Brian Sumner is sold out. Normally, this isn't something looked upon as positive, that is of course unless you are talking about someone and their faith. Brian carries the torch and wears the Gospel on his sleeve right next to his heart.

CS Lewis, described his young self (in Surprised by Joy) as being "very angry with God for not existing". Can you share your experience with challenging God and his existence?

CS Lewis being from England and me being from England, I just never really heard about it, by the time I was born I think a lot of people just had a belief in the church and in God but not really an idea of a relationship.

It's something that I never really thought about, or it was one of those "it's getting late and there's really nothing to do". So there's the UFO conversation, there's the ghost conversation and there's the God conversation. It was never like a bitterness or frustration, it got to a point for some reason, I just always thought there was something there, something relevant, like if I was gonna say something bad about God I would feel guilty.

You know we obviously blasphemed God and not realizing what we were doing in casual speech, but as soon as I thought it was an action I was taking towards Him I would feel guilty, and it wasn't like I knew what I was talking about, whether it was the God of everything, or a specific God, but I felt like I understood in some way that there was a God and it wasn't until I said "you know what, I'm so over everything that I'm just going to prove that He's not real, whoever He is, that way it doesn't matter".

It's almost like a challenge, that I hoped I'd find Him and He'd show up. But really, I played devils advocate, saying I know this isn't real, and He of course did the complete opposite. It was perfect.

That's really cool, not too many people go that extra mile to do it, they just say there's no God and go on with their lives, but to try to actually prove Him wrong, that's a whole different level.

How did this struggle impact your skating, did you find that through this experience you had a different or new perspective on your life as a skateboarder?

Well, between the time that I divorced my wife, and we separated, I realized basically that being a divorced parent, you just feel like you didn't accomplish anything, you want it to work and you just feel like everyone else. It was either focus on the junk or focus on the Lord. It was kind of like when He showed up, the way it felt, I mean I had said if you show up "I'll give you my skating, I'll get baptized, I'll remarry this woman, I'll give you my life", so in a way I didn't even know what the plan was for skating. Like, was it for me to go do all these things, and just go after skating and glorify the Lord? It didn't feel like that.

Christian, or someone would tell me "He gave you all these things, He gave you these gifts, you should use it" and in a way, if you look at what's going on with my Christian skating career, I kind of took a step back as far as the public's concerned in those years.

I spent so much time in the word, and prayer and getting involved in church, to where it's kind of awesome because the regular secular world would say what's that guy doing? But, as they start to see what I'm doing, they're gonna say that this guy pretty much dropped everything and responded to the Lord, and now it's like shown to everyone.

I'm not gonna be one of those guys who has an interview and at the end of the interview says "Praise God" or "Praise Jesus" if it's not evident in my life all the time. The Bible says all things are created by Him and for Him. It was given to me but so was everything else. We're to use all things to glorify Him.

Photo: Brian Sumner

Not to diss these other people and what they're doing, because I know what it's like for people who are raised in the church, but I think the danger is...well you see it, everyone has crosses hanging in their cars, everyone's in their MTV videos dancing around bumpin' their car with chicks, they've got a cross there and a picture of Jesus on their shirt or something and that's not the Gospel. So for me in a way it was like I don't want to do anything at all. The Bible say's let your words be few, we shouldn't be talkin' about any of this stuff, we shouldn't be throwin' around the name of Jesus, and liken it to be something that we choose it to be about, it's His name.

So I realized quick, "Ok I want to get plugged into the church, I'm going to read and I'm going to figure out all I can" and in the mean time I was still on probation, I was getting off that stuff, there was a season that kind of controlled me, that kept me calm, so I couldn't go all over the world and skate, I couldn't really travel yet and jump all these fences because their weren't tickets. So it kind of slowed down my skate career. Now it's like I can travel, I can go speak places, and skate places wherever my body feels good. Now it's like a whole refreshing thing. Especially, where I am with all my sponsors and stuff.

