When pastor Ralph Lee was growing up in Brevard, N.C., he was a self-described “stock car fanatic” with a dream at 18 to “buy a car, turn it into a race car, and begin racing.” Today, Lee is pastor of Great Swamp Baptist Church, Ridgeland, and its annual Hot Rod Event is drawing 325-400 people.
Ralph Lee, holding a Hot Wheels racer and standing in front of a shelf of racing memorabilia, has led Great Swamp Baptist Church in Ridgeland to go outside its walls in creative ways to reach its community.The Hot Rod Event is one example of the church’s desire to go beyond its walls and into the community, a spirit Lee captured through his earlier involvement in the Missouri raceway ministry.
“About the time I was going to buy that car, the Lord called me to preach,” Lee said. “At the time, in the 1970s, I couldn’t see the connection between racing and preaching.”
In 1996, Lee was serving a church in Kansas City when he learned about local ministry at race tracks and within a year was the local chaplain at the I-70 Speedway, in Odessa, Mo. “I was there every Saturday night for 10 years,” Lee said, admitting he also raced some himself. He then got involved in the initial raceway ministry at the Kansas Speedway in Kansas City where, he said, the “big boys” race.
“While I was in Missouri, I was serving in raceway ministry and also serving a local church. I could not get the racing people to attend a traditional church,” Lee said. “In fact, I found out later that people would park at a building across from our church and observe how and what we did on Sunday mornings. They were watching how we acted and how we dressed.” In 2000, Lee began Discovery Church with a focus on reaching the racing community.
In 2007 when he was called as pastor of Great Swamp, a move that placed him and his wife near daughters in South Carolina, the passion for racing and connecting with people beyond the church had not faded. Great Swamp began its annual Hot Rod Event.
“On a Sunday morning, we invite people to bring their cars – antiques, race cars, homemade race cars – to our church,” Lee said. “I get a special speaker for the morning. The first year we had a Christian comedian who works at racetracks. This year we had NASCAR driver Lake Speed.” The church serves both breakfast and lunch.
Children are invited to participate in Hot Wheels races on a track put together by church members. “Our members bring and donate Hot Wheels. Children pick a car to race and then get to keep it,” Lee said.
The church also provides door prizes, and registration gives members the opportunity to survey participants about church involvement. Above all, the gospel is shared, and Lee said the event, drawing up to 400 people, has resulted in new families joining the church.
Back in Missouri, Lee realized the racing community might not be attracted to his church, so he took ministry to the racing community. Likewise, today Great Swamp is creatively exploring ministry to reach people of different backgrounds. – SCBC