Motorcycle Ride to benefit an inclusive playground on San Antonio's Southside

This Saturday, November 9 at 9 AM, motorcyclists will gather at Baptist Temple Church, 901 E Drexel St., for a ride to benefit Southeast San Antonio's first inclusive playground. They playground will allow children with disabilities to play with their friends of typical abilities. Children need free play to build their physical, mental and social skills. Also, this type of playground breaks down the barriers that lead to loneliness for disabled children and lack of understanding for others.

Riders include Immanuel Motorcycle Ministry, Soldados de Cristo, Fishers of Men, Last Chance Ministries, King Jesus Riders, and Guardian Devils.

Riders will meet for breakfast at 8 AM for the 9 AM start and will return at noon for lunch where they will be welcomed by friends from the disabled community.

Inclusive playground website and video

Spiritual but not religious

Six groups gathered for worship on the Baptist Temple Campus this morning. Five services were planned. One was a surprise; at least to the folks who plan campus events. Members of several motorcycle clubs, including the Banditos, gathered to remember a young man who was killed in a motorcycle accident at the intersection where our church is located.

The group that gathers across the street does not look like typical church attenders. They looked like the people that Jesus would hang with. You know, the kind that the Pharisees called riff-raff. No doubt most will count themselves among the “nones” (folks that claim no religious affiliation.)

Much is written today about the shrinking number of church attenders. The phrase “spiritual but not religious” is often thrown around. I can't quite define that phrase but, perhaps, what happened today in the shadow of Baptist Temple can serve as conversation starter.

These folks gathered on a Sunday to remember a lost loved one. They had rituals of remembrance and comforted one another in their grief; without the official sanction of the church.

The fact that they are doing this on the Baptist Temple Campus is due solely to the location of the accident. However, the location of Baptist Temple is no accident. Since the day after the accident our deacons and staff have spoken to the mourners and offered whatever help they needed.

These annual gatherings remind me of the human heart's need to connect with God and each other. It serves as a challenge to the church to reach out to the folks that feel out of place in the typical church; they way that the early church did. It gives me a picture of the people Jesus hung out with. Most important it a reminder that the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.

From Prison to Praise

Armando took some wrong turns in life and wound up doing 17 years in prison. Gangs, drugs and violence were destroying his body and soul. It was at what he remembers as the lowest point in his life that his brother led him to Jesus through the ministry of Outcry in the Barrio. Today he lives out the words found in 2 Corinthians 5:17: “The old has gone, the new has come...”

He has been a servant of the Lord for 12 years and started Immanuel Motorcycle Ministry (IMM) to bring the gospel to others who are on the path to destruction. Twice a month he preaches at prisons in Hondo and Cuero. Armando feels a call to minister to people behind bars and the families they have left behind.

His wife, Rosalinda, serves alongside him as a leader in IMM. She began her ministry caring for women coming out of a life on the streets. Her assignments ranged from cooking and cleaning to street evangelism and leading Bible studies. Rosalinda is a member of Kairos Prison Ministry, serving at the women’s prison in Lockhart.

I met them last both last year when they attended a lecture I was giving on church marketing at Baptist University of the Americas (BUA). They had some questions about organizing and leading their motorcycle ministry. They also were interested in the ministries of Baptist Temple. Armando lived near Baptist Temple as a child and remembers the generosity we showed his family in those days. He felt that the ministry of BT meshes well with that of IMM and started working with us right away. In the last few months he has led a memorial service, a blessing of the bikes and brought a large number of volunteers for our hunger fighting efforts.

I recently received a letter from a man who will soon be released from incarceration in Hondo. He grew up in our neighborhood and remembers driving past Baptist Temple many times. He became a Christian last year and is part of a discipleship program inside the prison walls. He will be released in a few months and wants to find a church to help him in his walk with Christ. He came across some information about our church through a series of circumstances that were sparked by IMM. The Acostas will help us to disciple this man and others like him who have been born again.

Armando and Rosalinda will serve in the outreach ministries of Baptist Temple as we follow our Lord's command to “Go to the highways, and the hedges and compel them to come in, so that my house may be full...” (Luke 14:23). Their primary ministry will through Immanuel Motorcycle Ministry which will become another of the BT Campus' numerous outreach arms.