By Roger Marsh
Raceway Ministries
In a matter of days, race fans all over the United States-some 70-75 million of them-will be eagerly anticipating the drop of the green flag for the 2006 NASCAR racing season.
Each year the Daytona International Speedway in Central Florida launches a new race year with the running of the Daytona 500. More than 150,000 fanatical fans will be in attendance at that race, cheering on their favorite drivers with hopes that their favorite driver will pull his car into Victory Lane.
At the same time, Central Florida Raceway Ministries, a member group of the National Fellowship of Raceway Ministries (www.racewayministries.com), will be in the infield and outside in camping areas sharing with fans the love of Jesus.
In preparation for the new racing season, Raceway Ministries groups from all over the United States assembled at the Fort Trial Baptist Church in Stanleytown, Va.
On Jan. 12-14, the Fort Trial Baptist Church, led by pastor Joey McNeill, and the Henry County Baptist Association, led by director of missions Eddie Honeycutt, along with Raceway Ministries of Martinsville, directed by Eldred Davis, hosted the meeting.
About 165 Raceway Ministries members and guests from California, Nevada, Texas, Missouri, Illinois, Maine, North and South Carolina, Minnesota, Florida and, of course, Virginia attended. They gathered to join hearts and minds in worship, to share testimonies, instruction and training, and to exchange ministry ideas.
The National Fellowship of Raceway Ministries began in the mid-1970's, as local ministers in Florida, South Carolina and Missouri simultaneously felt God's call to take the gospel to the nation's raceways. One of the ministers, Frank Stark of Missouri, began traveling from raceway to raceway-Daytona, Talladega and Atlanta-providing music concerts and chapel services in the campgrounds, while the others-Hal Marchman of Florida and Ed Quattlebaum of South Carolina-began expanding the influence of ministry at speedways up and down the East Coast where NASCAR was competing.
By 1994, representatives from each of the existing Raceway Ministries groups began meeting annually for mutual encouragement and prayer, and in 2001, with 90 people representing 30 to 35 ministries, the group incorporated as the “National Fellowship of Raceway Ministries (NFRM)” at Texas Motor Speedway.
The group strives to establish a chaplain and/or a local, church-based Raceway Ministries group for every raceway in America-all 1,200 of them. Just this month, the NFRM's executive director met with the staff at Indianapolis Motor Speedway to work on details for starting a Raceway Ministries group at Indy in 2006. Once accomplished, the NFRM will have a Raceway Ministries group at every speedway where the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series competes, as well as at many other speedways.
According to the NFRM executive director, Roger Marsh of Texas, “the Virginia Baptists certainly pulled out all the stops and assisted us in producing one of the best NFRM annual meetings to date! Their years of experience in Raceway Ministries work, along with their wonderful hospitality, served as a powerful launching pad for ministry at the Martinsville Speedway and at raceways all over the United States. We believe that as a result, this is going to be one of the most exciting years of ministry we ever have had at the nation's speedways.”
In addition to chaplaincy training and administrative sessions dealing with issues like insurance, managing non-profits and incorporation, they had ample opportunity to enjoy the racing tradition in Martinsville. The group toured Martinsville Speedway, the Arrington Manufacturing shop (producers of Mopar racing engines) and the Wood Brothers Racing Museum.
Reports reflected the effectiveness of ministry to the auto racing community in 2005: 5,250 fans attended campground worship services at the speedways; 6,500 fans attended music concerts provided by Raceway Ministries groups; 1,800 volunteers from 275 churches were involved in the ministry work across the United States; 447,000 New Testaments and gospel tracts were shared with racers or race fans; 680 people in the racing community accepted Jesus as Savior, and another 210 rededicated their lives to Christ or responded to God's call to ministry.
Anyone who might be interested in becoming involved in Raceway Ministries somewhere in the United States, can visit the NFRM web site-www.racewayministries.com-and find directories that will lead them to the contact person for the ministry group at a specific speedway.
Virginia Baptists have two major ministries to race fans-Raceway Ministries in Martinsville and Central Virginia Raceway Ministries, which services the needs of fans at the Richmond International Raceway.
For those interested in assisting the effort at Martinsville Speedway, contact ministry leader Eldred Davis at (276) 629-4844 or the Henry County Baptist Association office at (276) 638-2951. Anyone interested in helping the Central Virginia Raceway Ministries group should contact Billy Davis at the Richmond Baptist Association by calling (804) 329-1701.
And, everyone can pray for the work of Raceway Ministries all across America in 2006, as groups from coast to coast share Jesus in the midst of the exciting and unique mission field.