Biker Outreach Shares Gospel with 3700 Bikers In Daytona – Over 500 Receive Christ

I just ran across a story on the Baptist Press that I thought would encourage many of you. I must confess that I am not a biker and honestly to not relate to the biker mentality or lifestyle, but I can relate to bikers being people just like anyone else. I have mentioned before that many bikers come by my community in August when Sturgis SD holds it’s annual Harley Davidson rally. So when I saw this story about this biker outreach in Daytona, I just had to share it with you.

500 plus bikers won to Christ in Daytona biker outreach.

Would you trade three minutes of your time for a chance to win a black 2012 Harley Davidson Road Glide motorcycle?

That was the question posed to bike lovers ambling along Beach Street during the 2012 Bike Week in Daytona Beach, Fla.

Stopped by “catchers” wearing Faith Riders T-shirts, the onlookers considered the request: three minutes of their time. Some left, but most were enticed by the potential prize — unaware that those three minutes could make a difference in where they spend eternity.

With a baby strapped in a carrier on his chest, Stephan and his wife pushed a second child in a stroller along Beach Street. Once inside the Faith Riders’ tent, the young African American began talking to Clayton Reeves, a biker from Harmony Grove Baptist Church in Blairsville, Ga.

Stephan was reluctant when Reeves began sharing his personal testimony, but the Holy Spirit was working.

When it came to the question, “If [you] died today would [you] go to heaven?” Stephan answered that he was a good man. “I explained to him that I was a good man,” Reeves said, “but good ain’t gonna get you in heaven.”

Reeves continued sharing the plan of salvation as massive motorcycles cruised along the road, vibrating the ground and sending gas fumes into the air. At the conclusion, Stephan prayed to receive Christ under the Faith Riders tent.

“He hugged me and everybody else. He wouldn’t let go. He kept saying he couldn’t thank me enough for taking the time to talk to him,” Reeves said.

“He left here a changed man.”

During the weeklong effort, the bell tolled more than 500 times — as many as 20 times within an hour — for those who prayed to receive Christ as their Savior. In all, the Gospel was shared with 3,744 bikers.

In their three minutes with the bikers, the volunteers seek prayer needs, often hearing emotional stories. Several have been on the brink of divorce while others have lost loved ones and jobs. Still others have found their addictions have cost them dearly.

“Ninety-five percent of them are average persons — doctors, lawyers and businessmen who come to a week like this and dress the way they do to assume a different identity. They are desperately seeking a new identity,” Newsome said, noting that a new identity can be found in Christ.

“People ask me, ‘How can someone be saved in three minutes?’ You don’t know what has gone on in their lives,” Reeves said. “It could have been a Sunday School teacher or someone else who planted that seed. And we get to see it reaped by the Holy Spirit.”

source: http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=37525

What do you think about this biker outreach?

I must admit, the initial enticement of winning a Harley is a unique concept. Who wouldn’t want to win a brand new Harley Davidson Motorcycle? Would you give 3 minutes of your time to have a chance to win a bike like that? What about the biker outreach? Do you think this is a good thing or a bad thing? Should we entice people to listen to the gospel? In my opinion, anything we can do to get people to slow down and just have a conversation about spiritual matters can’t be all bad. Although I wish our nation was hungry enough to just want to hear about the life changing power of the gospel of Jesus, in all reality it is not. So when we come up with ways to establish relationship, touch people, get them to talk, and to share the most important message in the world, then that is a good thing! So once again my hat goes off to Florida Baptist Convention and the Faith Riders! Good Job!

Blessings!

Pastor Duke