Hollywood Actor Stephen Baldwin Is Now ‘Livin It L.A.’

With Some Help from ‘The Lord’s Lounge’

By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries


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NEWPORT BEACH, CA (ANS) -- He’s the brother of Alec Baldwin and is known for his role as a career criminal in “The Usual Suspects” and more recently as part of the cast of ABC’s reality show “Celebrity Mole”.

But Stephen Baldwin believes his most important role in life now is as a born-again Christian.

In an extraordinary career change, Baldwin has been busy making a series of Christian-themed DVDs of skateboarders and BMX riders called “Livin’ It” and “Livin’ It: Unusual Suspects” and I caught up with him outside the Regency Lido Theater in Newport Beach, California, on Wednesday, June 21, for the world premier of his latest film project called “Livin It L.A.”

The new Baldwin-directed movie, produced by Kevin Palau and the Palau Association, features 12 top athletes in the world of skateboarding, ranging from legends like Lance Mountain, Ray Barbee, and Christian Hosoi from the glory days of the 1970s and 1980s, to up-and-comers like Richard Mulder and Brian Sumner.

To add to the glamour of the occasion, Baldwin had brought along his custom-designed brand-new 16-foot box truck, nicknamed "The Lord's Lounge," which he uses to evangelize the youth of America as he travels around the country. The floor of the vehicle, which he parked at the back of the theatre, is covered in red shag carpet and up on the walls it has several large white crosses that hang behind the pulpit.

The extraordinary vehicle also has a public address system with a 300-foot range, plush couches, a disco mirror ball, Lava Lamps and a 40-inch plasma television that swings out to show DVDs of Baldwin's "Livin It" Christian skateboarding videos.

As the crowds pushed in to talk with him, I persuaded him to take a few minutes out from talking, signing autographs and handing out DVDs, to get him first of all to talk about “The Lord’s Lounge.”

He began by saying, “‘The Lord’s Lounge’ is just a way that the Lord showed me that we can have some fun with the kids. He gave me this vision of having a funky seventies disco lounge and really what we’re just trying to do; connect up with the kids in a way they can experience a little bit more fun in relation to connecting up with Jesus.”

When asked how they were reacting to it, Stephen Baldwin said, “The kids are freakin’ out man; they’re having such fun with it. They’re asking Mom and Dad, ‘How do we get a ‘Lord’s Lounge?’”

He then explained how he first became involved in this new form of outreach to the youth.

“It began when I went to an amazing Beachfest put on in Fort Lauderdale by the Palau Organization in March 2003,” he said. “I saw them using the skateboarding in a really legitimate, radical way, to bring the kids in to get a hearing for the Gospel message

“After that, we made the ‘Livin It’ skate video and it’s really just snowballed from there. During the last three years, over 200 skateboard ministries have been birthed in America as a result of what ‘Livin It’ has been doing. And it’s not us; it’s God using this for a time such as this. God wants to reach the youth culture and He’s gonna use music and skateboarding and whatever else it takes to get His Gospel delivered.”

When asked what Luis Palau made of this radical approach to presenting the “Good News” to the youth, Baldwin replied, “Well Luis has been very gracious about this. For over 40 years, his ministry has been extremely effective and powerful. When he and the team switched to the festival model, the Church has had an amazing revival happen in it. “

And now the ‘Livin It’ thing is going out on more of a hardcore, grassroots level, and is starting to reach the youth culture demographically and is strategically pinpointing those people more than ever before. We’re really excited about what is happening.”

I then asked Baldwin what he would like to say to those who have not yet accepted Christ as their personal savior.

“All I can say is that I challenged God to reveal Himself to me in a realistic way,” he said. “I told Him that if He didn’t, I’d curse Him. I’ve been living and working in Hollywood for 20 years and what I did at that moment was I did what the Bible says; that you need to do things the way God says; you need to seek Him. That’s the most important thing.

“The biggest mistake people make today is they don’t do it God’s way, but they try and do it their way. So I challenged God and He said, ‘OK Stephen, do it my way.’ So I did. I sought His Word and I now read the Bible every day. I pray every day and the experience and the reaction that I have got from that has been far more powerful and satisfying than anything I’ve ever done anywhere else.

“God is real, but you only come to know that if you seek Him. His way is not your way.”

I then asked Baldwin if his friends in Hollywood think that he has taken leave of his senses with the new direction his life has taken.

“I don’t care what anybody thinks in Hollywood; I only care what God thinks,” he said firmly.

“I know that all those people [in Hollywood] very soon are gonna be coming into this understanding as well.”

With that, we shook hands and Stephen was heading back again to “The Lord’s Lounge” and sharing the Gospel with the youth that were crowding around it.

For him, a life with Christ is truly “Livin It”.

To follow Stephen Baldwin’s travels, go to www.thelordslounge.com.

Dan Wooding is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS). He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. danjuma1@aol.com.