Sunday, December 31, 2006
Monday, December 25, 2006
Saturday, November 25, 2006
UNITED STATES 2006 - Thanks to You, God
I don't want to be cheezy by doing a "Thanksgiving blog in November." But honestly, we have a lot to be thankful for at FacePlant Ministries. Thanks to You, God, we have seen amazing things happen in the lives of our youth at Whipple Creek Church. Thanks for all the young people who have given their lives to you for the first time and for all the recommitments. Thanks for the times when we've seen Your Holy Spirit fall like rain in our youth meetings and other times when we've seen Your Holy Spirit fall like fire. Thanks for skateboards, grip tape, trucks and wheels and a bunch of youth at FacePlant using them for your glory.
I also want to thank a bunch of other people. Thanks to our paid Whipple staff and all the support they've given us at FacePlant Ministries: Brett, Terry, Jackson, Don and Chris. Thanks to my volunteer High School staff: Adam, Sheena, Zach and Stephanie. Thanks to my volunteer Middle School Staff: Nate, Joyce, Tim and Micah. Thanks to my volunteer SkateChurch staff: Brett, Merrily, Russ, Becky, Erica, Tyler, Nate, Micah, Tim, Nick, Zach, Tracey, Mike, Doug, Andy, and all the other volunteers (there are so many I can't think of all their names). Thanks to all the youth who attend FacePlant Ministries and all of the parents who support what we're doing. Thanks to all of the Whipple Creek Church members for housing such an "out of the box" youth ministry.
Finally, here are the results of our skate/bike competition on November 16, 2006:
SPONSORED: 1st Place: John Mason, 2nd Place: Blaine Strachan,3rd Place: Travis Reeder.
UNSPONSORED OLDER: 1st Place: Brian Worcester, 2nd Place: Braden Paynter.
UNSPONSORED YOUNGER: 1st Place: Ryan McGinnis, 2nd Place: Paul Pendergraft, 3rd Place: Kyle Ponciano.
BMX BIKERS: 1st Place: Kyle Gustin, 2nd Place: Quinn Wells, 3rd Place: Cody Kutz.
BEST TRICK: Josh Newton.
Thanks for competing guys! Great job to every one!
Christian Young
Youth Pastor
Saturday, October 21, 2006
UNITED STATES 2006 - From Outdoors to Indoors. From Foyer to Living Room.
The earth is shaking underneath our feet here at FacePlant Ministries. It could be the sound of skaters landing huge kickflips off of our half-completed fun box or the sick tweaked-out method airs off of our newly donated quarter pipes. Maybe it's the sound of a hundred young people at skate church on Thursday night crying out to God in unison, saying, "Forgive me Jesus." It might be our Tuesday Night High School group on their faces (literally) before God committing themselves to God as the Holy Spirit falls in power. All of these things are happening as a result of God moving in huge ways at our Whipple Creek campus. And believe me, His tremors are being felt throughout Vancouver, Washington and beyond.
From Outdoors to Indoors. As the weather is changing and the rain has come, we have to make some changes at our Thurday night skate church. Our 150 skaters, bikers and spectators (that's right, we're up to 150) have been congregating in our parking lot. The rain and lack of light is forcing us to bring this God-thing that has exploded overnight indoors. Now we are in the middle of designing our indoor skatepark which should be partially completed by next fall, but at least for the wet season, we have to do something. So we had this crazy idea of temporarily bringing our skate church into our main sanctuary on Thursday nights while renovations are being made in preparation for the permanent move from Alki. So check this out: Friends and families of FacePlant skaters and spectators are donating plywood to place over the carpet in our main sanctuary to skate on. This not only solves the rain and lack of light issues, it helps us contain these youth to make it a safer place for skate church. We will have a live band (our very own Jackson Jackson with yours truly) kick off our indoor celebration on Thursday, November 9th. He will be selling his newly released CD, "Paseo Padre" with some of the proceeds going to FacePlant Ministries.