It felt like I guess, to answer it another way, you know Jesus, He said "They hated me first" if they hate you. As skaters, we're going to be challenged anyway, once we're Christian I think certain people, they go as far to say well I believe in Christ enough and I don't get harassed, but really the evidence that you're a true believer is that you are being persecuted and you do have challenges, because people don't like the gospel, it is the good news but they don't want to receive it because we're so used to liking sin.

When you tell people that Christ died for you and your sin, it makes them frustrated, but the Bible says that the message of the cross is foolishness to those that are perishing. Meaning it is a spiritual issue, they don't understand, that's fine you know, but when I have people that are frustrated at it or don't understand, it's not really that they don't understand me, it's that they don't understand the Gospel, and that's where we have to ask for divine revelation that the Lord shows them, "look, you are in sin", and that's what I'm called to share, I'm called to speak the truth, I'm called to not budge on the faith and the rest of it is the Holy Spirit's responsibility.

How has the sport of skateboarding changed since you were a kid?

Well, when I started skating back in Liverpool it was like the Police Academy video, it was Gleaming The Cube, there was probably just a handful of videos that even had skating in them. I started skating around 92' and you already had the whole Tony Hawk, Hosoi and Caballero, the Powell days and...

The Animal Chin days...

Yeah, way after that even, I pretty much started skating late, really. As far as a pro career, I got in there probably in the days of late shove-its and pressure flips and it was kind of like a nasty time for skating when all the flip tricks were on the floor and they were low, and nothing looked that nice.

But by the time I was actually able to skate and do stuff, all the people were flippin' their tricks properly and they were catchin' them the right way, and that was my generation, we went to California and they were doing all these tricks in places and having to catch a kick flip and then slide down a handrail and all the rest of it? It was perfect you know.

Photo: Brian Sumner

It's been my experience and from the stories of friends and others with talents, that there is a consecration that takes place where we realize that the talents we have are truly a gift and more importantly, we know the gifts came from someone; that someone being God and that we can then in turn, thank Him for those talents, since we know God personally through Jesus Christ. For us, God is not some "force" but a real person who enjoys relationships with us. Did you also have this "consecration" experience with your skating?

It's funny because I'll use yourself as an example saying that the only time you felt like God had spoken to you was to do a lot of this web stuff and a lot of these interviews and ask people about their talents. We can prophesy to one another all day and we can say things that the Lord said in his word, but I don't feel like people are given this new revelation, but when you look at your gifts, you can speak about your gift, it could already have been revealed that we've been given gifts.

So for me personally, there's something that the Word says, there's gifts and people go as far as you know as speaking in tongues and healing and those things which are gifts of the Holy Spirit and then there's specific personal gifts.

For me, the skating I'm doing everyday, the emails I'm writing, the phone calls I'm getting, just even going downtown and hanging out with my family and all these things, I'm constantly giving it all to the Lord anyway so there isn't even really a separation in the skating I'm doing or the conversations I'm having.

But I feel like in my mind, I don't know where anything is going. Spiritually, I can feel what I'm meant to be lining up, so it's like this thing a person spoke over me 3 years ago.

The guy said I'm not going to see signs and miracles, [this is a guy who preaches at our church, Greg Devrees], he said "You won't see signs and miracles in your own life in this period of time, you've got to get yourself prepared for the season, because you're not going to be like Saul, you're going to be like David, but you've got to get yourself ready for when the Lord sends you out."

That was 3 years ago pretty much, November - December, and just two weeks ago, we went up to Bear Mountain and all the pastors and deacons sat down and Pastor Jay wants me now to start preaching full time on the Saturday night service, and have Josh Harmon playing worship, and when you look at that, that's a big deal because I've been a Christian for four years, we've been doing this reality show, I've been skating as a pro skateboarder, that's what I'm going to do, a lot of my sponsors now that are behind me understand what my faith is about and they're doing it, and now I'm being sent out where I'm going before a congregation.

