The Press of Atlantic City

Church hopes to turn youths into holy rollers

EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP-Trinity Church has been known to take some novel approaches in pursuit of its religious mission.

Take a question the church is asking these days as part of an ongoing advertising campaign on local billboards:

"What if Jesus stayed in a Lazyboy?"

And if that strikes you as an odd thought, check out this other question the lead pastor and some dedicated members of Trinity's congregation have been dealing with lately:

Can a church use skateboards to save souls?

OK, maybe they've never put it quite that bluntly, but some church leaders clearly believe the answer to that question is yes. Because part of Trinity's religious mission these days is to turn a piece of its sprawling, 32-acre property on Ocean Heights Avenue into a skateboard and bike park.

Guy Richards traces the inspiration behind Patmos Park - the name comes from the Bible - to his days growing up in Egg Harbor Township. Richards says he went almost every day to the BMX park not far from his house. He loved the riding, and at age 26, he still does. But he knows he was spending way too much time riding on the wrong road.

Drugs were such a part of his life that he says he's been to three of his best friends' funerals, all related to drugs. And when the oldest of four siblings saw clear signs that his little brother was following his example, Guy knew he had to change.

He joined his mother in church one Sunday and the message got to him. When he got to meet the pastor a while later, the talk got around to skateboards and bikes. And shortly after the subject came up, Richards says, the Rev. Tim Chambers hit him with a question:

Why didn't Guy figure out a way to build a skateboard/BMX bike park at Trinity Church?

Richards took the challenge seriously, and so did Chambers. Not long after he started looking into it, the pastor sent Richards on a religious pilgrimage - to Missouri, to find out how to build a park where local kids would want to come to ride their boards and their bikes, and their parents would want them to be.

"I want to put something together for them so they can do what they love and not get arrested," Richards says. "We're trying to get kids into an environment that will pull the drug element out of it."

Chambers, the lead pastor out of seven at Trinity Church, wanted that same thing. But he always knew he wanted it, and he figures this brand-new member of his congregation had no idea anything like it was remotely possible.

"He was probably blown away by the fact that any church would even want to consider having this on its property," Chambers says.

Richards has had plenty of help with the fun part of planning Patmos Park, which will include a 12,500-square-foot skate park and, next to that, a bike park the same size. That help came from other young riders in Egg Harbor Township and beyond who offered ideas on what they would want to see in their dream skate park and bike park, partly based on what they have liked in other places where they have ridden.

But he has also been in a committee that's been meeting for a few years to plan the nuts and bolts of the job, everything from the finances to the insurance to the engineering to all the other details involved. Part of the knowledge for that came from the trip with his brother to what Guy calls a "speed course" in how to do a community-built skate park.

On the money end, the group has estimates that if it just hired a contractor to come in and build what the dreamers came up with, it would cost them as much as $800,000. But thanks to offers of volunteer labor and materials and help of all different kinds, Richards says they believe they can do it for closer to $50,000.

They've started raising that money, partly with events ranging from car-wash tickets to Patmos Park Jamfest 2005, which drew an estimated 1,000 people to the church one Sunday last month for a combination of performances by top riders, a hip-hop concert, bike-trick contests and more.

They're also looking for sponsors - the packages include the donors' names permanently on display on the signs at the park - and partners willing to donate money to help bring the place together and give their children a place to ride.

But what Patmos Park won't do, Richards emphasizes, is charge the riders themselves. The place will be free, and it will be supervised, with trained, screened adults. He does hope to get young people to invest in it another way, though - by putting some work into the place that's going to become their skate park.

"If they help build it, they'll take ownership," he says. "It's about these kids participating and saying, 'Yo, I had a part in doing this.'"

To build more enthusiasm, and some more money, Richards is already planning another Jamfest for next spring - even if, in the short term, he's waiting for his wife, Heidi, to have their first baby, and running his Linwood-based Abiah Designs business. The committee is also in the process of finishing details and getting all the approvals it needs from Egg Harbor Township before it can build the park.

Chambers has warned Richards not to expect any money from the church. It's in the middle of its own building project, and the congregation is also building several athletic fields and adding more facilities on its grounds, near the skateboard park.

But the pastor is confident that the Patmos Park committee can handle its project, and just as confident that the project makes sense for the church. In fact, he thinks it fits in perfectly with another mission Trinity Church has talked about lately on its billboards and its Web site - "No Community Left Behind."

That vow, Chambers says, includes everybody. Even skateboarders.