From Foyer to Living Room. As an extension of the overall vision, mission and purpose of Whipple Creek Church, FacePlant Ministries is seeking to create relevant environments to bring our youth from spiritual infancy to spiritual maturity. Our Thursday night skate church is a very seeker-friendly "foyer" environment. We keep the message pretty short and "milky" due to the diversity in our group of mostly non-churched. But it is a great place to get the youth "in the door." Our Tuesday night Middle School and High School groups are more of an in-depth "living room" environment. We pray, worship, have more "meaty" Bible discussions and break into small groups. Please pray that we can successfully bring our youth from the "foyer" into the "living room." One way we are doing this is by raising the bar with our sponsored skaters and bikers. In order to remain sponsored by FacePlant Ministries, they must attend Tuesday night Middle School or High School group as well as have three weekly entries in their "Real Life Journals."
Couple of quick announcements. Halloween happens to fall on a Tuesday night this year. So Tuesday, October 31st, we will be having an alternative to Halloween event called "Fear Factor" based on 2 Timothy 1:7, "For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." Middle School and High School will be combined for this event from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm. Also our FacePlant stickers ($1), helmets ($6) and T-shirts ($15) have come in and are being sold on Thursday nights. We also have an updated list of our sponsored skaters and bikers:
A-TEAM: Victor Elizondo, John Mason, Kyle McClellen, Josh Newton, Collin Whalen, Robbie Naumann, Kyle Smith and Blaine Strachan.
B-TEAM: Curtis Christensen, Boomer Gasaway, Jake Misener, Wayne Purdy, Travis Reeder, Mick Reeder, Jakoda Taylor, Dakota Wawrzyniak, Brandon Clymer, Codie Cardon, Jake Lain and Lauren Swift.
BMX BIKE TEAM: Eric Mullen, Logan Brewster, Garett Thayer, Hawk Platt, Kyle Gustin, Quinn Wells and Sean Lamar.
CONGRATULATIONS GUYS!!! Also here are the 1st place through 3rd place winners of our September 14th skate competition:
A-TEAM: 1st Place: Josh Newton. 2nd Place: Kyle McClellen. 3rd Place: John Mason.
B-TEAM: 1st Place: Curtis Christensen. 2nd Place: Travis Reeder. 3rd Place: Jakoda Taylor.
UNSPONSORED: 1st Place: Blaine Strachan. 2nd Place: Trevor Knowles. 3rd place: Nick Polette.
BMX BIKERS: 1st Place: Garett Thayer. 2nd Place: Chris Eaton. 3rd Place: Quinn Wells.
GOOD JOB FELLA'S. Our next skate and bike competitions will begin Thursday, November 16th. Trophies and other prizes will be awarded to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. So practice up.
Christian Young
Youth Pastor
From Outdoors to Indoors. As the weather is changing and the rain has come, we have to make some changes at our Thurday night skate church. Our 150 skaters, bikers and spectators (that's right, we're up to 150) have been congregating in our parking lot. The rain and lack of light is forcing us to bring this God-thing that has exploded overnight indoors. Now we are in the middle of designing our indoor skatepark which should be partially completed by next fall, but at least for the wet season, we have to do something. So we had this crazy idea of temporarily bringing our skate church into our main sanctuary on Thursday nights while renovations are being made in preparation for the permanent move from Alki. So check this out: Friends and families of FacePlant skaters and spectators are donating plywood to place over the carpet in our main sanctuary to skate on. This not only solves the rain and lack of light issues, it helps us contain these youth to make it a safer place for skate church. We will have a live band (our very own Jackson Jackson with yours truly) kick off our indoor celebration on Thursday, November 9th. He will be selling his newly released CD, "Paseo Padre" with some of the proceeds going to FacePlant Ministries.
