WILLOW Magazine, Volume 15, Issue 1 Life (change) in the Fast Lane by Bob Gordon It’s the most popular spectator sport in America with crowds showing up in the six digits. Here’s how one organization plans to reach them. The Super Bowl, which is held at some of the largest NFL venues, draws about 75,000 fans annually. On nearly every weekend from February through November, NASCAR races draw twice that number of people. Evangelists, start your engines. “We’re in a culture today that if you don’t find a connection with someone, it becomes extremely difficult to present the gospel to them,” says Billy Mauldin, the president and CEO of Motor Racing Outreach. “For 75 million fans around the country, NASCAR is something they love, and they love to talk about it.” There is a lot to talk about. For 38 races (including the season-opening Shootout and the mid-season All-Star race) over the better part of 10 months, NASCAR’s elite drivers participate in the Sprint Cup Series (formerly the Nextel Cup). Fan passion and loyalty to the sport and their favorite drivers is hard to match in traditional team sports. Jim Evans is a NASCAR fan. Since the mid-1980s, Jim and his wife Sandi have been active followers of the sport, often traveling to different racetracks around the country. In addition to their local track in suburban Chicago, they often go to races in Talladega, Ala., Charlotte, Atlanta, and beyond. “I don’t think we’ve had a non-NASCAR vacation in three years,” Jim says. “One time, we went to a race and they had a Christian concert the evening before the race.My wife and I stayed up until 2 in the morning after the concert talking about how it could be done better. And that stems from our experience at Willow.” Evans is a longtime Willow Creek member who, after a quarter century as a retail executive, has been on staff at the church since 2001. He oversees all of the Willow’s self-supporting ministries, including camp Paradise and the Seeds Bookstore. Aside from his role at Willow, he serves as the volunteer director of the non-profit Windy City Raceway Ministries, which he founded after his concert experience. “We really caught a vision of what NASCAR fan outreach could be if done with a true servant’s heart and a passion for reaching the race fan at the track,” he says. “As we prayed and opened our hearts to what He had in mind, God opened so many doors, we couldn’t help but run through them with a passion that cannot be measured.” Passionate Outreach When you go to a NASCAR race, you notice everything moves fast — extremely fast. Everything, that is, except the time between races … and, of course, the traffic leaving! “On an average weekend, they race about 6-8 hours a day depending on the event,” says Bill Carpenter, the national coordinator of track outreach for Motor Racing Outreach. “That leaves 16 to 18 hours a day to interact with people.” A lot of people. “A place like Talladega becomes a city,” Evans says. “There are 200,000 people at that racetrack on race weekends.” That’s where relational evangelism comes in. “The racetrack is the only place I know that you can continuously share the gospel and never run out of people to talk to,” Carpenter says. “Our model is the woman at the well: we tell people what Jesus has done for us. We don’t Bible-thump them; we show up and shine our light. We show them an alternative to what they know. “There’s no better place to practice relational evangelism — you have 100,000 chances to start a conversation … and then you still have more people you can talk to.” Two Decades of Outreach Motor Racing Outreach (www.go2mro.com) is headquartered in Concord, N.C. — the heart of NASCAR’s racing community. The majority of the teams are based in the Charlotte area, and the region is home to three Cup races per year, including the All-Star race each May. “We start our 20th year of ministry in 2008. We began with an effort to help some of the drivers and their wives by hosting Bible studies,” Mauldin says. “That expanded to a chaplain program for the shops and for the crews that are on the road. We later added the outreach to the fans. “We’re at the racetrack but also in the race shops. We’re the folks the people on the road turn to. Whatever the local church does, we do for the racing community. There’s not a major race team in the Charlotte area without a Bible study at their shop. MRO has grown step by step.” As the biggest and best-known race ministry, MRO is able to help open doors for other race ministries. They partner with National Fellowship of Raceway Ministries, which is comprised of local fan-based race ministries, including Windy City Raceway Ministries. “We’re there as guests of the tracks,” Evans says. “You have to have the tracks’ approval to be there. The relationships that MRO has opens those doors for us.” From hosting concerts to helping reunite people with their lost possessions, spiritual doorways are opened every race weekend through one-on-one conversations. “In 2007, we touched between 1.5 and 2 million people at the tracks. But that should be at least 5 million people,” Carpenter says. “We have worked hard to get the infrastructure in place. We have something at every Cup track to touch NASCAR fans. “The last piece is to have a connection for them with a local church.” MRO and WCA Team Up Through a burgeoning relationship between MRO, the Willow Creek Association, and other well-known ministries, fans that take next steps spiritually at the racetracks could find themselves quickly connected to a WCA Member Church, among other key resources. “It’s great to go out and share the message of Christ to race fans,” Mauldin says. “But to maximize what we do, we need to partner with an association of local churches. We interact with people for a weekend; we need to be able to connect them to a local body when they get home.” With thousands of Association-Member Churches around the country, it’s a natural partnership for both the WCA and