Friday, May 21, 2010

Racing Part II

Apparently I struck a nerve. I've had more positive response to my last post than anything else I've written in this blog. Most pastors were enthusiastic, even offering their own ideas. One reply to this column suggested "You could have tract night at the track." Almost everyone agreed that we could reach a part of our culture that most churches miss entirely, and that we should "go for it."
But the best response of all came from the guy who attends our church - the one who actually drives the race car. He approached me a few days ago after the morning service to say, "I want to order ten caps." Those would be the caps with the "cross" logo and emblazoned with "Bible Baptist Fellowship Racing."
"Ten caps?" I asked, "What do you want with ten?" I checked and he had only one head.
"I want to hand them out at the race track," he said.
Get this. Here is a new attender to our church, a race car driver, and as far as I know, an unsaved man who is willing to advertise our church at his own expense. At the race track, no less. At eleven dollars a piece, he intends to spend more money on "racing" caps for our church than some people give to missions in a year. As the saying goes, "It doesn't get any better than this."
Actually, it could. I am praying the man receives Christ as his Savior. Our favorite driver needs to realize that the race he really needs to win is the race of life. Perhaps while the man is passing out the hats, he will get the message. Let's all pray that he does.

Monday, May 3, 2010

"Bible Baptist Fellowship Racing"

This has to go down in the category of being all things to all people. One of our new church attenders drives race cars as a hobby - "pro 4's" to be exact. ("Pro 4" is a category of modified small stock cars.) A few Sundays ago, Wayne mused with me about the idea of our church actually placing either an advertisement or a sponsor's decal on his car. We tried to imagine a car emblazoned with the words "Bible Baptist Fellowship" whizzing around the oval track at Shady Bowl Speedway. "Odd" doesn't begin to describe the image that comes to mind, not that many of our men are too disturbed at the thought. We have some serious racing fans in our midst. (Our church fellowships with the G. A. R. B. C. In our case, the letters could just as well stand for "Grand Army of Redneck Baptists.")
Wayne has gone so far as to bring race schedules to church so we will know when he is driving. He followed that by telling his fellow drivers that his own cheering section was coming to support him at the races.
"You have to go this Saturday, " my wife told me, "He's expecting you."
Does this qualify as visitation?
Our church already has t-shirts and hats that read "Bible Baptist Fellowship, Brookville, Ohio." How would it look, I wondered, if we modified our embroidered hats to read "Bible Baptist Fellowship Racing?" Wierd, funny and maybe -just maybe - effective. I have to admit the idea is so funny and so different that the guys in our church will probably like it. Besides, if Wayne has his own fan club all decked out in our gear, he will be as committed to us as we are to him.
The things I do to get people into church.