By Chris Moon
About 10 years ago, Larrie Fraley looked around and discovered something disturbing about his life.
“I realized I didn’t have any unchurched friends,” he said.
This was particularly alarming considering Fraley’s background as one of the founders of Christ’s Church of the Valley in Peoria, Ariz., one of the largest churches of the Restoration Movement—and one dedicated to evangelism.
Fraley served the church as a lay leader for many years while working for Intel Corp. He joined the church staff in 1998 and now oversees the church’s missions work.
To remedy his lack of unchurched friends, Fraley turned to his passion for Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Fraley, 71, grew up riding and got into Harleys in the 1980s.
He began to investigate Christ-centered motorcycle groups, and he eventually discovered Black Sheep Harley-Davidsons for Christ, a California-based motorcycle club with a nationwide ministry.
“It was laser-focused at Harley-Davidson dealerships,” Fraley said.
Now Fraley, even while continuing his work at CCV, ministers to Harley riders across the Phoenix metro. “I kind of look at [them as] my flock,” Fraley said.
MAKING DISCIPLES
The mission of Black Sheep is to create more and better disciples through the local church, which is what appealed to Fraley. Discipleship naturally should lead a person to a church home, and Black Sheep members are required to be involved in a local church.
Meanwhile, Christ’s Church of the Valley was founded with the express purpose of bringing men—along with their families—into the church.
“It was a perfect ministry to me,” Fraley said.
Today, Fraley and other Black Sheep members attend events sponsored by their local Harley Owners Group chapters, which are connected to local Harley-Davidson dealerships. Black Sheep members become known as the go-to people when riders are going through crises in their lives.
“The ministry sort of serves as chaplains within each dealership, which gives us access to riders and unchurched men,” he said.
Many Harley-Davidson riders, Fraley said, are aging and increasingly find themselves going through health difficulties or marriage problems.
“Then we’re the perfect people to come to. We become the spiritual person they need. That’s the strategy,” Fraley said.
HOG MEN AND THE CHURCH
Fraley, the head chaplain of the Arizona region for Black Sheep, recently led a workshop at the Black Sheep leadership summit that keyed off the title of David Murrow’s popular book, Why Men Hate Going to Church. Fraley titled his workshop, “Why HOG Men Hate Going to Church.”
“It was a huge hit,” he said.
The motorcycle ministry has been successful, Fraley said, and some men have been baptized after interacting with members of the Black Sheep organization.
Fraley recalled one rider who was struggling with the existence of God. Over a period of two or three years, Fraley talked with the man many times.
And on one ride in Colorado, the man told Fraley, “I want you to baptize me.”
And that meant immediately, right there in the Colorado River.
“We got into that freezing cold river, and he was baptized,” Fraley said.
Chris Moon is a pastor and writer living in Redstone, Colorado.
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