Biker Church Huntsville
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(Gallery by Kay Campbell | kcampbell@al.com)
NOTE added 3-23-13, 11:44 a.m: A disagreement between the City of Huntsville and Hattie's Bar & Grill owner Lisa Adler has prompted Adler to close Hattie's as of March 21, 2013. Adler is looking for a new location for the bar.
Meanwhile, Biker Church will move down Memorial Parkway to meet at Bandito Southside, 11220 S. Memorial Parkway in Huntsville. The service will begin at 10:15 a.m., with the first service to be held at Bandito Southside on Sunday, March 24, 2013.
Pastor 'Wild Bill' Jorgensen parks in front of Blackwater Hattie's Bar & Grill, where he preaches every Sunday for Biker Church in Huntsville, Ala. (Note: As of Sunday, 3/24/13, Biker Church has moved to Bandito Southside, 11220 S. Memorial Parkway in Huntsville. (Kay Campbell / KCampbell@al.com)
HUNTSVILLE, Alabama – The church has pool tables in the sanctuary, neon beer signs in the choir loft and clean ash trays by each pew.
The congregation is wearing jeans and leather, most with at least a few tattoos decorating their skin.
A few of the patches on the jackets sport slogans that wouldn’t pass muster for family television, much less Sunday school.
Many men -- and there are more men than women -- wear their hair in a long braid and most arrived on one of the motorcycles parked outside the door.
Welcome to Biker Church, held each Sunday around 10:15 a.m. at Blackwater Hattie's Bar & Grill, 1000 S. Memorial Parkway in Huntsville, Ala.
It’s a church where the benediction’s “amen” is punctuated by the “kplphfzzz” when the bartender opens the first bottle of beer of the morning.
“This is a come-as-you-are, come-when-you-can church,” said “Wild Bill” Jorgensen as he greeted people heading in for the service on St. Patrick’s Day. “Some of the guys are seekers. And a bunch of our folks might not fit into your average congregation.”
Neither would Jorgensen.
Lisa Adler, the owner and manager of Blackwater Hattie's Bar & Grill, is 'Momma Lisa' to Bill Jorgensen, at right, and other regulars at the bar or at Biker Church held at the Bar in Huntsville, Ala., on Sundays. A disagreement between the City of Huntsville that developed on 3/20/13 has led Adler to close Hattie's. She is looking for a new location for the bar and Biker Church will move to Bandito Southside, 11220 S. Memorial Parkway in Huntsville in the meantime. (Kay Campbell / KCampbell@al.com)
Jorgensen is a big man who rides a big bike: A gleaming white-and-silver Harley-Davidson Ultra Classic.
His billowy white Fu Manchu moustache is usually in motion from his smiles.
A lay minister trained and mentored by the pastors at Huntsville's Central Assembly of God, 1701 Sparkman Drive N.W., Jorgensen is studying for formal ministerial credentials.
But he has also volunteered in prison ministry for more than 10 years.
Jorgensen and his wife, Beth, also a biker, came to Blackwater Hattie’s by the seat of their riding leathers. A non-drinker himself, Jorgensen heard about a Biker Church that began meeting at the bar about four years ago.
“I just came over to support 'Bear' and Cynthia McGregor,” Jorgensen said, referring to the Guntersville-based minister who started the Biker Church. “When Brother Bear stepped down, we kept it going. It’s nice to have a place for people who are not comfortable in a traditional church.”
Some of the traditional elements of church persist. Hot coffee sends up curlicues of steam when people pour it into one of the various ceramic mugs set out on the bar. Tricia Rasco, who’s also active in the Christian Motorcyclists Association, stands at the door and welcomes regulars with a hug and visitors with a firm handshake and introductions to others.
