Lord’s love rocks

Ministry founder digs hardcore
metal over hardcore preaching

by CHRIS BARRY

Name: Kim Reid

Age: 50

Occupation: Founder of On Rock Ministries

Bio: This refreshingly chill Kirkland stud was baptized an Anglican but after “a major family break-up” was sent to live in a foster home full of Pentecostals, a church where, at age 12, young Kim’s “relationship with Jesus Christ was communicated in a way that made sense.” After a lengthy career in social work addressing juvenile delinquents and various mentally whacked adolescents, Kim came to the conclusion “that by the time kids find themselves in the system, you can’t influence them much, they’re already too messed up,” so in 1992, he quit his job and, in tandem with an organization called Youth for Christ, started up a teen drop-in centre he christened the Vault. Eventually deemed “too edgy” by the YFC gang, Kim, who was playing bass for touring Christian rockers Innocent Blood at the time, politely told the youthful Christians to go fuck themselves with a crucifix and struck out on his own with On Rock Ministries. Today, ORM continues to run the Vault along with a food bank that’s feeding some 93 West Island families every week.

Did the Youth for Christ people think Kim’s crowd were “too edgy” because he obviously named their drop-in centre after a notorious NYC homo S&M bar? “No. It’s ’cause I played in a hard rock band and was doing crazy stuff like printing t-shirts that said ‘Pray Naked’ on them, basically meaning, ‘Be honest with God,’ but they just freaked out. I’m a little left-of-centre with the way I go about doing things, you know.”

What the hell inspires somebody to start up his own church anyway? “Because I felt the way the Church was doing ‘church’ wasn’t the way God wanted to do it. People don’t need to be preached to all the time, they need love and friends, and, you know, to just be normal.”

Did he name his thing On Rock Ministries in the effort to trick crack cocaine enthusiasts into checking them out before clobbering them over the head with Jesus? No. “On Rock refers to Jesus, who is the rock.”

Do the hungry also get a healthy portion of the Lord with their On Rock food baskets? “Absolutely not. We’re not here to shove anything down anyone’s throat except food. Same with the drop-in centre, there’re no traps, no preaching, no you-have-to-show-up-at-this-meeting or you-have-to-ascribe-to-a-certain-belief things. Our goal is to share the love of God with people in the community and do that not by preaching at them, but by loving them—the way the Bible says we should. Sometimes kids at the drop-in centre wonder why we’re doing this—we’ve got free foosball, pool tables, air hockey, a really cheap snack bar, hardcore nights with live bands—and we always answer that it’s because we love God and we think God wants us to love them. And if they want to take the conversation further than that, then fine, but if they don’t, that’s fine too, let’s just play pool. And most kids just want to play pool, which is absolutely no problem, it helps keep them out of trouble.”

Last book read: The Great Divorce, by C.S. Lewis.

Musical preferences: Dustin Kensrue, Becoming the Archetype, Tom Waits.

Words of wisdom: “Can you make a sandwich? ’Cause that’s all it takes to feed the poor.”

Comments: dimwit@hdot.net