By Laura Thigpen, staff writer
If Jesus lived on earth today, he’d be riding a Harley.
Or maybe a Honda, because the brand of motorcycle doesn’t matter to members of the Daviess County Chapter of the Unchained Gang, part of Unchained Motorcycle Ministry.
What does matter is a belief that Jesus was a lot like them when he walked in this world more than 2,000 years ago.
“The government didn’t like Him, the church thought He was weird, and He hung around people like you and me, not the goody-two-shoes Pharisees,” reads a pamphlet members hand out when they witness to other motorcycle clubs, drug and meth addicts, imprisoned inmates and any other lost souls they can find.
The eight members of the local Christian motorcycle gang work together to get that message across when they visit jails and prisons and attend motorcycle rallies and meetings looking for other bikers lost as they once were.
They go where many others might hesitate to go, and they go because they want others to share what they believe is very good news — that Jesus died for bikers, too.
“So many churches don’t ever get outside the walls of their church,” said Terry Padgett, president of the local chapter, who heard the message of Jesus Christ over 13 years ago from a member of the Christian Motorcyclists Association. “I got saved at a biker party.”
Back then he did some of the things typically associated with a rough lifestyle, though he said he wasn’t addicted to drugs or alcohol.
He was just empty inside, and looking for a better way to live.
“I was having some problems and going to parties, and a guy I’d seen from CMA listened to me at this party,” said Padgett, now 40 and married to Shelly, who also supports the jail ministry and the club’s fellowship. “He asked me, ‘If you die tonight, do you know where you’ll go?’”
Though Padgett didn’t know, he wasn’t quite willing then to drop to his knees in the middle of a party with more than 300 bikers in attendance, he said. But the next morning, on Sunday, he decided to go to a worship service held by CMA members where he remembers only about a dozen bikers showed up for church. At the end of the service, he said he got saved, and not long after felt called to minister to others who were still living like he had lived for so many years.
“If that guy hadn’t been there that night, I don’t know where I’d be today,” Padgett said quietly. “We’re at the jails and at the parties, and without us there’s no ministry there.”
On Thursdays, Padgett, his wife and several others host a Bible study in the Daviess County Security Center. Often when they go, however, they have no plans or agenda.
They just follow where the Spirit leads.
“Some of us may read or sit with someone and talk,” said Ryan Kimbel a “hang around” or relative newcomer to the group who finally earned the right to be called a “prospect” after being sponsored in the club by Padgett for the last six months. Because not just anybody can join the Unchained Gang, an offshoot of Unchained Ministries, Inc., a 30-year-old street and prison ministry founded by Carl Beadle in Dugger in 1975.
“We’re not a church but a working ministry,” said Padgett. “We reach out to minister to others.”
And they’re not necessarily looking for more members either, though certain requirements may help keep their membership roles short. Applicants must not only ride a motorcycle at least 650 cc or above, they must also be born-again Christians, or they need not apply. And while the gang and the ministry is non-denominational, certain beliefs aren’t negotiable, according to the club rules.
First, Jesus Christ is the rock upon which the church and a ministry is built, and second, while members have the freedom to believe differently about things not essential to salvation, on that first point there can only be unity. And finally, each member must act as the Bible commanded, and love one another as fellow disciples of Christ.
Applicants willing and able to meet that criteria can “hang around” for six months but must be sponsored by a current member of the Unchained Gang. Because these men and women are serious about witnessing for their Lord, they carry into their lives the Biblical admonition that “by their fruits ye shall know them.”
So they don’t drink, do any kind of mood altering drugs or even smoke cigarettes. They believe if they do practice such habits, they can’t rightly express God’s love to those they strive to help. Because not only do other Christians and churches watch them carefully, suspicious of their long hair, motorcycles and motives, they are constantly being scrutinized by other bikers, the very ones they’re trying to reach.
“If one of us messes up, it looks bad on everybody,” said Tony De Moura, the club’s road captain.
Individual members — or couples for those who are married — are also expected to belong to a church and be accountable to a pastor or congregation, according to its bylaws. But they don’t mind, because they believe they have something important to share, especially in their prison ministries.
“We can all reach different people there,” Padgett agreed. “They may think, ‘Hey, he looks like a biker too,’ so some of them may talk to us who might not talk to others who come here.”
That’s why they believe all the ministries working in the jail are needed, and they don’t feel they compete with other prison outreach programs.
“We all complement each other,” said Doug Heidenreich, vice-president of the local chapter.
But for those inmates who can identify only with someone who has long hair or tattoos, the Unchained Gang members may be their only hope.
“We’re all given the same gift, it just comes wrapped in a different package,” explained De Moura.
The Unchained Gang of Daviess County meets the first Monday of every month at 7 p.m. at Mr. Gatti’s Pizza on E. Nat’l Highway where they discuss upcoming ministry opportunities, as well as what sister chapters in Elletsville, Linton, Indianapolis and Ireland are doing. The other chapters are also part of the original group that evolved into a motorcycle ministry when Beadle felt especially led to reach out to members of a local motorcycle club called the Cloven Hoofs. After praying that God would open a door for that ministry, Beadle got the opportunity, and in 1978 Larry Mitchell, an Elletsville biker and president of the club, came to Christ, according to the history of the Unchained Gang. Five years later, Mitchell, now known as “Pastor Larry,” joined the ministry which continues to grow.
“And we minister to ourselves — each other — the same as those outside,” said De Moura, who wears a T-shirt proclaiming “Jesus died for bikers, too.”
When out in the worldly realm of bike parties and rallies, they support each other to avoid temptation, even discussing how they turn their heads when something threatens to distract them from their mission. And while it’s hard sometimes not to look at scantily-clad or even nude women at such events, these Christians don’t run away.
Instead, like Daniel of old, they walk directly into the lion’s den because that’s where the need is, Padgett said.
