that element’ have accepted the Lord.”
Learn More
Read about other Alliance churches that are using community outreaches to shine the light of Christ.
What You Can Do
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