So I feel like this whole season of, first I couldn't leave the country and I'm pluggin' at the church, now I've been doing all this evangelism getting involved in so many ministries and having skate conferences, and all these things going on. I've been preparing and giving it all over to the Lord and now, it's kind of like "Ok well I'm gonna use you in this season" so again, it's like the gifts He's given me are all His really, the apostle Paul he says it best out of everyone, talkin' specifically about all the things he doesn't want to do that he does, but that there's those two laws at work in him, the law of the Spirit that actually guides him the right way and there's the sinful nature in his members that just guides him the wrong way.

You know if I say to you, "You're a sinner" it sounds blasphemous because you're made righteous through the blood of Christ, but you in your flesh, your flesh is still in sin. You can get very caught up with faith doctrines, cause you know, it is difficult to get fully deep in it, where I look at today and all the good things that I do, that is Christ movin' in me, and all the bad things is the sinful nature that's been killed by the spirit, but isn't bound by that, it's still alive in me.

So when I look at Jesus, and you know He has killed sin, and the way the Bible talks about things and specifically saying, "he who knows to do good and doesn't do it sins", we're not meant to sin. The apostle Paul, even after he met Christ, kept on sinning, he said "it's not me that sins, it's sin at work in me". So it's like we're sewn into this accountability process, where we're mourning to be with the Father and to have outlived this flesh, it's like this constant crucifying of our flesh and attending to the Gift because we do have the victory.

I heard a guy last night, Don Williams, preach at a church near here, and he talked about World War II, D-day and V-day, and how the war was won on D-day but the victory didn't actually come until V-day which was sometime after. So the war's already been beat by Jesus on D-day when He came and hung on the cross and was risen, and we have the victory already, but V-day is still arriving, when He comes in His glory and it's kind of like that, how Paul was, he knows the victory was there, he's got to go forward, and it's coming but it's already came you know?

Photo: Jaime Owens

We're facing a brand new world today, how can we make Christianity more relevant?

The danger in trying to make things relevant, is that we try and sugar-coat the gospel, but then at times you've got to realize, I mean, I've driven down the street and I've heard this guy, he's holding his bible, shouting at cars going by, and you've gotta think the guy driving by at 60 miles an hour on that road, just sees you shouting the Gospel, you know what I mean?

So in a way you can say it's a word out of season, because people went out to hear John the Baptist, they heard what he was doing, they went to sit down, and spend time in front of him.

And as far as I know, it's only been 4 years, but a few years ago skateboard ministries got more popular, a lot of churches kind of thought it was crazy, because they thought it was a gimmick, some churches bring it in as a gimmick, they have like a little skate thing, and the kids don't really know who Christ is, and then you have some kids maybe sharing something, and they might not be so deep in their faith, living very secularized.

But the way you gotta do it though is, the Gospel is just meant to be preached and it's simple; it's receive the good news, repent, and follow Christ. All we gotta do is be sure we know what we're doing. It goes back to those same verses the Apostle Paul was saying, "I did not know sin but by the law". If you are going to go downtown today with one other person and share the Gospel, as long as you use the Word of God and you use the Law to challenge the proud, but you use Grace to exalt the humble, there's gonna be fruit bore.

Now to take it "How are we going to make it attractive?", you've got to walk in love, there's got to be a meekness, a boldness, a Christ-like disposition, but nowadays we get to use things like speakers and microphones, skateboards and bikes, and all these things. I'll tell you personally, I'm very skeptical to get involved in a lot of ministries because you got a lot of these guys, that have been around the church for years, that have a lot of business mind, and they will have a bunch of people come in and they will have microphones, they'll have this huge Christian band, but you don't really know how serious they are, you'll have a couple people that are agents, to handle all their business so they'll show up and they're getting a bunch of money, and then you'll have 5 skateboarders show up who are really sold-out and they want to bring the Word, and they end up getting put on the side as just skaters.

