Matt Hill

Loud Pipes Save Lives: A Biker Church Story

Loud pipes save lives.

For years bikers have stood by this mantra, with many wearing patches and stickers with this sentiment. Whether loud pipes save lives or not continues to be debated, but in our experience, they add a bit of flare and context to a prayer over bikers.

As we consider the very definition of what it means to be part of a fresh expression of Church, Travis Collins reminds us that this new expression of church must be centered around the resurrected Christ while also being contextualized, indigenous, or fitting into the local context where we now find ourselves ministering in the name of Jesus.

So, the question is, what can we leverage in our current context and culture for the sake of furthering the Kingdom and the spread of the Gospel? As a member of Triple Tree Ministries, a motorcycle ministry focused on reaching bikers in motorcycle clubs with the Gospel, I wanted to leverage loud pipes as a part of our annual biker blessing to infuse worship with the context of the motorcycle subculture.

What I discovered was that this idea of leveraging the context is not as difficult as it may seem.

Because blessing bikers involves a prayer, we decided to take a responsive prayer and use the rev of motorcycle or the roar of loud pipes to be the response to the prayer of blessing. In this way, bikers were able to express their gratitude and desire for blessing in a way that is already part of the culture and context in which they live. And the positive response has been overwhelming. Bikers of all backgrounds, ages, and experience have come to take part in worship because we were able to leverage a piece of the culture and context and use it for ministry.

So, the question is, in the current culture or context in which you live, what can you leverage for the sake of the Gospel?

Matt Hill

Matt Hill

Matt Hill currently serves as the associate pastor of missional ministry at Community Evangelical Church in Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania, where he oversees multiple fresh expressions of church. He is married to Emily and has three kids: Addison, Aaron, and Aubree.

