On Wednesday evenings in West Seattle, teens from around the neighborhood get together and hang out at one of their favorite places—church.

Skate Church is nothing like the typical religious centers that most of these young people grew up in. Instead of a cathedral, the church operates out of a small storefront called TORN in the Alaska Junction.

Looking more like a Zumiez or Guitar Center store than a sanctuary, TORN is stocked with discounted skate decks, several guitars for the momentary jam session and even a recording studio.

Walls are covered in pictures and poetry, all which lie below a large cross, constructed from skateboards, in the middle of the room.

Instead of kneeling in pews, kids lounge on sofas and large comfy chairs.

Visitors won’t hear the sounds of a choir or hushed, reverent voices, instead they will hear Christian alternative rock and the loud chatter of boys and girls in middle and high school.

Clearly, Skate Church is unlike most other Christian youth groups.

Skate Church has successfully attracted a strong following by tapping into secular culture to capture the energy of today’s youth.

The group gathers on Wednesday evenings to talk, play games and hang out.

There are no scheduled sermons just candid conversations about life, growing up, and, occasionally, Christianity.

“It fits the model for changing lives in a real way,” said Brennan Pebbles, one of the youth pastors. “It’s so relational, it’s amazing.”

Serena Wastman, an adult supervisor, said many of these kids feel ostracized at school or struggle with difficult home lives. Even those who have been to more traditional churches don’t feel like they fit in there.

“We attract a lot of broken people because, for a lot of us, that’s our background too,” said Serena.

Thirteen-year-old Phillip Hurst said he initially started coming to Skate Church because it was fun to eat and play with his friends. Then, Hurst said, “it became a thing of following Christ.”

Now, a year and a half later, Hurst said he is a much kinder, more generous person. He is doing better in school, too. Most importantly, he said, he is learning about Christ and “how to glorify him.”

While the church is supervised by Rob and Serena Wastman, whose own children are in college, the true leadership lies in Skate Church’s youth pastors.

A group of young adults in their early 20’s, youth pastors act as mentors, hanging out with young kids, leading worship and relating to them. They don’t keep hours, but are available to minister any time, and going so far as to give out their personal cell phone numbers. The pastors act as a support group for kids who may come from unstable homes.

“A lot of people feel like they don’t belong,” said Tyler Ives, a youth pastor at Skate Church. “We love everybody. If you come to us we will be there for you. There’s no burden we won’t take.”

“If something like this had been available to me when I was young I would not have gotten into all the trouble I was in,” said Rob.

Some members of Skate Church have gotten out of trouble since getting involved in the group. Serena discussed one youth pastor who used to be one of the neighborhoods more infamous graffiti “taggers.” Since getting involved with Skate Church, he has stopped tagging and now helps to clean up graffiti while working with police to identify offenders.

The youth pastors also fuel the church financially, helping to pay the rent of their store front and buying dinner for an average of 40 kids every Wednesday.

“I feel like I’ve been called by God to help kids here,” said Tyler Ives, another youth pastors. “The kids in West Seattle are getting into a lot of bad stuff, this is an opportunity for them to have good clean fun.”

Skate Church is located at 4506 California Ave. S.W. You can contact the church at (206) 935-4542‎.