In a way, the church is disconnecting the kids who really want to know the skaters because they've seen this other flair, and the people that are coming in to see these big bands that may have the Christian title, but aren't really carrying the sword, they come there not really expecting much, other than to see their band, and they leave not really expecting much because they didn't get the Word preached to them.

So the way for me, is like look, there are a lot people who call and want us to do things, but if it's not where we can openly just preach the Gospel direct, you can sit everyone down, you can give your testimony, and you can share basically, that it isn't a one time prayer, or you can share that there's actual evidence in your life that He's in you, there's a regeneration, and there's a transformation.

So I guess, rather than go after all these things that we can do to strategize, just start being Christ like right now and as you see the fruits, people are going to be drawn to us, and you know there's probably a bunch of people with skateboard ministries right now that don't really know anything about skating and that's a good thing, but really, is that what they're called to do?

I can try to start Ultimate Fighting and become the UFA champ, but God hasn't called me to do that. It goes back to understanding who we are in the Body and in Christ, that we're all members of the same Body.

Describe a typical Brian Sumner day.

Get up probably around 8, 8:30, and that's a good day if I manage to do that. Take my son to school, or my wife will, then I'll watch my baby girl. I'll jump up and I'll normally get into some kind of prayer, just like a thanking of the Lord, because my mind isn't even awake yet. So I feel like for me to go get into the Word or to start praising Him that early, I'm not even thinking, and I don't want to just give Him 60% of my attention. So I'll wake up and sometimes I'll watch something I've Tivo'd or one of the Christian networks or I'll jump into all the emails because a lot my friends are from the east coast and we're behind so I can get my day started that way.

I'll get washed, I normally pray in the shower, I normally try to read the Word after that, then I'll go eat with my wife, or whoever is in town, we'll go meet up, eat somewhere, then we'll normally go skate somewhere, like one of the local parks or one of my sponsors places. Then mid to late afternoon try to film a trick. At night, we either go attend a couple different churches or we'll be goin' to our church "The Sanctuary" where we'll be doing some kind of Bible study. Or just having friends around and fellowshipping in downtown Huntington Beach. The only other time when things are different is when we're surfing or pretty much going out and doing full time ministry stuff.

I asked Christian about this, and I'm interested in hearing your response as well. Is there a duality in skating that is unique to it alone? Meaning, there's an opportunity for "quiet time", to be alone, focus on your work and meditate on God, and then there is a communal time where you can encourage and be encouraged by other skaters?

Personally, for me I can never separate this stuff because my mind is always spinnin'. We're filming a TV show "The Uprising" and the whole time I would have a microphone on, and a guy who's filming us will be able to hear everything I'm saying and doing, so when I'm skating around or about to share with someone I can say "Hey film this".

Photo: Brian Sumner

After a few weeks, a guy said to me "He just trips out on you all the time" cause he says all day I'm praying, and speaking, and I'm thinking things and I'm rebuking and walking around and I don't really realize I'm doing that.

So I guess, I'm all the time reflecting and I'm praying and I'm going after stuff. But in skating, it gets really intense, like when you're trying a trick, and you didn't stretch that week or you're about to do something you could get hurt on, it's like you get more challenged by the things you do in your daily life that are sinful, that you don't want to do, things will become so sharp, like "man why did I do that?". Because of the fear of getting hurt, you fear the Lord and you give up all those things.

But for me when I'm skating, a lot of things will come up about trying raise my kids the best way. What was the right time I used my voice and when was the wrong time. When was the right time to be doing this and doing that and when I'm deep in skating and trying to do something where I could get hurt, I'm always like "yes Lord I'll do this differently or I'll do that" and it isn't like I'm trying to sweet talk Him so I get the benefit of the trick, but I just feel like my mind is so open then, because it's just me and my skateboard, I'm not thinking about anything.

But skating in general, it's so divided nowadays. You can preach anything except for Jesus, you can preach sex and drugs, and partying. A lot of people have passed away in skating and it just gets covered up by "It's all good.." well man, people that I care about have died because of the things people have allowed them to fall into.

