Churches use punk culture to reach Montana teens

It’s an especially cold December night, with the kind of cold that makes every muscle in a person’s body clench. Inside one of the few new buildings in East Missoula, Mont., sweaty students -- mostly middle- and high-school age -- are packing up speed bags, jump ropes and boxing gloves after two hours of boxing. Donni Brickyard, whose baggy sweatpants and Everlast hoodie make him appear even bigger than his bulky 5-foot-11 frame, calls the group together.

Everyone kneels on the concrete floor to pray. Because this is more than a boxing club: It’s part of River of Life Ministries, an evangelical church started in Missoula in 2008.

Like other churches in the West, the Brickyard Boxing Club is using new and unorthodox methods to reach out to youth –– including coffee shops, worship music that sounds more like punk rock than traditional hymns, church parking-lot spaces reserved for motorcycles, and a general acceptance of tattoos, piercings and other contemporary styles. Although the West is traditionally one of the least religious regions of the country, church leaders hope this kind of culture-based, bottom-up outreach will benefit young people, who, particularly in rural areas, are often at high risk for teen pregnancy and drug use. Keep reading