Skater Punk Pastors - James McManus
Happy (belated) New Years! May God bless you in the fullness of the Aaronic benediction this coming year.
I still well remember that fall evening when I was eleven, and my dad and I went into Waldenbooks in the Jasmine Mall in Sumter, and I got my first copy of Transworld Skateboarding magazine. That evening, I devoured it from front to back - and my life changed. I fell in in love with all things skateboarding. I had seen other kids around on the air base riding their skateboards and it looked interesting to me. What I didn’t know was that skating was more than a sport - it was a lifestyle. And, it was that lifestyle that grabbed my attention. A skater was someone who was out of the mainstream, marched to a different beat, didn’t go along with the rest of the world. They had a DIY (do it yourself) mentality to their sport - making their own ramps and parks, looking at the urban landscape in a different way. They had their own sense of style. To me, most of all, was the soundtrack to skateboarding - punk rock! Fast, aggressive music that sounded like nothing I heard on 104.7 WNOK or saw on MTV - I loved it! I got my first skateboard for that Christmas, and I never looked back - I was in full-mode skater life! Buying that one magazine shaped the course of my life for the next 10 years - which has had influence over the rest of my life.
If you had told me back then when I was 11 … or 16 … or 20 … that I would eventually grow up to be a conservative Reformed Presbyterian pastor, I would’ve laughed at you and wondered what you had been drinking or taking! If you had told me back then - a young punk skater who embraced all things skateboarding, including the ethos and philosophy - that being a conservative Reformed Presbyterian pastor would essentially be skating & punk rock ethos, I would have thought you needed to be in a mental asylum. Yet, here I am - a conservative Reformed Presbyterian pastor - and there is very much a skateboarding/punk ethos to who we are in the 21st century.
If you are reading this blog, chances are that you are involved, or have been involved, with a church that is historical. The congregation is multi-generational and many have deep roots in that church. In your time with that church, you have probably heard about the “glory days” - usually from the early 1900s up to the 1970s when the church was flourishing. Pews were packed, families came to worship every Sunday, the youth program was active. Everything was clicking and moving along. And, you have probably heard - and experienced - that since that time (we could maybe even move the timeline up to the 1990s), things have changed. The mills have shut down, factories have moved away, young people are not coming back to the town/community and starting their families like previous generations have. Another big change is the view of conservative Christians.
I believe if you were to write a history of the 20th century, especially in the South, you would have to deal with conservative Christianity. In my opinion, it was what helped shape the South for many generations. It’s a big reason why so many churches flourished. Now, I do not assume that means a healthy Christianity. It has been my experience we are talking more about morality than faith. Yet, that morality was shaped by conservative Christianity, which is a Biblical Christianity. So, it was a time and place where Biblical morality and ethics flourished, and being a conservative Christian was accepted.
Now, we are in the 21st century, and one of the most dangerous things someone can be is a conservative Reformed Presbyterian. Believe that the Bible is inerrant and infallible? How un-progressed and neanderthal of you! Hold faithfully to the standards of your church and denomination? How repressive and uninformed of you! Embrace the Christian faith of our forefathers that goes back to the Bible? How antique and sad for you!
What was once mainstream (at least in the South) has now become … skater punk. We are outside of the mainstream. We march to a different drum. We do things differently that invite scorn and ridicule. It’s a faith and life that opposes the world around us - and the world hates us and is seeking to destroy us.
It can be easy for us to sit back and bemoan all of this and wish for the “good ‘ole days” (which, the more we look at, weren’t as good as we may remember). Or, we can accept that this is what the Bible says will happen. Remember that Jesus tells His disciples in John 15:18–19, “18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” Of course the world is going to hate those of us who hold to God’s word as being His word … and who walk in His ways … and who seek to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever. They will hate us because they first hated our Jesus and hated Him the most. They hate the light because they dwell in the dark. They don’t want to see the city on the hill, the light shining bright. The world hates our Lord and Savior, the Bible, and everything that comes from that.
We shouldn’t be surprised, or dismayed, that it has come to this. It is inevitable. And - hear me out - maybe it’s a good thing. Now, we don’t have to sift through what is real faith or what is deeply held onto moral convictions. The world has made it far easier to be a sinner out in the light for everyone to see - there is no longer a need to hide the sins away in the closet. There is no longer the need to pretend. And, you and I get to minister in this day and age where the difference between sinner and saint is getting easier and easier to distinguish. Now, we get to see the real spiritual needs of the people - and apply the Gospel balm where it needs to be applied. Now, we get to deal with people who are getting more comfortable with not pretending - so we get to deal with the real issue of lack of faith. Now, we get to delve into the great problems of the faith - and show them Jesus.
So, here we are - a bunch of conservative Reformed Presbyterians who have more in common with skaters and punk rockers than we probably knew! Let us embrace our outsider status, our marching to the beat of God’s glory and joy, our faith that has endured harder times than this - and may God continue to use faithful Christians to further His kingdom, even in times and places where He is hated … yet, He will always reign supreme!