March 5, 2009
by Toya Richards Hill

LOUISVILLE – Several years ago, unbeknownst to them, the members of First United Presbyterian Church of Guthrie, OK, had the very group they desired to include in their congregation right in their midst.

Members were keenly aware that the church lacked the presence and vitality of young people that it needed to thrive, and they voiced a concern to their new pastor at the time, the Rev. Karen Rogers.

"They kept saying, ‘Where are the youth?'" Rogers said her parishioners asked her repeatedly after her arrival in 2002.

About the same time, Rogers said she began noticing a group of kids gathering after school in the church parking lot. She could hear the kids outside her study window and they were skateboarding.

These were the same kids the town had shut out with a no-skateboarding ordinance on downtown streets, and even the church had sent them a message by erected signs proclaiming no skateboarding on church property, Rogers said.

So, one Sunday morning, the pastor said she challenged the congregation in her sermon to do something differently. Rogers said she told them, "You want to know where the youth are, they're out in our parking lot, and you keep wanting to shoo them away."

"I challenged them that Sunday to pray for the skateboarders each day for one week," she said. "I thought, that is something that they could do."

Rogers also took the initiative to reach out to the skateboarders herself, inviting them to come visit the church's tiny youth group. No one came at first, she said, but eventually a couple skateboarders came in.

Then, over time, "more and more skateboarders started showing up and coming into youth group," Rogers said of the youngsters, many of whom came from broken families and were essentially unchurched.

Those small steps of prayer and reaching out slowly evolved into what is now a vibrant youth ministry at First United Presbyterian Church, which has fewer than 100 members. Today skateboarders and non-skateboarders alike make up the congregation's youth ministry, which has grown from word of mouth and averages some 21 kids, Rogers said.

"The youth group has completely transformed," she said. And, in the last six months "I have baptized ... 11 of the kids."

What has happened at First United Presbyterian Church gives Cimarron Presbytery [www.cimarronpresbytery.org] insights into other ways to reach out to the community and grow the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) deeper and wider, said Executive Presbyter James Bellatti.

"It's appropriate to reach out to unchurched people in the community," he said. "That was what Jesus called us to do."

Rogers said food became a connecter and an integral part of the youth ministry, with the group sharing meals and learning the value of gathering together around the table. "We realized that a way to minister to them was to feed them," Rogers said.

"We ended up teaching them how to eat as a family," she said. Also, "we were able to start teaching these kids to cook."

Members of the congregation joined in, preparing meals or donating money for food, she said.

Other efforts occurred, including the congregation's Presbyterian Women (PW) donating money to build skating ramps on land the town converted into a skate park.

"These young people have brought joy back into First United Presbyterian Church of Guthrie, and that was one of my prayers years ago when I first got here," Rogers said.

She said the youth also give immensely and are "very, very committed."

Anything going on at the church "they are right in there," Rogers said. The youth help set up tables for congregational meals or PW special events, are in the kitchen washing dishes, have been involved with the deacon's ministry, and "they put money in the offering plate every single Sunday," she said.

For the last four years "we couldn't have had Vacation Bible School without them," Rogers said. "They have been just involved in every aspect of the church."

On top of all that, the pastor said, "it's a solid ministry." The kids have said, "We know that we are loved here and that there is more to church than just a place to make friends."

The youth are diligently studying the Bible, applying it in their lives and providing spiritual discipline for other kids, Rogers said.

Bellatti said other churches in the presbytery are taking a look at First United Presbyterian as they try to get their congregations to think "out of the box."

"Sometimes it is very easy to be ... complacent about my religion, my church," he said. But, "I think anything that makes us look at something a different way is important.

Presbyterian News Service