Motorcycle ministries rev up new outreach opportunities in state with continued growth

Door-to-door evangelism has its place, but for Marcus Merritt, an associate in the evangelism office at the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM), the next few years are all bumper to bumper, fender to fender.
  
Merritt, a motorcycle enthusiast, has been commissioned by SBOM Evangelism Director Sammy Gilbreath to integrate F.A.I.T.H. Riders, a Florida-born motorcycle ministry just starting to take off in Alabama, into the state’s Intentional Evangelism strategy. The melding of ministry goals is the SBOM’s most recent attempt at reaching bikers for Christ — a goal gaining statewide and nationwide traction. 
  
Participating in the debut ride of the state’s first F.A.I.T.H. Riders chapter, a ministry of Hill Crest Baptist Church, Anniston, in Calhoun Baptist Association, Merritt and his 11-year-old daughter, Bethany, rode a Harley-Davidson Electra Glide Ultra borrowed from Gilbreath, a weekend biker. The ride was part of the National Veterans Day Parade in Birmingham this past November.
  
According to Merritt, the office of evangelism’s partnership with F.A.I.T.H. Riders is based largely on their like-minded missions. 
  
“Most [motorcycle ministries] are organized for Christian fellowship, which is great, but F.A.I.T.H. Riders is unabashedly evangelistic in their approach,” he said. 
  
The Hill Crest Baptist chapter, for example, holds Bike Night every fourth Thursday of the month.
  
“We invite other bikers to a time of good food and fellowship, and while they are there, they not only get physical food but spiritual food also,” said Steven Hale, chapter director. “I share a thought from the Word of God and share Jesus with them also.”
  
The group has a vision to reach other bikers with the love of Christ, he said. “We have really grown since [we started] to more than 40 bikers involved. I had the opportunity to lead one to Christ and baptize him into our church.”
  
Ministries such as Hill Crest Baptist’s are reaching out to a demographic different than the biker of yesteryear, according to Gilbreath.
  
“I think that many people still have a concept in their mind of a motorcycle rider like we saw in the ’60’s in a Hell’s Angels movie,” he said. “The motorcycle rider today is a family-oriented, middle-age baby boomer. This is a large subculture in our society, and ministries like F.A.I.T.H. Riders offer us the opportunity to reach them using their passion.”
  
A Google search for “motorcycle ministry” currently yields about 24,000 results. Topping the list are organizations christened with holy bravado: Bikers for Christ, HonorBound, Chariots for Christ, Heralds of the Cross. 
  
One such group, Heaven’s Saints, has its headquarters in Phenix City.
  
“Until I joined (Heaven’s Saints) and a chapter started in our area, I was like most people,” said Teresa Oakes, a member of A Healing Ride, the Heaven’s Saints chapter in Enterprise. “When I saw a group of motorcycle riders coming, I thought, ‘There goes trouble.’ Man, was I ever wrong.” 
  
Oakes currently attends Springhill Emmanuel Church in Troy but has been in Baptist churches much of her life.
  
“Not every person that rides a bike is out doing the devil’s work. The purpose of [Heaven’s Saints] is to be ambassadors and ministers in the hedges and highways to compel [the unsaved] to Jesus,” she said.
  
At The Church at Brook Hills, Birmingham, in Birmingham Baptist Association, a small group Bible study for bikers has seen 12 baptized and many return to church and a relationship with Christ since 2003.
  
“In the early days of the bikers’ group, the members frequently had conversations about bikes, but as the years have gone by, our conversations are now about Christ,” said James Jones, the group’s facilitator.
  
Debby Bowers, adult discipleship minister at Brook Hills, agreed. “This group has grown spiritually in their love and depth of commitment for Christ over the years,” she said.
  
According to Bowers, the group is “a vital ministry at The Church at Brook Hills and a blessing to our community,” noting that the members are “a close-knit family” that meets weekly for Bible study and at other times during the week for ministry.
  
While organizations like this one founded on subculture-specific ministry can quickly become competitive within their evangelistic niche, Christian motorcycle affiliations have mostly eschewed the rivalries typically associated with biker and gang culture. And Alabama-based organizations are leading the charge.  
  
Colors for the Cross, a “bikefest” held annually in Dothan, champions the unity of purpose of all motorcycle ministries that care to attend. Fifteen different ministries participated in 2006.
  
Merritt said the SBOM is in the early stages of planning a statewide biker event to correspond with the 2008 State Evangelism Conference. 
  
For him, planning such a ministry is ultrapersonal.
  
Merritt’s affinity for F.A.I.T.H. Riders techniques can be traced to his relationship with his father, Ed Merritt, who was killed in a motorcycle accident, which was not his fault, in 2000. 
  
“My father and I used to ride together. He had a big Harley-Davidson, really beautiful. [His death] is part of my journey — what’s gotten me to where I am. He was definitely my mentor and one of the greatest soul winners I’ve ever been around in my life,” he said.
  
Excited about the growth of motorcycle ministry in Alabama, Merritt said he sees the same enthusiasm for soul winning in F.A.I.T.H. Riders. “They’re after more than just getting somebody to pray a prayer … their passion is to truly make disciples.”
  
For more information on starting a motorcycle ministry or F.A.I.T.H. Riders chapter, call Merritt at 1-800-264-1225, Ext. 368.