Black Sheep

I went camping this past Thanksgiving, alone. My wife had to work the weekend and I had been looking for some time to just get away and be alone with God. I brought my Bible, a good book and worship music. I desperately wanted to hear from God, especially regarding Black Sheep. God has blessed us, given us terrific people and provided for all of our needs. We have a very unique, strategically focused mission and we have embedded ourselves well. We've done well in terms of bonding with the people we have sought to serve and introduce to Christ, but in many cases, we have fallen short in terms of seeing only a few come into the knowledge of Christ as their Lord and Savior. NOTE: This is not a rebuke, but a course correction. We have shined boots, cooked burgers, visited the sick and injured and participated in many events and rides with HOG and other motorcycle groups. We are well respected in the motorcycle world, but I was reminded of a story how in my first year out of college I got a job selling Volkswagens. I'm a pretty gregarious guy so I had no problem getting out there, approaching customers, and engaging in conversations One day our grumpy old store owner (best described as the Simpson's Mr. Burns in both appearance and temperament) came down from his window perch on the second floor and began to engage in an uncharacteristically friendly conversation with me. He asked me benign questions like, "How's it going? Are you enjoying your work? When suddenly, he shape-shifted from a friendly old man into a raging werewolf, growling "You know kid! You don't get paid until you sell something! So quit standing around being everybody's friend and sell a car!" (I went on to become "Salesman of the Month" for the next several months, paying off my school debts. Now, ministry is not selling cars....in fact, ministry is not selling Jesus or anything else, but the message that I sensed while camping was something akin to "quit standing around being everybody's friend and sell a car!" Again, Black Sheep has done a good job establishing ourselves and we have served the motorcycle community well, but it's time now to get serious about doing what we can to see that people come to Christ. How exactly are we to do that? First, it needs to become the priority of our HEARTS and we do that by remembering what our mission statement says/ Black Sheep was established in 1999 "To introduce the world of motorcycle riders to Jesus Christ, for the purpose of making more and better disciples through the ministry of the local church." BSHDFC can best be described NOT as a church, not as a club, not as a riding group, but as an evangelistic ministry. It always has been. Everything else we do (shining boots, hospital visits) is merely a MEANS to meet fellow bikers and eventually earn the right to be heard. Secondly, in tandem with the first, we must begin to take the power of prayer seriously if we want to succeed in our mission. But how do we pray for the lost? As a Christian, it's difficult to ride with and watch our unsaved friends go through life without Jesus. Our timidity haunts us and we are convicted for our silence. We love them. We care for them. Yet we don't know what or how to pray – but there is hope and He is the Holy Spirit! He will show us how to pray even if it's just our burdened spirit groaning for a lack of words. (Romans 8:26) He can take our muddled prayers, our tired prayers, our silent heart cries and turn them into pleas before the throne of God. Sharing the love of Christ with others does not begin in our flesh, our brute efforts or a new enthusiasm... but by the power of the Holy Spirit through prayer. James 5:16 says, "The effective, fervent [enthusiastic, passionate, burning, fanatical] prayer of a righteous man avails much." The NIV says that kind of prayer is "powerful and effective." So we have to become a ministry of praying people! The stakes are high as every day the souls of bikers are riding on the very edge of a hopeless eternity.

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