By KURT Madsen

been 20 years since

Chariots for Christ was just an idea, a Christ-centered, Holy Spirit-inspired ministry. God has blessed our chapter beyond belief. We have seen God’ s hand at work in this chapter and its members. Since its birth, we have been focused on one of the pillars of a good chapter: evangelism. With that, we focused on the need to be consistent in our efforts and prayers for Spirit-driven ministry opportunities.

Being consistent is actually pretty easy. Be persistent and keep going by following CMA’ s model, which has been tried and true and has been tested over the years. Our Member Training says in the section about Motorcycle Ministry,“ For any ministry to be effective, it must be full of integrity … We must be a ministry that says what it means and means what it says,” but we also have to be consistent. To be consistent in God’ s ministry, we have to go back, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. Being effective evangelists, we keep on going, seeking but not demanding immediate results the first time around. We need to keep chipping away, not beating those we meet over the head with the proverbial Bible, but by a dripping faucet( giving forth Living Water, naturally!).

Our chapter has been partnering with a local church to provide bike blessings annually for over a dozen years. We have developed numerous relationships with the returning bikers seeking the annual spring bike blessing. Over the

years, we have probably blessed over 10,000 bikes( bikers), but with Covid, our annual event got cancelled, and with that, we had to downsize. We continued on, and instead of blessing 1,000 bikes, we are now blessing 100.

We read in Mark about the man who scatters seeds on the ground and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, but he does not know how or when. Many commentators suggest that he is not ignoring the seed but is just going about his business. He does his daily chores on the farm, waiting for the seed to germinate and grow. If the farmer doesn’ t see the seed growing, he will throw out a few more seeds; he is urgent but not desperate. Paul was like this; we see Paul labor in Ephesus, repeatedly throwing seeds.“ For three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears”( Acts 20:31, NKJV). For three years, he worked and never harvested any fruit. The disciples worked in Jerusalem, spreading the Good News with love, being bold and speaking the truth over and over.

Yes, we may get tired or discouraged, but all of our efforts are based on God’ s time and the Spirit’ s. Sometimes our persistence itself can be persuasive. Sometimes people will be more suddenly converted because they see and hear us going back repeatedly, or because we did not give up, and then the day comes when it happens, the ears are opened, the heart is softened, and with the

Spirit’ s assistance, it happens, and the world is changed with one new heart. Whether it is in the sense of keeping doing it in the hopes of some particular barrier being broken down over time or in the sense of keeping doing it because God may change the circumstances and dynamics of a situation more suddenly, the effective personal evangelist is a consistent man. God gives us the Message, and we need to carry it forth, trusting in God to provide the increase.

Many years ago, I did a bike blessing for a man … we’ ll call him“ Tom.” Tom had been coming to Biker Sunday for a few years and had the blessing stickers to prove it. Several years had passed, and I noticed him again at our post-Covid bike blessing. I noticed that now he had several more blessing stickers attached to his bike’ s windshield. I blessed the bike( r) again and gave him a new sticker. He mentioned that he had been coming for years just to have his bike blessed, but several years in, he felt God calling him. Now, several years later, he was proud to acknowledge his relationship with Christ. Where would“ Tom” be now if our chapter hadn’ t been committed? We read above that we may never see the harvest, but our job is to keep throwing seeds, try to water and fertilize, pull the weeds, and keep handing out those stickers. I can’ t wait to get to Heaven to see the baskets of fruit that were a result of one little seed( blessing sticker) that was given. CMA

Kurt Madsen is a member of the Chariots for Christ CMA chapter # 836 in Aurora, Illinois.

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