harley grace - part four

what an amazing thing! i was soaring. it was blessing time for the kirbys. new life was coming into our lives, into our home. a tiny light began suddenly shining in the midst of so much darkness. it was a huge reminder to me that God had not forgotten us out here in our desert place.

there was so much to do, so much to prepare for in our home.

we started trying out baby names and talked about baby furniture and baby clothes and baby toys. we started talking about baby's first Christmas which we realized would happen this year. on and on we talked, planned and, for a time, rejoiced in secret about our baby.

but we waited only a little while and finally began telling friends and family our incredible news. our joy and that of our friends and extended family was limitless. good things were happening and good days were coming.

well, i continued on my path, albeit with with a decidedly new skip in my step, just praying, hoping and looking for opportunities to connect with bikers in the community. i had heard about a guy, indian mike, as he was called (because he owned a classic indian motorcycle that he had rebuilt himself and with which he had won many bike shows), who worked at the local harley dealer. more importantly, indian mike was one of the founders and co-presidents of a chapter of the yellow jackets motorcycle club and he had been a part of another popular club in the area before that. in other words, this guy had connections to lots of bikers ... and ... it just so happened that someone in our church knew him, or at least, knew his wife.

this was an interesting development - finding out that someone in our church knew indian mike - and i intended to look into this guy and figure out how we might be able to meet him and maybe reach out to him and to others through him. yeah, i fully intended to look into this. but ... as ministry life goes, i got busy with so many other things and the days and weeks began to slip by.

then, one sunday after church i was talking with a woman, liz, who was very new to our church. in fact liz had only attended two or three times and i had met her and talked with her some but what i found out about this woman on this particular sunday just blew me away. her husband was a biker. cool.

"hey, that's really interesting because i just started riding again," i remember telling her.

"you should talk to my husband. he rides a harley. in fact he works at the harley dealer in town."

"oh, really?"

"yeah, his name is mike. you should meet him. and if you are looking for a bike i'm sure he could help you. here's his card."

liz's husband was a biker ... but not just any biker. his name was mike ... but not just any mike. he ... was indian mike.

more later...

harley grace - part three

when i got home from the retreat i was so full of peace, joy, encouragement, purpose, hope and vision. the impact of the times of worship and inspirational teaching were wonderful and certainly figure into everything i was feeling. it was clear, however, that what had put me over the edge was the sense of community i had experienced while riding and sharing life with my new-found pentecostal biker buddies. these guys (and gals) were so full of passion for sharing the Christ-life with others and proud of the opportunity that riding had given them to minister to people that many have overlooked, america's eight million bikers and motorcyclists.

that passion sparked something in me and it wouldn't let me go. i knew that i had to be a part of this. so upon returning from the retreat i called russ at his office in indiana and we talked for probably an hour or more about his story (the story of the incredible transformation God performed in his life) and his ministry (the gift that God gave him of sharing the story of his transformation with the biker culture). and by the time we were done with our conversation i had downloaded the membership application from his web site and had gathered all the details i needed to start a new chapter of honorbound mm in virginia.

it took a few months to get everything in place but by the spring i had my colors (the patches that are displayed on the back of your vest and identify you as a member of the ministry) and virginia chapter 2 was launched.

and in the midst of riding and praying for opportunities to share Christ with bikers (along with all the other ministry we did as church planters in a young and growing congregation), my wife, evelyn, and i received some unbelievable news. after nearly eight years of hoping, praying, wondering, and waiting, evelyn was pregnant with our second child. God, the giver of all good things, was up to something new.

more later...

harley grace - part two

i had noticed that from time to time rich neubauer would show up at our denominational pastor's network meetings wearing biker riding gear and usually with a long-haired biker friend in tow. i have to say, i admired the boldness this pastor displayed in just walking into those meetings, "auspicious" as they were, without much care or concern for the looks he was getting. here he was, a pentecostal pastor dressed like that, and obviously riding one of the harley-davidson motorcycles we had seen parked outside. so i was curious about him and his harley riding habit and the long-haired friend that always came with him.