From Foyer to Living Room. As an extension of the overall vision, mission and purpose of Whipple Creek Church, FacePlant Ministries is seeking to create relevant environments to bring our youth from spiritual infancy to spiritual maturity. Our Thursday night skate church is a very seeker-friendly "foyer" environment. We keep the message pretty short and "milky" due to the diversity in our group of mostly non-churched. But it is a great place to get the youth "in the door." Our Tuesday night Middle School and High School groups are more of an in-depth "living room" environment. We pray, worship, have more "meaty" Bible discussions and break into small groups. Please pray that we can successfully bring our youth from the "foyer" into the "living room." One way we are doing this is by raising the bar with our sponsored skaters and bikers. In order to remain sponsored by FacePlant Ministries, they must attend Tuesday night Middle School or High School group as well as have three weekly entries in their "Real Life Journals."
Couple of quick announcements. Halloween happens to fall on a Tuesday night this year. So Tuesday, October 31st, we will be having an alternative to Halloween event called "Fear Factor" based on 2 Timothy 1:7, "For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." Middle School and High School will be combined for this event from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm. Also our FacePlant stickers ($1), helmets ($6) and T-shirts ($15) have come in and are being sold on Thursday nights. We also have an updated list of our sponsored skaters and bikers:
A-TEAM: Victor Elizondo, John Mason, Kyle McClellen, Josh Newton, Collin Whalen, Robbie Naumann, Kyle Smith and Blaine Strachan.
B-TEAM: Curtis Christensen, Boomer Gasaway, Jake Misener, Wayne Purdy, Travis Reeder, Mick Reeder, Jakoda Taylor, Dakota Wawrzyniak, Brandon Clymer, Codie Cardon, Jake Lain and Lauren Swift.
BMX BIKE TEAM: Eric Mullen, Logan Brewster, Garett Thayer, Hawk Platt, Kyle Gustin, Quinn Wells and Sean Lamar.
CONGRATULATIONS GUYS!!! Also here are the 1st place through 3rd place winners of our September 14th skate competition:
A-TEAM: 1st Place: Josh Newton. 2nd Place: Kyle McClellen. 3rd Place: John Mason.
B-TEAM: 1st Place: Curtis Christensen. 2nd Place: Travis Reeder. 3rd Place: Jakoda Taylor.
UNSPONSORED: 1st Place: Blaine Strachan. 2nd Place: Trevor Knowles. 3rd place: Nick Polette.
BMX BIKERS: 1st Place: Garett Thayer. 2nd Place: Chris Eaton. 3rd Place: Quinn Wells.
GOOD JOB FELLA'S. Our next skate and bike competitions will begin Thursday, November 16th. Trophies and other prizes will be awarded to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. So practice up.
Christian Young
Youth Pastor
Saturday, October 7, 2006
UNITED STATES 2006 - FacePlant Skate Tour - D.O.S.
DEPARTMENT OF SKATEBOARDING****
On October 7, 2006 team FacePlant headed to it's third skate park as a team. This time we decided to go to Department of Skateboarding in downtown Portland. As the weather turns crummy skaters are forced to go indoors to skate and D.O.S. is one of the only ones around. D.O.S. is a fairly decent sized park with tons of stuff to skate. There are tons of ramps, ledges and rails to skate. There is a sweet 7 stair and a ski jump (my personal favorite). For vert they have a nice mini ramp and in another room they have a huge wooden pool to skate. The park doesn't have much flow so you pretty much pick what you want to skate and skate it. It tends to get over-crowded inside, especially when it is raining., so you have to watch out for little kids skating. The size of the skate park and amount of things to skate is attractive. Most of our team skates D.O.S. all the time. Overall I give Department of Skateboarding a FOUR STAR rating.
Thursday, September 28, 2006
UNITED STATES 2006 - FacePlant Skate Tour - Camas
CAMAS SKATE PARK***
On September 28, 2006 Team FacePlant headed to Camas skate park which is the second skate park we have gone to on our FacePlant Skate Tour. Camas isn't a bad park at all if you are into street skating. The park is week in the vert department, though. Nevertheless, our guys tore the park up. The huge funbox in the middle of the sunken area seemed to be the most skated obstacle. In the middle of the funbox is a nice sized handrail, too. There is an eight stair at the top of the skate park. There is a little launch ramp that is mobile. The guys decided to move it near a fence and ollie off of it over the fence. John, Josh and Blaine seemed to be the skaters who shredded the hardest. Overall I give Camas skate park a THREE STAR rating.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Monday, September 25, 2006
UNITED STATES 2006 - FacePlant Ministries is Born
After nine months of pregnancy, Faceplant Ministries is born! What I mean is that it's been nine months since God opened the door for me to become youth pastor at Whipple Creek Church, and what started out as a few students in our Middle School and High School youth groups, has now exploded into a thriving youth ministry which was more recently named Faceplant Ministries.
