RIDGECREST, N.C. (BP)--F.A.I.T.H. Riders has grown to 54 chapters in 10 states since its launch in February 2002 in Lakeland, Fla., at First Baptist Church at the Mall.

Buddy Newsome, a retired police officer now working full-time on the church's staff to promote church-based motorcycle ministry across the country, said five Baptist state conventions have added F.A.I.T.H. Riders to their programs for witness and ministry, and a F.A.I.T.H. Riders chapter has been started at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo.

Motorcycle rallies give churches an almost unlimited opportunity for outreach by drawing astonishing numbers, such as the 130,000 participants on the Trail of Tears Motorcycle Ride from Chattanooga, Tenn., to Florence, Ala., each September.

The motorcycle rally in Sturgis, S.D., swells that town's population of 6,600 to more than 500,000 for a week in August each year. In 2007, 150 volunteers shared the Gospel 4,677 times at Sturgis, and 870 bikers made professions of faith.

"I don't know about you, but I want to be where God's at," Newsome said. "And there ain't no doubt that God's in the house at Sturgis."

The point, however, isn't riding motorcycles and having fun, Newsome added.

"God doesn't need another riding club. There are plenty of those," he said. "God needs people to put feet to the Gospel and share Christ with folks. Motorcycle ministry is merely a tool that has been given to us by God to allow us to act out our obedience to Him.

"Your passion could be a motorcycle, a fishing rod, a golf club or a sewing ministry," Newsome said. "Whatever it is, you need to be using it to honor the Lord."

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