Hollywood actor Stephen Baldwin says skateboarding played a key role in bringing him closer to Christianity in the early 2000s.
The 60-year-old recently opened up about the moment he started taking his faith seriously and how a skateboarding ministry event in Florida helped change the way he viewed Christianity.
According to reports, Baldwin was already building a career in Hollywood. After appearing in “The Usual Suspects,” he was heading toward more attention as an actor.
But Baldwin said the Hollywood lifestyle was not what he wanted for himself.
His path began to change as he spent more time around Christianity.
Baldwin said his wife Kennya Baldwin’s housekeeper had previously told them that they would become born again Christians and eventually have their own ministry.
He was skeptical at first, but things started to feel different after he attended several church events with his sister Beth, who was already a born again Christian.
Then came a skateboarding event in Florida.
Baldwin described seeing a skate park built on the beach with plywood.
Core heads had gathered there, and what caught his attention was how they mixed skateboarding with preaching about Jesus Christ.
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The skaters shred, then grab a microphone and speak to the crowd about their faith. Baldwin said thousands of kids were gathered around because they were interested in the skateboarders.
Seeing Christianity presented through skateboarding gave him a different perspective.
He eventually felt called to create a skateboarding video featuring punk rock Christian music and an evangelical message.
That project became “Livin It,” which brought together skateboarding, music and a message about Jesus Christ.
The video quickly found an audience, with Baldwin saying 10,000 copies were distributed within six months.
Churches soon started reaching out about bringing the skateboarders featured in the video to their own events.
Baldwin said that was when he decided to leave Hollywood and travel with the skate group.
Over the next four years, he said he went to 125 churches with the group, sharing the message of Christianity through skateboarding.
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Baldwin has continued to speak openly about his Christian faith throughout his career.
He has also worked on Christian themed projects and said he wants to use the platform he has been given to tell stories about his faith.
His connection to skateboarding is an interesting part of that story because it was not simply something he watched from the sidelines.
Skating became one of the ways Baldwin encountered a group of Christians who were reaching young people in a setting they already understood and enjoyed.
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Those skaters were not just putting on a show. They were using skateboarding as a way to bring people together and talk about Christ.
Years later, Baldwin continues to describe his faith as one of the most important parts of his life.
His story also shows how Christian skateboarding ministries were reaching young audiences in a very different way during the early 2000s.