Or these companies that watch them come from other countries just like I did, they'll get sponsored and a year in the tour van with everyone, they can drink like crazy, they get stoned like crazy, and in two years time, they're like filthy and their clothes are hanging off of them, not that that's irrelevant it's not, but the point I'm making is that they're just this rock star little kid, who, even though he might be shredding on a skateboard, he's still attached to his addictions, and give him five years after skating and he's just gonna be thrashed, he's gonna be bound to rehab, he's not gonna have anyone picking up the tab for his life then because he won't be worth anything, it's sad.

We've only really seen a couple generations like that in skating, but then again, it's come back where even the old school guys who raged the parties and almost died, are like lifted up now, so they have kinda like the rock star lifestyle still.

It's dangerous you know, but this is the season. Think about it, who are my sheep?

But it could be five years after this when it's friends I really care about, friends that I've grown up with, who are in skating right now, making millions of dollars and getting all of the attention so they're not thinking about it. But give it a few seasons away, when life challenges them and they're probably gonna be thinking, "man, Brian's just always stoked, always excited". Even when those hard times come in and you don't know what to say, you don't do the right thing, I still know at the end of the day, that everything is outside of my hands, and I'm submitted to the Lord, you know?

The problem is that no one is perfect, the Bible says a just man falls seven times. We're always losing, but we're always winning when we are crucifying the flesh.

But there isn't a day that goes by that you didn't wish that you could have said something else better than you did. Especially, thinkin' about a guy my age, that we went through a divorce, I was over everything, two young children, probably gonna have another one soon, and you know all the answers are in the Bible, but how much are we submitting our flesh to that?

We are, we're headed away from where we ever were, but now it's a place where we're starting to understand each other, day by day we're breaking off all the junk that was put on us for years, that Christ has overcome, but we've still got to tear away, crucify our flesh ourselves, we've got to do that, He's done it but we're called to do it with Him.

Tell me about that reality show that you, Christian and Jay have going on, what's that about?

A couple of years ago, you know there was a couple of projects going around, we always talked about stuff, I felt the need to do a movie about Jay, Christian and myself. Each of us would have like a 20 minute part or 10 minute part. Just a way to give it to all of these kids in America, and Christians around the world, to see these guys stories, and see that we're living it, we're going after it, we're trying to just live the right way.

Pastor Jay felt like we would be having something that's on the air, some kind of show that was out there, whether he meant just preaching or whatever, he just meant that. I gave Ben Cerullo a call one time and said "Hey I really want to do this movie" and he said "I'll just make it for you, I'll hand you it, I don't want anything to do with it", and as we got through talks, it became, "Why not do a show, why not do some kind of reality show?"

We just got done filming 8 episodes, the premiere is going to be at our church this Saturday, and it's a really gnarly, crazy show. It's going to air on Inspiration Network, iChannel, Sky TV in England, it's gonna be in Australia, 80-140 million homes. It's called "The Uprising" and it's on steelroots.com. We're about to start filming season 2 in January. So 8 episodes for the first season and then 12 for the second season.

That's awesome, I read you went to art school, what role does art play in your life?

You know, I was just growin' up, there wasn't much I was into, just martial arts, and I guess just drawing. I don't really have the skills to do all this art, I couldn't draw anything in front of me and make it look much like it, but basically, to be straight forward, in Liverpool, all the best spots are in the city, and as soon as I finished school I was like "Ok, if I just go to school in the city, I go in there and I just draw some pictures for a few hours, and I'm in the city and I can just skate all day, then at night come home and sleep, then go in and do art again". I didn't really know what I would be doing, I didn't know that I would be sponsored there, I didn't know that I would be over in the US. It was just something that I did.

How did you get into art school if you didn't do art?

Well, I did art in school, I passed everything easy, I was good at it so they'd accept me, but I got a lot of good grades in school, so I could kind of do whatever I wanted. But over there, it isn't a big deal, you just pick art college kinda like to do whatever, I was 15 when I went there, I finished school at like 16.

