By Jerry Jeter
Pastor, Pleasant View Baptist Church, Clarksville
About a year ago, our church started a chapter of F.A.I.T.H. Riders. This is a Southern Baptist ministry to motorcycle enthusiasts.
This past year, our small chapter participated in witnessing at Daytona’s Bike Week, sharing testimonies with thousands and seeing hundreds come to faith in Christ. We also participated in serving at the Southern Baptist Convention in Birmingham, Ala., and we helped raise money for the Tennessee Baptist Children’s Home. Our chapter has grown from about five or six riders to nearly a dozen. Locally, some riders have come to faith in Christ, followed in baptism and some are already serving in various ways in our church.
On Labor Day weekend, hundreds of F.A.I.T.H. Riders from around the nation gathered at the Ridgecrest Conference Center in North Carolina for our annual national rally. We rode some of the most popular roads in the United States, worshiped with each other, heard great messages and ministered to the lost and needy in the communities surrounding Ridgecrest. My wife, Kim, and I were joined by Frank and Robin Webb of First Baptist Church, Mount Pleasant, and John and Paula Zimmer from Columbia. The fellowship we experienced with each other and the others from around the country was incredible.
We had three worship services with different speakers. Friday’s speaker was pastor Frank Pomeroy from First Baptist Church, Sutherland Springs, Texas. He shared his testimony about how a mass shooting at his church in 2017 impacted his church and community and how God took that tragedy and is using it to spread the gospel around the world.
The national rally’s theme “Continue the Vision” based on Acts 13:47. What the Lord commanded over 2,000 years ago is still relevant today.
We were given a charge by all three powerful speakers to be about the Lord’s business because we never know what tomorrow holds. With over 200 F.A.I.T.H. Riders in attendance, we were inspired to be better Christians and to not leave anyone behind (II Peter 3:9).
All of the worship was Christ-centered and God received all the glory. We are excited to go into the highways and byways and bring the Good News to everyone we encounter. We are also looking forward to meeting at Ridgecrest Conference Center in Asheville, NC, again next year (May 22-24) for our sixth annual national rally.
If you or your church would like to explore the idea of starting a chapter of F.A.I.T.H. Riders at your church, contact me at Pleasant View Baptist Church in Clarksville, or Mike Stewart through the F.A.I.T.H. Riders website at faithriders.com. B&R