This article is from page 8 of the 2012-07-03 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 8 JPG
LOCAL hellraisers are turning to God in their droves with the foundation of Ireland’s first ever Bikers Church in Gort. The church, which is located in an industrial building on the Kinincha Road in the town, attracts more then 50 motorcyclists to service which takes place on the last Sunday of each month.
The service is run by the Christian Motorcyclists Association of Ireland, who were invited to base the Biker Church in Gort by local man John Joe Finn.
According to the Pastor, motorcyclist Graham Stephens, many bikers can feel uncomfortable entering more traditional churches.
“We invite everyone to come as they are. It doesn’t matter who they are of what they have done, we invite everyone to come and join in God’s love,” he says.
“Some churches wouldn’t be very biker friendly, they would see bikers coming in with tattoos and piercing and they might hold back and not really show true love to them.”
The church does not belong to any particular denomination of Christianity but instead bases their religious views on the words in the bible.
“If you are looking for something that is very traditional, this is not the right place for you. People [Christian bikers] have been hurt by things that have happened in the past and they are fed up with it. We just want a place where we can be ourselves,” continued Graham.
“We have a music team in the service on Sunday, so we have contemporary music with some heavy guitar and drums. We would start off with some Christian songs and worship music. We would start off with some Christian songs, some worship music, so the same thing that you would find in any other church. We also get people standing up and sharing their own stories so it is very relaxed and very easy going.
“A lot of bikers would not feel comfortable going into a traditional church but there is nothing in this church that would frighten anybody off. It’s just about the person themselves and God and we are trying to facilitate people getting to know God.
“We have people coming along to the services and some of them have very colourful backgrounds. But at the end of the day they are people just like us, they might not have made all the right decisions in their life but they are no different. We all screw up, it’s just that some of us do it more publicly than others.
“That is the thing about God, he forgives no matter what. That gift of forgiveness is one of the biggest gifts that mankind has ever gotten.”
For more information on the Christian Motorcycle Association and the Bikers Church visit www.cmaireland.ie.