So who were some of the skaters that influenced you?

Photo: Brian Sumner

Well, growing up I think the first guy I ever heard of was probably Tony Hawk. Then Geoff Rowley, he's from Liverpool, for years he was the guy I was watchin' do all this crazy stuff down stairs in Liverpool for years.

Who else... just everyone who skated good, their styles you know, I guess today I can't really say anyone because my mind's on other things, my mind looks at skating like its own individual thing, I can appreciate the tricks and the skills, but I can't subscribe to what everyone is doing because I do have kids and I see the influence that we have on America, and the world today.

There's guys I like to watch, I like to watch that kid Alex Olson skate, Sean Malto, there's all these kids that are around, and I just got back from this Reliance trip and the dudes on that tour are just absolutely killer. They're just guys people haven't fully heard of yet, that are on tour 7 to 8 months a year, skating demos and parks just to share the Gospel, and they're really, really good at skating and they're original. So skating's not mine, it's not yours, I mean it's mine individually and for everyone, but really it's it's own thing, it's you and a skateboard making some emotions come out of your body, you know?

See yeah, that's exactly back to what I was mentioning about you and your skateboard, I grew up skating and there was just no other sport like it.

Yeah there isn't.

Except maybe surfing.

Yeah, well you know, people believe you can just do anything and it's true in one sense, but in another it's not. Like, you got a guy like Eric Koston who's just so talented, that even if I worked as hard as I could all day, I'm not gonna be Eric Koston. But there's also gonna be kids who might not even care about him, and they might go, "I like this kid who just does all these other tricks, and does all this stuff". But the reality is you get to see, I mean, look at Guy Mariano, if you look at him the way he skates, no one skates like him, so part of what's so awesome is, you have years of this guy not being around and you see him doing all these tricks that you remember him doing, and the new ones, that progress now it's just awesome.

But you look at Transworld magazine today I guarantee you there's probably 4 to 10 ads of kids doin' the gnarliest tricks, that no one's even gonna think about because they're not pushed. Those guys weren't pushed, not even I was pushed years ago through the Tony Hawk videos, and the Birdhouse stuff, the Adio DVD's, to where your name's established on a different level.

Skating's so big and so ambiguous, that unless 5 bands get behind you and they all push at the right time... I guess what I'm saying is the tricks amature's are doing today, are so ridiculous, that if some of the pro's were doing them, it would just do so much more for the pro's careers, but because kids are used to liking who they like, it's more like it's their style, their character now, whereas you see so many tricks, you know what I'm saying?

Skating itself is progressing, but people just like who they like. How many times can a kid new show up and do 50 gnarly tricks? Where years ago for me, I had video parts and tricks that were progressing, and the whole skate world was united together, we were all doing it together at the same time, now it's just everywhere.

The industry, it represents what everyone thinks, but, like I said skating isn't anyone's you know? You can't look at that stuff and take that as skating. Skating's always been what's fun for me, I've never been a competitive person, so I can't get into this whole "I've got to go get the cover of this, and do this and do that".

Man, I like to skate and I know, within just even in the Christian world, what's been happenin' is there's a whole realm of kids there that are stoked and supportive, and want to back people who are down and gonna carry their cross, and it's like "Why am I gonna go chase the other side of the world, why not step into this?", and at the same time, go through the magazines and do the videos and do stuff, but they just know what I'm about.

On that note, what are some of the challenges you have had to face?

As a Christian skater?

As Brian Sumner

Nothin', honestly, it's all just, you know, I'm a guy with a wife and two kids, and obviously life's been a blessing, all the biggest challenges were things that we didn't understand and we've been trying to overcome them.

