A New Church in Worcester Attracts Indoor Skateboarding Community

A skater slides down the rail at Vessel Skatepark

When most pastors decide to start a church, they think of hymnals and folding chairs. A team of volunteers planning a new congregation in central Massachusetts decided instead that knee pads and helmets were essential items for the innovative ministry they had in mind.

A church planter team that includes Kevin McGinn and Stephen Shoge launched City Light Church a year ago and the Vessel Skatepark in December. The church and skatepark share first-floor space at 70 James Street in Worcester, Massachusetts, on the Genesee Street side of the former Worcester Wire Works building, a short walk from the Webster Square neighborhood where McGinn grew up.

They rent 6,600 square feet in the warehouse now called James Street Place, a façade of fading bricks that also houses a diverse mix of eighty shops including a dance ranch saloon and a hair salon, as well as other churches and not-for-profit organizations. The Baptist church, which McGinn noted, took a “slow and sustainable” approach when they first gathered in homes in 2018, is now located in a great spot for meeting people. James Street serves as a major gateway into New England’s second largest city, which many call “The Heart of the Commonwealth.” Some 17,000 vehicles travel James Street each day, according to the Telegram & Gazette (October 4, 2020).

Kevin McGinn preaches for City Light Church, which meets within Vessel Skatepark

First-time visitors quickly realize that they have entered an indoor skate park with slick ramps, not a traditional church edifice with padded pews. For an hour or so they join an eclectic gathering of Christ followers. After being welcomed by a hospitality team of smiling volunteers, they hear Bible passages being read, prayers being raised, and singing echoing off the ramps and orange safety cones. A thirty-minute Bible message follows. Children enjoy the experience with their parents before they attend a “City Kids” worship of their own.

After completing a Bachelor of Science religion degree in 2010 online from Liberty University, Lynchburg, Virginia, McGinn and his wife, Carrie, a Buffalo, New York native who leads City Light’s ministries to children and families, moved to the central Virginia town. In 2014, McGinn completed a Master of Divinity, met Shoge, and discovered God’s call to ministry in New England. Since 2014, McGinn has been a Liberty online adjunct instructor of Bible history and theology.

Later, McGinn dropped out of PhD studies at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kentucky so he could return to central Massachusetts. The former UPS dispatch supervisor evaluated what he describes as the “incredible difference in the spiritual climate” of Lynchburg, “one of the most highly saturated evangelical towns in the entire country,” and Worcester, “one of the least Bible-minded cities in the country.” He concluded, “We’re not needed as much here (in Lynchburg) as we are up there (in Worcester),” and they moved to Worcester in 2018.  

Despite some derogatory comments posted on social media and some inconvenience from opponents that, the City Light pastor says, “threw a wrench in our reservation system and took up (unused) spaces” in the skatepark’s reservation system, the skatepark, a not-for-profit entity separate from the church, opened its doors without incident just before Christmas.

The staff and numerous volunteers keep careful attendance records: in its first four months, 1,331 people have visited the skatepark from fourteen states and 365 postal zip codes. The next nearest indoor skate park, sixty miles away in Taunton, charges $40 an hour for public skating and $150 for children’s birthday parties and other private events that do not exceed twenty-five skaters. Three hundred people “check in” without charge at Vessel Skatepark during a typical week. The average age of skaters is 22, four dozen people were age 40 or older, and the oldest skater (so far) was age 58. 

On Thursday and Sunday evenings skating is halted for fifteen minutes so the good news about Jesus Christ can be proclaimed. More than 700 skaters have been present for sessions when the Gospel was declared at the skatepark. When asked, some skaters even wrote prayer requests.  

Stephen Shoge, a worship/media team member at the church and executive director of the skatepark, told a reporter last year that Vessel has “a nice flow. It’s got just about every type of obstacle you’d want”. A skateboarder for more than twenty years, he grew up in a single parent home in Missouri and didn’t have many positive role models in the skateboarding community.

He said the skatepark is designed to maximize the amount of skating that could be done in a small space. “I tried to throw together some elements that I know cater to a lot of different types of skaters, Whether they like transition or street obstacles, we’re trying to have a good mix,” he commented. The park also features a small room where skaters can hang out to play ping pong, arcade games, and board games.

“A lot of individuals and churches are providing money monthly for the skatepark because they know that it’s going to benefit the community and be an awesome opportunity,” Shoge said. “The cold here lasts for a long time, so it’s hard to skate [outdoors],” he stated about New England winters. Soon skatepark organizers will be challenged by warm weather when their guests will likely prefer to skate outdoors. A summer camp for young skaters is being planned.

The Vessel team includes members from City Light and other local churches in the area

In 2017, they “felt the Lord pressing on [their] hearts, on multiple different occasions, this interest and burden for Worcester, Massachusetts,” Shoge’s wife, Jocelyn, a City Light team member, wrote in a “Go Fund Me” blog. After their church in Lynchburg announced plans to plant a church in central New England and asked members to pray about how they might be involved, she immediately thought, “Cold. North. Snow. That’s great, but not for me.”

After praying and pondering about the possibilities, the Shoges affirmed God’s call to Worcester because, as Jocelyn Shoge wrote, they did not want to miss “something amazing” that God was doing in their lives. Their Virginia friends responded with what she described as “pure excitement, support, a little shock, some sadness (of course), but it was all confirmation that Worcester was to become our next home.”

Jon Yeo, the church’s discipleship groups leader and skatepark operations manager, and his wife, Megan, who organizes the church’s hospitality team, are also essential leaders in the church and skatepark. The small groups are planned for men and women who, according to the web site, “have engaged in practices like focused Scripture reading, memorization, meditation, and prayer . . .  [and those] who want to grow in their practice of these spiritual habits together.”

As an expression of his support for community-based outreach programs, Joseph D. Early Jr., Worcester County’s District Attorney, gave the skatepark $3,000 last year, money his office confiscated from drug dealers. “We are proud to support Vessel Skatepark! They bring together all walks of life and skill levels to have fun, provide structure, and offer guidance from positive role models. . . . They encourage physical and mental health through skating and idea-sharing breaks to generate acceptance and understanding,” the DA wrote on Facebook.

City Light Church affiliates with The Bedrock Network, Bedford, VA, a church-planting movement that launched nine other churches from Montana to Florida, and from Virginia to Nicaragua. They also associate with Baptist Churches of New England and the North American Mission Board.

As City Light Church marks its anniversary and celebrates Easter, McGinn emphasizes that the work of planting the church and later opening the skatepark “has been the product of many people working together. It’s been a team effort with many contributors including help and support from members of other churches and organizations.”

A Massachusetts native and a New England Baptist since 1970, Dan Nicholas is the BCNE managing editor.