In 1998 the Recorder reported on the newly-formed Adventist Rodders Club. The club was organized by three families who wanted to connect Adventists attending weekend (or longer) car shows, so they could spend the Sabbaths in Christian fellowship.
The club, now celebrating its tenth anniversary, has grown to almost 500 families in ten countries. The first ARC event in 2008 will be a first-ever ARC rally in Scottsdale, Ariz., where every January hundreds of thousands of car enthusiasts converge for the nearly week-long, Barrett-Jackson special-interest vehicle auction. In conjunction with that event, ARC members are planning Sabbath activities, including a church service at the Southeast Adventist Fellowship for Evangelism in Mesa, followed by an afternoon of fellowship. (Visit http://safe.netadventist.org for directions.)
Over the years club members have used their attention-getting vehicles every way they could think of to share the love of Jesus. They use the ARC flier to tell car enthusiasts how God's love for people is like a car enthusiast's seeing value in a rusty old car. Like the rodder, God sees the after-restoration potential. The flier includes the basic beliefs of the Adventist church and an invitation to join the club. One goal of the club is to provide comfortable Christian fellowship for those who might think God or Christians don't like rodders or motocyclists.
ARC events typically bring members and friends together at a central location, frequently dovetailing with a major car show such as the NSRA Street Rod Nationals, Goodguys, or other regional car shows. Members often attend a local Adventist church, where they are available to provide music, teach the Sabbath School lesson, give the children's story, or even preach the sermon. The ARC members arrange with the local church to park their cars where they will draw passers-by to the church service.
A typical Sabbath afternoon includes a fellowship dinner, a scenic cruise, quiet time in nature, visiting with each other and an evening meal by a campfire.
Other ARC events include Sunday afternoon "show-n-shine" car shows during camp meetings or alumni weekends. Some churches and schools put on a public car show to break down prejudice and attract new people. One church sponsored a 1950s style banquet, with ARC members providing classic cars as decorations. There has even been a car show as an attention-getter for a series of evangelistic meetings, and thousands of kids have seen the ARC cars at regional and international Pathfinder Camporees.
As the ARC flier states, ARC members believe that their cars, like all their possessions, will someday burn, so they pledge to not become too attached to them, and to allow God to help them reach people through their unique vehicles.
The club motto, "Christ Restores," is derived from 2 Cor. 5:17, which says, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature...behold all things are become new."
If you are interested in participating in the Arizona event contact ARC president, Donn Leiske by e-mail, donn@leiske.com, or by phone, 480-832-1234. To learn more about joining the ARC, visit the club website at www.adventistroddersclub.com.