I mean, just get over all the things so we'll be better and better for each other first, it'll be better for our kids, better for people around us, you know be salt and light. But I'll give you an example, when I became a Christian, I could have quit Adio and rolled for this other brand, but I just said "Lord, I'm gonna just stay here, I'm gonna honor these guys, I like what they're doin', I'm gonna just have this shoe and let all these things happen, and if You want to bless me and You want to do this You do it."

The whole year the shoe killed, it sold as much as I've ever had, so two years later the guy said "Adio's doin' this, and I'm gonna leave" and I just said "Ok, I'm not gonna stay over there, I'm gonna go somewhere else", and I went and asked companies, "You know I'm gonna go share, I'm gonna go film this reality show, I'm gonna go around the world skating, but I'm gonna be preaching, I'm gonna be a Christian, are you cool with it?"

Nice skate shoes was like "Yeah, we're cool with that". So I said "Ok, I'm gonna ride for them".

I'd rode for Birdhouse for a long time, the video's finished, a lot of those kids on there, they don't know what they're doing right now, a lot of things going on with that brand that I don't really know what's next for them. They have a really good market with the Completes and with the Tony Hawk style of things, that's where I would take it if I were them.

Photo: Brian Sumner

Reliance shows up and they're like, they see this as the season, they want to really get involved in skating as much as they can, like the industry side, they want to be all about the Word and sharing the Gospel.

So for me I'm like "I'm gonna go over there and support them, and put my foot down and try to lift them up because they've been lifting Christ up" and when people look at the website they're gonna see all these kids that for 7 years have just been going around sharing the Gospel, and hopefully it's gonna just get them more and more attention because, here's what people have got to realize, you have so many people skating now, and a massive part of that does involve the Bible belt, it does involve kids that are raised in sports families, and they won't just let their kids watch junk, they won't just let them read the magazine with the curse words and the foul language, and all that stuff.

Even though there's a lot to follow there, that was kind of the way skating was and now it's changed, you have this whole division of who you're marketing skating to, you can have a video that plays on Fuel for a year, of your board brand, and it's gonna get you way more coverage than probably if you had 10 interviews in a magazine, even with great stuff you know what I mean? There's certain kids who are gonna buy your stuff that won't even read those things that their parents won't allow them.

You know when you go to a Christian event, you've got the Dad, the Mom, the kid that skates, the brother and sister that don't, it's like you're getting to reach out to all his family, skating's in their family, parents are supporting it because they're Christians, their kid isn't gonna be influenced by the bad side of it, and so in a way it allows us to go do what we want to do and bond with them and at the same time you are bearing witness to everyone else.

Do you consider yourself a perfectionist?

You know if I look back on my career, there's so many things that if I wasn't a Christian I'd be like "Why did I do that?" I went and rolled for a hair care company because my friend was there, and I just thought "You know what, if I don't go and do this, would I want to honor my friend?", I went and did it and it looked so silly, but if I wasn't a Christian and I didn't understand God's plan I could look at that and go "Why did I do that for?"

Or, there were times where I switched companies, and I was like "Why did I do that?" In that realm you always want to have a good record, but really, it all make sense now.

So I'm a perfectionist as far as like today, I'm not skating because I'm worn out, I don't want to go skate and just cruise around and not really tryin' because I feel like the Bible says you're to do all things as to the Lord. If I go messing around and not serious I could get hurt, but tomorrow, when I go skate, I want to be 110%. I want to do everything I can, so even if I come home sore and worn out, I know I tried to do everything I can with the gift He gave me.

But also too, if you become too extreme, it can be your focus rather than what the Lord is having you do, because we've got to be, within our church, we're so disciplined, I mean there's just the amount of effort that goes into presenting the Gospel, and having the place in order and lined up and a lot of people would say, "Well you should be focused more on other things" but we're so focused on the Gospel, that everything else you want it to be perfect down to the way the chairs are set, down to the way the music sounds, down to the way of all these things and that just kind of carries off in your life.

Yeah that's the perfectionist part I'm talking about, it seems like that comes with being a Christian in some sense.

