holiness and harleys

after coming fresh off a three-day retreat i’m thinking again about the question from my last post, “how much of the pentecostal church is simply cultural and how much of it is truly a reflection of the Spiritlife?” this retreat is an annual event sponsored by my denomination where the ministers from our region head to the mountains to get alone with God, refocus on the inward journey, and … play golf.

only I didn’t play golf … because i was able to talk another church planter friend of mine (ray cowell) into riding out to the retreat center with me on our motorcycles. i had in mind that we would just ride through the nearby rocky gap state park during our free time.

now, ray has a new bike, a honda vtx 1800. in other words, an import - a not made in the usa motorcycle, a metric cruiser. okay, okay, so it's faster than what i was riding - an hd electra-glide classic. anyway, when we got to the retreat center we were surprised to see a few other bikes in the parking lot - harleys, in fact. "but, they couldn't possibly belong to any pentecostal preachers. harleys and holiness preachers? " that's what i was thinking though i had heard rumors.

as it turned out, after the evening session that first night, ray and i met four other bikers (yes, pentecostal minister bikers) who indeed had felt compelled to ride their bikes to the retreat. this was amazing; those bikes did belong to other ministers after all - pentecostal bikers - go figure.

plans were made to hook up for a ride the following day in the free time between the morning and evening sessions and ray and i went back to our room more than a little excited, anticipating a day of riding hogs while "the ladies" (what we took to calling the non-motorcycle-riding preachers) played golf.

the next day, after the morning session, we met up outside the lodge with what turned out to be a serious group of bikers covered in black leather everything - chaps, jackets, boots, gloves - and straddling chromed out two-wheeled symbols of serious cultural rebellion. are these guys holiness preachers?

without much conversation we strapped on helmets, pushed dark sunglasses back on our faces and thundered out past guys in plaid pants who were lugging big bags of gulf clubs (metal rods that each wear tiny fuzzy sweaters with numbers on them).

what happened to me - to all of us - throughout the hours that followed was subtle at first, hardly noticeable. while my ministry colleagues and i were riding, we were connecting - deeply. those few short hours riding together and the "celebration" meal we all shared afterward (thanks again for the steak, rich) resulted in the most authentic community i have ever experienced. it was so good to be real and to be known. it was amazing to be pentecostal and riding harley-davidsons with other pentecostal preachers.

one of my biggest regrets is that i didn't get a picture of all of us together. i did manage to take a few shots of the postcard scenery that surrounded us on all sides - the misty mountains, placid lakes and meandering streams that absorbed the rumble of so many chrome pipes even as our shiny metal machines went gliding furtively across miles of pavement and between snaking yellow lines.

by the end of day three of our retreat we found two more ministers who had bikes (one of them a missionary and the other a church planter) which brought our total to eight riders (five of us church planters and two of us former church planters and one guy doing college ministry).

I can't believe how much fun a bunch of pentecostal pastors had doing what most of our colleagues shake their heads at (and, i think, secretly wish they could do themselves). It was great.

Ray, Rich, Mark, Tim, Nancy, Sam, Wes, it was a pleasure riding with you.