The ground rumbles, Harley Davidsons crowd the streets and the beer flows as more than 100,000 bikers gather in Hollister, Calif., each July for the Hollister Independence Rally. For 60 years, this sleepy town has been a motorcycle mecca for biker clubs, including the Hell's Angels and Skeleton Crew, and individual enthusiasts.

Members of the Sabbath Keepers Motorcycle Ministry, an Adventist biker club started in 1997, eagerly join the annual event. "The biker group is a select group, but the entire church supports it," says Pierre Steenberg, pastor of the Hollister church. Members attend church in their leathers, and often share miracle stories during church family time.

With more than 60 members, and chapters in Hollister and Bakersfield, their mission is clear: to bring the gospel of Jesus and the true meaning of the seventh-day Sabbath to the biker community.

"We go to places that most people fear to go. Christ went to the gutters — the worst of the worst," says Michael Yates, Sabbath Keepers president. "We're not content to sit in our church pews. We're going to go where the people are and reach them there."

Riding for Charity

One hundred-twenty bikers joined a July 8 charity ride hosted by the Sabbath Keepers after this year's Hollister rally. "We wanted to show people that Seventh-day Adventists are loving Christians," explains Rod Nelson, one of the club's founders.

The ride began at the Hollister church and ended at HellBent Custom Motorcycles, a local shop that sponsored the event. Participants were treated to lunch, two stunt shows and live Christian bands. The ride raised more than $1,100 for the Emmaus House Battered Women and Children's Shelter, a local domestic abuse shelter.

One of the ministry's new friends works at HellBent. "You guys are awesome!" he said, promising to invite many people next year. "You were so easy to work with." Dave Ventura, former president of the Hollister Independence Rally planning committee, assisted with a variety of details. Local organizations contributed food, sodas and giveaways for a raffle.

"This is the best promotion we've ever received," says Nelson. Word travels fast in the tight-knit biker community. "The whole community will know about this and will come again," anticipates Yates. This was the ministry's second annual charity ride for Emmaus House.

Leather-clad Evangelists

The Sabbath Keepers primary outreach sites are West Coast biker rallies each summer. Members set up a booth, give away bags of literature, hang out with Hell's Angels, and pray with tattooed bikers.

Under a banner proclaiming the three angels' messages of Revelation 14, the leather-clad evangelists give away Bibles, E.G. White materials, DVDs, scripture bookmarks and more. "You'd be amazed how many people fill up a whole bag with literature," says Nelson. Individuals often come back the next year looking for more literature for themselves and others.

"No one has ever turned us down when we offer to pray for them. Even other vendors ask for prayer," adds Yates. "Our ministry is one of the only Christian motorcycle groups that has been totally accepted by the biker gangs. For whatever reason, our booth often ends up next to the Hell's Angels booth. We make friends with these guys."

At the Reno Street Vibrations rally last year, a man asked for help. "I need you guys to pray for me," he said. "I came here for the wrong reasons. Now I want to go home to my wife, but my bike's not working."

Yates and Nelson put their arms around him and prayed. "We could totally see the Holy Spirit working on him," remembers Nelson.

The regular Sunday worship services at weekend rallies are a great witnessing opportunity. At the Bakersfield Father's Day rally this year, Sabbath Keeper Rance Rogers shared his heroin-addict-to-Adventist-literature-evangelist testimony. Afterward, members of the Christian Motorcycle Association and Soldiers for Jesus stopped by the booth for literature and asked, "When are you going to start doing a Sabbath service for us?"

"Starting a Sabbath church service will be our next big thing," says Nelson, who used to stand on the corner passing out literature at events. The ministry also has dreams of having a trailer at events as a place to show DVDs, study the Bible and counsel with people.

"Jesus and Motorcyles — What a way of life," reads a patch often worn by Christian bikers. For the Sabbath Keepers members, combining the two has become their passion. "It's truly exciting to be reaching a group of people that has never been thought of as reachable," says Yates.

For more information about the Sabbath Keepers Motorcycle Ministry, visit www.sabbathkeepersmm.com or call 831-634-0663.