Announcements take a while. There are prayer requests for a biker who has just lost her leg in a motorcycle accident, a request that brings a quick murmur of sympathy from the 30 or so bikers and others sitting around the bar. There are lots of announcements for benefit motorcycle rides and about the family that the Biker Church, along with regulars at Hattie’s, has adopted to help fit out a handicapped accessible bathroom and kitchen for a recently paralyzed young woman.
The congregation stands to sing along with the recorded song whose lyrics are projected from Jorgensen’s laptop. Wild Bill’s sermon, on the woman described in John 8 who is found in adultery, is heavy on grace and forgiveness, and interrupted a couple times by quips from the congregation.
The sermon is short and to the point. The closing prayer is just Jorgensen’s shrug after the congregation sings “Amazing Grace” – “I can’t add any more to that,” he says.
A beer bottle fizzes over at the bar and several parishioners tap out a cigarette and snap their lighters. Several line up to drop bills in the big pickle jar that collects the donations that will go for the Biker Church’s building project. One of the many Christian rock songs on the bar’s juke box blares through the speakers.
Mike Vawter, one of the many motorcycle-riding veterans of the U.S. military, reads the scripture for the day's message on Sunday, March 17, 2013, at Biker Church at Blackwater Hattie's Bar & Grill in Huntsville, Ala. At patch on his vest reads, 'These ARE my church clothes.' (Kay Campbell / KCampbell@al.com)
“Hattie’s family is the most eclectic group of people I’ve ever been around,” says the bar owner, Lisa Adler.
Adler had welcomed Bear McGregor’s idea of starting a church at the bar. The bar’s regulars often work with the Biker Church regulars on the dozens of projects they take on each year.
“Just since Christmas, we’ve finished the bathroom. A plumber donated all-new plumbing. One man gave me his credit card and said, ‘Here. Go to Lowe’s and get what you need for the family,’” Adler said. “When the tile man didn’t show up, we tiled it ourselves. We painted. Someone else donated new appliances.”
The project took its toll. Scott “Fingers” Paulson came out of his work there with missing the last half of the little finger on his left hand. He was operating the table saw, Paulson said, and just followed a piece of wood too close to the blade.
“But it was really a blessing,” Paulson said. “When people ask about it, I can witness.”
“We have his glove tacked up to the wall,” Adler said. “Talking about giving your blood, sweat and tears.”
“God is the basis of my life,” said a tough looking man whose nickname is Yosemite and whose leather vest sports a big skull and crossbones on the back. “I try to do things half-way right anyway. Regular church? I go every once in a while.”
Regular church would never work for her family, says Joan Langseth, who held her wedding to Ken Lake in December on the back patio at Hattie’s. The Biker Church is just quirky enough that her young adult son, who’d quit going to church, comes to the service with them and stays awhile, having a sandwich afterwards or just talking.
“We all come together and enjoy it – and enjoy the family,” Langseth said.
Pastor "Wild Bill" Jorgensen says he's always available to talk or to ride. Contact him at BikerChurch@me.com and 256-348-5219.
Huntsville offers other networks for Christian motorcycle riders, including the Christian Motorcyclists Association, which meets the first Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m. at Mullin's Restaurant, 607 Andrew Jackson Way N.E. in Huntsville. Contact: Jeff Milby at DadsDroid@gmail.com, 256-527-2835.
Also, Trinity United Methodist Church, 607 Airport Road in Huntsville, will host a Blessing of the Bikes and a Biker Sunday on Sunday, April 7, 2013. The worship service, led by the Rev. Marty Luckie, a former military chaplain and a biker, will begin at 10 a.m. There will be a blessing of the bikes at 11 a.m. in the church parking lot, followed by a ride to Lake Guntersville. More information posted at www.TrinityHsv.org or by phone at 256-883-3200, ext. 226.
Story updated 3/20/13, 2 p.m., to include Biker Sunday at Trinity information.
Kay Campbell, religion reporter for The Huntsville Times and www.al.com , can be reached at KCampbell@al.com and 256-532-4320.
Follow her on Twitter @KayTimes.