Black Sheep

BSHDFC E-Mag March/June 2019 | Page 9 Mentorship vs prospecting Marty Edwards In the beginning, the mindset of our leadership was, "We're all Chris ans! We all love Jesus and go to church! We don't need to 'prospect' our members. That's for the clubs." To become a member of this flock, all one needed to do was fill out a one page, one sided applica on with a pastoral reference. The applica on told us what bike someone rode, what church they went to and provided us with a basic tes mony: "I came to Jesus at age eight at vaca on Bible school…" We soon learned that our applica on was not enough – not even close. While we s ll rejected the idea of pu ng PROSPECTive members through a proba onary period, washing the president's motorcycle and running errands, we knew we needed something more. The single page bylaws became five pages and then ten, but there was no training. As the ministry began to spread across the country and new members were hundreds of miles away our Southern California leadership, ma er only got worse. Most of our incoming members either (a) had no idea what it meant to be in a motorcycle ministry or (b) were bringing a lot of bad habits and ideas. We've all heard the saying, "You can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy." Let me give you two more: "You can take the boy out of the motorcycle club culture, but you can't take the motorcycle club culture out of the boy." Furthermore, equally inadequate for what BSHDFC was trying to accomplish, ""You can take the Chris an out of the church culture, but you can't take the church culture out of the Chris an." We found ourselves stuck between "Susie Sunday-School Teacher" and "Konan the Barbarian Turned Chris an." Susie was shocked by the motorcycle world, paralyzed by fear and offense while Konan was s ll struggling with his past. There had to be an answer and we called it "mentorship." "Mentorship is a rela onship in which a more experienced or more knowledgeable person helps to guide a less experienced or less knowledgeable person. The mentor may be older or younger than the person being mentored, but he or she must have a certain area of exper se." (Wikipedia) Mentorship is a cross between EDUCATION and COACHING. A mentor gives INFORMATION but also SHOWS THE WAY. The mentor also shows the mentee the COST of becoming a member. They discuss (a) The nature of motorcycle ministry (b) The priori es and values of this par cular ministry (c) The me and cost involved and (d) The high standard of character and integrity expected of our members. In an a empt to be er prepare our people for this ministry, we increased our requirements, lengthened our interviews and established more and more opportuni es for instruc on and training. While things got be er, there were s ll unacceptable numbers of people who came and le within a year or two. We deeply desired something be er for our members and from our members. We challenged incoming members with, "You will not discover your full poten al for effec ve motorcycle ministry within the first year – or even the first two years. Motorcycle ministry is about inves ng me into people's lives; earning the right to be heard." Our mentorship process was (and is) designed to help our members (a) Discover and Understand (b) Evaluate and Priori ze (c) Count the cost and (d) Self examine. There were (and s ll are) three common ques ons that people ask about mentorship. These are taken directly from chapter one. "What if I am already a mature Chris an – or even a pastor?" Much like any other kind of missionary work, motorcycle ministry is unique from work within the local church. Someone with a doctorate in ministry is not necessarily prepared for street ministry in the inner city. We have had a number of well-educated and experienced pastors join BSHDFC only to discover that their years of training and experience in seminary did not apply much to what the Black Sheep do. Those who have been Chris ans for many years s ll need special prepara on before going to a foreign mission field. Motorcycle ministry IS a foreign mission field for most Chris ans. Buying a new motorcycle and a leather jacket does not prepare one for the motorcycle sub- culture. "What if I am coming from another motorcycle ministry?" Motorcycle clubs and ministries can differ significantly from one another. While on the outside we may have some similari es, it is the subtle differences that can create

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