NOREEN: Biker’s Church for holy rollers
It doesn’t look like a house of worship.
But at 2225 E. Platte Ave., amid pawn shops, medicinal marijuana dispensaries, bars and aging motels is the Set Free Biker’s Church. There’s no steeple, no orderly rows of pews; the old warehouse has huge garage doors that roll up, the roof insulation is exposed.
Anyone is welcome, but most of the people there are not well-heeled, having just scuffled in from the streets of the Knob Hill neighborhood. Most are homeless, many have substance abuse problems.
The church’s motto: “We go where the pizza man won’t deliver.”
This is the flip side of the Hell’s Angels. Drugs and alcohol are prohibited, although the church shares a wall with Dr. Reefer, a medicinal marijuana shop.
Bikers?
“There are a lot of reformed bikers,” said Pastor Jayme Simpson, who rides a Harley-Davidson and acknowledges having substance abuse problems in the past. Simpson said in her travels she has seen a number of small ministries within the motorcycle subculture and thought they could be more effective if they could network with each other.
Thus in January the Set Free Ministry, a longstanding organization, joined with the Biker’s Church and a lease was signed. Since February, Set Free Biker’s Church has been open 24 hours a day, giving food and clothing to the homeless, offering meals and sermons along with Bible study and anger management classes.
“We are dedicated,” Set Free’s literature says, “to helping the homeless, the hopeless, the addicted and the afflicted, or anyone who has given up on themselves.” The church offers a 13-month “discipleship,” in which a person gets room and board and must remain substance-abuse free.
After that, the person might remain as a staff member but more likely would transition into society. It’s a tall order, but Simpson distills it down to “get clean, get sober, get in The Word.”
The Biker’s Church gets food, clothing and other items (including bicycles) from Wal-Mart, King Soopers and other sources. Homeless people can get supplied with food once a week and meals follow church services Thursday, Friday and on Saturday, when a 6:30 p.m. service is “by bikers for bikers.”
When Colorado Springs dismantled the shantytowns for the homeless it succeeded in a cosmetic improvement, but the move merely dispersed the homelessness; it’s not just a downtown phenomenon any more.
A sermon this week, by the way, will be delivered by Greg “Bonez” Franklin, a Harley rider and master sergeant at Fort Carson.
“I challenge people to come here on a Friday night,” Franklin said. “They’ll be moved.”
—
Listen to Barry Noreen on KRDO NewsRadio 105.5 FM and 1240 AM at 6:35 a.m. on Fridays and follow him on Twitter and Facebook or call him at 719-636-0363







