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Plenty of sunshine. High 94F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph..
Clear skies. Low 74F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph.
Doug Pierce talks about his ministry that reaches youth through a variety of activities while providing service for the needy. He also conducts surf camps.
Doug Pierce talks about his ministry that reaches youth through a variety of activities while providing service for the needy. He also conducts surf camps.
Doug Pierce talks about his ministry that reaches youth through a variety of activities while providing service for the needy. He also conducts surf camps.
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Doug Pierce talks about his ministry that reaches youth through a variety of activities while providing service for the needy. He also conducts surf camps.
Doug Pierce talks about his ministry that reaches youth through a variety of activities while providing service for the needy. He also conducts surf camps.
Doug Pierce talks about his ministry that reaches youth through a variety of activities while providing service for the needy. He also conducts surf camps.
Veritas Shapes Ministries is about as underground as it gets, says founder and director Doug Pierce.
It’s heavy focus on teaching the fundamentals of surfing, skateboarding and music — three disciplines with associated cultures heavily favoring individuality and freedom — would be enough to earn the label, but Pierce sees their ministry as underground in itself.
Aside from having fun with those sports himself, Pierce found they were good avenues via which to minister to VSM’s core audience — directionless school kids and young adults who have no exposure to the normal church structure. He founded VSM in 2018 with nothing but a desire to reach these children and show them what they were missing out on.
Finding these kids is one of the hardest parts. There’s usually a reason why they don’t find their way into established church structures or organizations. Pierce has experience with many of those reasons himself.
Despite having little to no experience with church or religion in general, Pierce found almost everyone he talked to very receptive. He and the group of helpers, many of them parents themselves, worked with gave them what they wanted the most — time and attention.
“There are more kids hurting outside a church box than inside,” Pierce said.
While he’s been on the mission for four years, Pierce says it feels like VSM is only just beginning to hit its stride. What started with a few Bible studies with a dozen or so kids quickly turned into gatherings of dozens, filling up the home in which he and his wife live.
Then the group started SOFI, or the School for Foundation & Identity, which teaches scripture and how to follow it in daily life; VSM’s surf camp, which takes hundreds of kids to Jacksonville Beach every summer to learn the craft; a recurring outreach at Glynn County skate parks to teach kids the proper methods; and regular daily activities throughout the year at the Pierces’ home.
They were planning to build a deck on the back of their house to accommodate more people until another idea presented itself: a fundraiser to either buy or rent a building for a woodworking workshop for surfboard shaping and skateboard ramps.
The campaign has reached around $45,000 of the $100,000 goal, which would have been enough to secure the ideal building for The Hub, as it was dubbed, on U.S. 17 near the F.J. Torras Causeway. As of this week, though, that deal is off the table.
“This one would have been perfect, but really we just need 4,000 to 5,000 square feet of warehouse space,” Pierce said.
He’s taking recommendations for new spaces.
For more information on the fundraising campaign or to contact the organization, visit veritasshapes.org/vsm-hub.
Like many who grew up in the Bible Belt, Pierce was never a stranger to church. He went every Sunday morning and Wednesday night.
“I never met God that whole time,” Pierce said.
A myriad of issues at home and bad influences among his friends led him down a bad path, Pierce said, ultimately landing him in jail on a few occasions. Two things turned him around, though — the prospect of federal prison time and nearly losing his father.
Those experiences finally brought him into direct connection with God, Pierce said. Rather than following the original plan to return to Brunswick and open his own business, he said he instead started trying to get these outside-the-church-box kids into youth ministry.
Following a stint as missionaries in East Asia, he and his wife started the organization Veritas Shapes Ministries in 2018. Eventually, his wife left her own job to further the group’s goals, and they haven’t looked back.
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