well, it was at the retreat center where i finally got the chance to talk to him about all this and about the way the Christ-life has changed for him since he started riding. rich shared with me an amazing story about a man named russ cockrum, the founder of the honorbound motorcycle ministry. he told me how russ started the ministry after having a bad motorcycle accident that caused him to do some serious soul-searching. it was during the recovery period as russ lay in the hospital that God reminded him of something russ had said over 20 years earlier. on that day and at the very moment he first began to follow Christ, russ had whispered, "God, never let me forget where i came from." those words came back to him like a boomerang in the face.

russ realized that over the years since meeting Christ he had forgotten where he came from. God had rescued him from a life as a drug addicted, alcoholic biker about to lose his marriage and everything else important to him and had helped him become a successful church planter, pastor and denominational leader. but 20 plus years later, God had something else in mind.

as it would happen, at this same time, russ met rich neubauer. rich had heard about a fellow pastor traveling out here from the midwest who had had a bad motorcycle accident. and rich, being a local pastor and a guy with a heart as big as texas, went to visit him in the hospital.

that connection between rich and russ turned out to be a divine appointment and the idea for starting honorbound mm was born.

well, this story and the new stories rich had to tell about the many lives that have been impacted by the ministry over the past 5 years of honorbound mm's existence, filled me with a new passion and an excitement for sharing Christ in a context i never thought was possible for a pentecostal preacher. and, little did i know how God was about to use this ministry to speak into my life at the most difficult season i have ever faced.

more later...

harley grace

okay, i’m still overwhelmed by the grace of God as i think about the story i have to tell, but, here goes. it will have to come through several posts because it’s pretty long but the work of God through every detail (at least as much as i will be able to fit in) is simply astounding, amazing, astonishing and any other good “a” words a person could think of.

the whole story begins with a motorcycle and ends (although the story is still going on. eventually you will see what i mean.) with a motorcycle in a big way. and people who know me personally know that i like to ride motorcycles. it’s just something i have always loved to do. it probably started with my dad because i still have this vivid memory from my childhood in which my father placed me on the gas tank (i was probably 4-5 years old) of his cruiser and took me on my first ride. the experience of that day just stuck with me.

anyway, people know i love to ride. i owned a bike in college (a kawasaki since my dad had a kawasaki) but sold it to buy an engagement ring for this really special lady i met (evelyn) and then married after graduation. now, i have never had any regrets about selling the bike to buy the ring, really. but … i have missed riding ever since and i knew that some day i would get back to it.

so, over the past three years or so i started to really get the bug again and on one “pastor appreciation sunday” my congregation surprised me with a gift certificate for a rental of my favorite kind of bike – a harley-davidson. i rented the bike for three days and fell in love with the riding experience all over again. i couldn’t shake it. so much was this the case that the church just gave me a rental gift certificate every year on “pastor appreciation sunday” and my wife bought me at least one rental as a birthday present.

i started renting a bike several times a year and, as you can read in my previous posts, began riding with other minister friends that i discovered had the riding bug too. it was through one of these minister buddies (rich neubauer) that i learned of the honorbound motorcycle ministry – a ministry that trains you how to share the Christ-life with folks in the biker culture. i was attending the annual minister’s retreat sponsored by my denomination when i happened to run into rich and a few other guys who, like me (except not like me in that i was renting my ride), had ridden their bikes to the retreat center.

rich and some of the bikers/pastors with him were wearing leather vests (as well as boots, chaps, head wraps, etc.) with huge colorfully embroidered patches on the back – pretty radical looking garb for pentecostal preachers. i asked rich about the meaning of the patches which included a crown fashioned from thorns and a cross made from three nails dead center of the crown. what rich explained to me in that moment and in the hours that followed as we spent the retreat time together brought something fresh and wonderful and fulfilling in my life. more later…

how far will he go?

i'm overwhelmed by the awareness that God is willing to go to any extreme to reach any person (no matter their culture, politics, spiritual acuity, etc.). i'm in the midst of a story that illustrates this fact more clearly than anything i have ever experienced. the story is still unfolding but will show up here soon. there is too much to say already but in the next few posts i will have to try and get started and one day get it all in. right now i can't even begin to tell the story because, like i said, i'm overwhelmed. suffice it to say it involves several "chance" meetings, a painful experience (the worst thing that has ever happened to me), the persistent voice of God, the church, and a harley-davidson.