A security camera caught neighborhood teens breaking off a ‘no skateboarding’ sign outside the Portland, Oregon, church. They were also recorded as they sawed off obstacles that had been installed to prevent skateboarding.
‘Busted’ – but wait…
After viewing the video evidence, the church pastor pulled Joey Shadel aside. Joey is the area director with Youth for Christ, who has an office in the church. “Joey, we know who these kids are. We know where they live. We could call the cops. What do you think we should do?”
After a reflective pause and maybe flashing a silent prayer, Joey replied, “Honestly, why don’t we skate with them if that’s what they want to do.” The pastor smiled big and said, “I was hoping you’d say that.”
Joey’s plan was definitely not a counterattack. It was an unusual response made out of love – the kind of love that comes only from Christ. They stuck a sign on the church window near the vandalism. It read, “Hey guys, I know who you are. I really don’t care about the (destroyed) sign. Come back next week. I’ll have pizza. I’ll have a rail that you can skate on… and let’s hang out.”
Surprisingly, Joey got a quick text message from one of the teens apologizing. That was a good sign.
The next week, “10 or 12 kids” showed up. “We all ate pizza and were skateboarding.” And to this day, get-togethers with neighborhood kids is continuing. “Skateboarders are used to being kicked out of places all the time. They’re almost desensitized to it,” so they were a bit shocked that they got the ‘come back for pizza’ invitation instead of a juvenile officer serving a warrant.
Through real life interaction with young people, many who use rough language, Joey has learned, “A lot of kids have a bad interpretation of what church is” and some say “I don’t like Christians, but I like you.” Joey admits that seeing God’s kind of unconditional love in action, with a blessing boomerang, “kind of blows our minds.”
In our complete podcast interview just below, Joey shares that most kids aren’t going to ‘just wander into church.’ They need a relationship. Someone they can trust, who doesn’t put them down, who can lead them to Jesus.