MRO. There are three main opportunities for your church to participate: Host an outreach event at your church tied into a NASCAR race — perhaps even the May All-Star event that’s being targeted by MRO Provide volunteers for the race-weekend outreach at a track close to your church Offer your church as a local connection point for race fans who have become new believers or seekers through trackside outreach “Our goal is to leverage the power of God by perhaps partnering the thousands of WCA Member Churches with the motor sports ministry experience of Motor Racing Outreach to equip and train churches and volunteers to connect with the 75 million NASCAR fans,” Evans says. WCA Member Churches throughout the country can utilize the broadcast of the Sprint All-Star race from Charlotte in May as a targeted community outreach event. Great resources are available, including a DVD featuring the story of driver Kyle Petty, race schedules, and other fan-focused material. Then fans — believers and seekers alike — can watch the All-Star race in a family-friendly environment that introduces your church to people from your community. In addition, churches have 36 other opportunities each year to tie into NASCAR races. Once you host an event, you may find a strong interest to host more during the season. And if your church is within a reasonable driving distance of a NASCAR track, there are likely to be people in your congregation who would be interested in helping with trackside outreach during a race weekend. “Our volunteers at the track tend to fall into one of two main buckets: NASCAR fans or evangelism people,” Evans says. Even though volunteers have a good time telling others about Christ at the racetracks, it’s not all fun and games. “Spiritually, it can be a very dangerous place. It requires a significant amount of prayer,” Carpenter says. “You need to decide if you are going to focus on the bad things people are doing or, like Christ at the well, the potential of the person you’re talking to. They are no worse than I am; the only difference is that I accepted the help of the Lord. When they ask why I’m there, I tell them quickly, succinctly, and accurately. My hope is to build a relationship with them.” Even if a church isn’t near a track, it still can participate in outreach ministry. People travel great distances to go to races, so it’s possible that someone down the street from your church will go to a NASCAR race this year — and connect with a volunteer from MRO who can let them know that your church would be a great place for them to continue their journey toward Christ. The hope, Evans says, “is to turn a contact into a connection.” “If we could do what we do at races all over the country and have the people followed up with by the local church, that’s powerful,” Mauldin says. “Some churches will want to dive in with both feet. Other churches might have a handful of people who are interested.” Whatever your church decides to do, know that the people at MRO will be alongside cheering you on — as you cheer at NASCAR with the fans of one of the most popular sports around. “So many people are intimidated by sharing their faith. But at races, you’re talking to people with a similar interest,” Carpenter says. “Every person who I’ve ever run into can bring something to the ministry at the track. The Lord can use every single person. It’s really a hanging-out ministry.” For more information about Motor Racing Outreach, visit www.go2mro.com. To order Race Party evangelism kits for your outreach initiatives, go to www.sportsspectrum.com or call (866) 821-2971. Off to a Fast Start In 2002, a small group of volunteers, led by Jim and Sandi Evans, began Windy City Raceway Ministries (www.wcrm.net) as an outreach to race fans at the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill. With more than 100 volunteers from more than 20 churches at each race, it would be fair to say things are racing ahead nicely. “One of the God-moments that so solidified us in serving this way came after our first meeting at Chicagoland Speedway. We walked out, looked up, and saw 75,000 empty seats,” Jim Evans says. “I knew that on race weekend, every seat would be full, as well as the entire infield. I wondered how we could help every person who would be at the race take another step in his or her journey with God. It was a defining moment for us.” The ministry’s volunteers serve fans at Chicagoland Speedway by providing transportation around the grounds for disabled guests, managing the track’s lost-and-found center, creating entertainment (including concerts and children’s activities), hosting chapel services, and providing trauma support. Grace Reformed, a WCA Member Church in Lansing, Ill., brings a strong group of volunteers to every race. “We try to add stuff each year. It’s not about how much we do. Whatever we do, we want to make sure we do it well,” Evans says. “The first year we were there, we had a chapel service. For the past three years, we’ve had outreach concerts featuring River, a band from Little Chapel, a fantastic church in southern Illinois. Some of the best conversations I’ve had have been around the concerts.Then we continue to build a relationship with these people after the concert. “The track asked us to help them by handling the lost and found. That’s been a great ministry opportunity. We have some great stories of people losing something at the track and finding an eternal relationship with Christ.” Windy City Raceway Ministries Mission: To offer the racing community in the greater Chicago area an opportunity to experience God’s love through guest services, chapel, and evangelism. Purpose: To be of service to the race fans at Chicagoland Speedway, to share the love of Christ with the racing community, provide an opportunity for worship and fellowship, and present a local church connection for race fans. Objective: To leverage the fan outreach program to turn a contact into a connection. Top