Faceplant Ministries encompasses our entire student ministry here at Whipple and is broken down into three weekly youth meetings. On Tuesday nights from 6 to 7:30pm is our Middle School youth group and from 7:30 to 9pm is our High School youth group. Both groups have a similar format of fellowship, games, worship, teaching and small groups. Our Middle School group, which was originally on Thursday nights, is geared toward those who want to grow in their relationship with God. It's brand new and I'm excited about what God is going to do. Our High School group went through a transition at the beginning of the year and what started off as a few students has developed into a group of 15 to 20 on-fire followers of Jesus Christ. We started gaining a lot of momentum at our beach camping trip in June. A lot of cool God stuff happened there and continues to happen. But our High School group is more than a Tueday night youth group. Our volunteer staff members connect with these students on a daily basis and have all kinds of small group activities going on. If you are in Middle School or High School and want a life-changing experience, come out on Tuesday nights.
On Thursday nights from 6 to 8:30pm is our skateboard ministry or "skate church" as people have been calling it. About four months ago I was visiting with some friends at Luciano's and ran into four skaters. I talked to them about building some ramps and having some skateboarding at our Middle School youth group. I overheard them talking about being thirsty and not having money so I bought them each a Frappucino and gave them the invite. That Thursday about 10 skaters showed up and gave their lives to Christ. Now we have 75 to 100 skaters, bikers and spectators on Thursday nights and have sponsorships, skate competitions and plans to build a huge skate park. We skate, talk about Jesus, and skate some more. On Thursday nights we have had at least 50 kids give their lives to Christ. It's cool how God can use a piece of wood and four wheels to draw this generation to Himself. If you haven't experienced this movement of God, all I can tell you is "come and see."
Christian Young
Youth Pastor
Faceplant Ministries encompasses our entire student ministry here at Whipple and is broken down into three weekly youth meetings. On Tuesday nights from 6 to 7:30pm is our Middle School youth group and from 7:30 to 9pm is our High School youth group. Both groups have a similar format of fellowship, games, worship, teaching and small groups. Our Middle School group, which was originally on Thursday nights, is geared toward those who want to grow in their relationship with God. It's brand new and I'm excited about what God is going to do. Our High School group went through a transition at the beginning of the year and what started off as a few students has developed into a group of 15 to 20 on-fire followers of Jesus Christ. We started gaining a lot of momentum at our beach camping trip in June. A lot of cool God stuff happened there and continues to happen. But our High School group is more than a Tueday night youth group. Our volunteer staff members connect with these students on a daily basis and have all kinds of small group activities going on. If you are in Middle School or High School and want a life-changing experience, come out on Tuesday nights.
On Thursday nights from 6 to 8:30pm is our skateboard ministry or "skate church" as people have been calling it. About four months ago I was visiting with some friends at Luciano's and ran into four skaters. I talked to them about building some ramps and having some skateboarding at our Middle School youth group. I overheard them talking about being thirsty and not having money so I bought them each a Frappucino and gave them the invite. That Thursday about 10 skaters showed up and gave their lives to Christ. Now we have 75 to 100 skaters, bikers and spectators on Thursday nights and have sponsorships, skate competitions and plans to build a huge skate park. We skate, talk about Jesus, and skate some more. On Thursday nights we have had at least 50 kids give their lives to Christ. It's cool how God can use a piece of wood and four wheels to draw this generation to Himself. If you haven't experienced this movement of God, all I can tell you is "come and see."
Christian Young
Youth Pastor