Yeah, it is dangerous, because think about it, we just had a skate conference at our church and I preached on Daniel, and how Daniel purposed in his heart not to slack, not to go live the Babylonian lifestyle, which represents the world, and part of my reason for preaching that was "Look, you show up at a church and you can run around, all sweaty fighting each other in the corridors of the church and you skate the whole demo and you're talking about all this secular stuff and you share your faith in Jesus Christ but the whole rest of the time your mind was on something else."

Even though you're a Christian, you're not walking in the perfection, and the purpose that you're called to walk, because when you go into a church, when I go in there as a skater, they don't know how serious I am about the Bible, they don't know if I'm reading it, they don't know what I believe, they don't know what I'm listening to, and when a pastor sees you and you're sold out like that, you're trying to do everything you can, it bears witness to them, it shines a ray of light in their idea of skate ministry that "Wow, the Lord is using this" you know what I mean? And that's where maybe, it is you know, the position He's put myself and other people in right now, that there are so many kids in skate ministries, there's so many kids that are Myspacing me and have all these ideas and they want to do it.

Hopefully this generation, me being able to ride for these sponsors and laying it all down, allows people to go look and at those younger skate kids who are serious, and go invest funds into them to go and do these outreaches and go to the parks that I can't go to, go to the parks that the show isn't going to, that's how I look at it. If I can step out and do this stuff, it'll hopefully shine a light for them, they'll have people say "This is the season", and rather than go buying a new car and raffelling it off in the parking lot of your church, hopefully people will just come for something free, they'll all go and fast about it, receive a word from the Lord and go and sew their money instead into 5 outreaches that year for the skate community because skating is huge now.

I've been really digging those SkateBible trick clips you've been doing, one of the reasons I think they are really effective is that you're teaching kids how to pull off tricks, that's the tangible concept part, and also, I think the really cool part is that it's showing us Christians as real people with interests like anybody else.

Well, that's what's gonna happen, I think with me people aren't gonna care about the tricks, they're gonna go "this guy's really trying to be as serious as he can" and we are trying to touch those kids who are like in need of the Light. When you go to a demo and you meet kids that are getting molested or beaten, or that have been through hell, it stops you in your tracks you're like "What am I doing, I just do tricks and I think I'm cool, what's this all about, I don't understand who Christ is" it totally convicts and challenges you. Now, it could be some kid in Alaska and you're watching me talking about slappies and the next minute you're listening to a testimony and you're like "WOW".

But the coolest thing is he's hearing a testimony and he can do a slappy, you see what I'm saying?

What we're gonna do right now, is we're gonna get my whole site revamped, get all the Myspace's and the YouTube's and everything all lined up so it's accurate, and every time there's an update, it will hit everyone like, "Boom, boom", you know, it will just blast everyone.

I think that really captures what we need to be doing right now, it's teaching people to fish you know? It's like a kid who wants to skate, he might not come even to hear the Bible, but here's Brian Sumner teaching him how to do a slappy, he's like "WHOA" and then all of the sudden he starts checking you out and then you've got him bit, and at the least, if he doesn't bite, then he learns a new trick and he see's that Brian dude is a cool dude.

Yeah, and then in 10 years time, yeah, it's all between the Lord and them.

I think that's a really awesome thing you're doing with that.

Amen.

What's your favorite all time deck?

Photo: Reliance

There was a Jesus one I did one time with just the eyes it was the crown of thorns, and just now Reliance skateboards they've got 2 or 3 decks comin' out, one's a cheetah, one's Jesus Christ and one's a cross. I'd have to say for me personally, I've had these cool Bruce Lee graphics, I've had these old school secular bands kind of stuff I used to like and now, obviously none of that stuff means anything so it's gonna be something with Christ on it, and the cross, and scripture and everything. So probably my 2 newest Christian lookin' style boards on the Reliance brand.

Related

• The Uprising Is Here
• The Uprising on Steelroots
• The Sanctuary HB
• Brian Sumner
• Skate Bible