Church Conducts Ministry at Race Track
- Oct 9, 2007 - comment
A church in Farmington has found the local race track to be a fruitful location for Christian ministry and outreach, and the church’s pastor is hopeful that congregations in other communities with race tracks will take advantage of the opportunity to share Christ’s love.
First Baptist Church, Farmington, “answered the call to minister” to people associated with horseracing at SunRay Park again this year for the racing season, which began in April and concluded in July, the church’s pastor, Keith Berryman, reported last month.
“The people we encounter at the race track are diverse,” Berryman said, and include jockeys, trainers, grooms, racing officials and security personnel. The number of track employees and family members total approximately 1,000, he said.
The community includes very wealthy people and others who “barely get by,” Berryman said, as well as people of all ages and single adults and families.
“Many of them live on or very near the track and venture off only on occasion to eat at a nearby restaurant or to buy necessities …,” Berryman said.
“Some even live in the little 10- by 10-foot ‘tack rooms’ with the horses,” he noted. While many of the men and women “love Jesus and strive to be good disciples,” most are unbelievers but “grateful that someone takes an interest in their personal spiritual and physical welfare,” the pastor continued. And they are pleased to have a chaplain or Bible study teacher available to give them guidance as they look “for ways to cope with marriage and family issues, alcohol and drug abuse (and) financial stress …,” he said.
Since they “rarely venture away from the track … if a church is to impact this community, they have to go to them—they will not be attending our church services,” Berryman said.
Race days are Thursday through Sunday, and each race day the track’s chaplain meets with jockeys, members of the gate crew and race officials to bring a devotional and lead a time of prayer.
“The chaplain prays for the safety of the riders and gate crew in a sport where an ambulance follows them around as they go about their work,” Berryman said. “The chaplain stays nearby … (since) there is occasionally the opportunity to escort a rider to the emergency room of the hospital for X-rays when he or she is unexpectedly separated from their horse before or after the race.”
Sundays at SunRay include a brief half-hour worship service, which includes singing led by First Baptist’s worship minister and a short sermon by the chaplain followed by a time of prayer and refreshments, Berryman said. The chaplain returns for a devotion time at 2 p.m.
“Tuesday is Bible study night,” Berryman said, when three volunteers from the church lead a study of “The Purpose Driven Life” and race trackers, who bring their supper, enjoy a time of Christian fellowship.
On other days, “the ‘backside,’ or barn area, of the track is a great place to build relationships …,” Berryman said.
At the end of this year’s season, First Baptist and its mission at the track, which is known as SunRay Church, held a cookout for employees that drew more than 200 people. At the same time, the church’s mission committee held a “Garage Giveaway,” which Berryman explained, “is like a garage sale, except free.
“They expressed deep gratitude for the people who came to demonstrate God’s love in such tangible ways,” Berryman reported.
Opportunities Elsewhere
The Farmington pastor expressed his concern that similar ministries are not available at other tracks in and near New Mexico where the people his church ministers to go after the season concludes in Farmington.
“We send them off to meets in Albuquerque, Hobbs and El Paso with concern that no one would be there to offer a consistent ministry while they are living in those towns,” Berryman said.
While the tracks in Hobbs and El Paso have chaplains, there still is a need for churches to assist with them with volunteers and resources, Berryman said.
“Having a church adopt the chaplaincy ministry at a race track will ensure a consistent ministry in the long term,” he emphasized.
One example of a thriving race track ministry is in Ruidoso, where Chaplain Darrell Winter has served for six years. Berryman said that the ministry “has a church attendance of several hundred each Sunday, a thriving children’s ministry and many testimonies of lives changed through God’s work there.”
For more information about being involved in or developing a race track ministry, contact Berryman at kberryman@fbcfnm.org or (505) 486-0180; or winter@darrellwinter@hotmail.com, (505) 808-0790.
This article is reprinted from the September 29, 2007, issue of Baptist New Mexican, the newsjournal of the Baptist Convention of New Mexico.
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