CMA brings Christ to Jonesboro River Rally

Thousands of motorcyclists, vendors and entertainers gathered together in Jonesboro last weekend for the nineteenth annual Jonesboro River Rally. 

The rally is one of the biggest motorcycle events in Indiana, bringing in more bikers than residents of Jonesboro itself. 

Rainfall caused attendance to be lower this year, but groups still drove in from all across the country to participate in this destination event for motorcycle enthusiasts. 

Over its nineteen years of existence, the rally has grown from four booths to taking up the entire main street of Jonesboro with booths, vendors and food lining the sidewalks. One of those booths is a group who has been coming to the River Rally since the very first gathering in 2005. 

Despite the rainy weekend, bikers from across America flocked to Grant County for the Jonesboro River Rally.

Christian Motorcyclist Association

In the middle of the booths selling leather jackets and motorcycle merchandise, sat a table with only a few small items and four men donning embroidered “Christian Motorcyclist Association” (CMA) vests. They sat chatting by their bikes waiting for people to stop by and learn about their ministry. 

The men on Sunday represented the Marion CMA chapter: the “Prayer Warriors” and the East Indiana (Anderson and Muncie) chapter: the “Prodigal Posse”. 

These guys represent bikers and Christians at events like the Jonesboro River Rally – they enjoy biking and they use the opportunity to spread the gospel. 

“We are a missions organization. We are not a club,” said Don Billey from the Prodigal Posse. “We are classified by the IRS as a motorcycle ministry —  which is different than a club — which means that we have a purpose of spreading the gospel of Christ primarily, but not exclusively, to the motorcycling community.” 

Billey and the other CMA members said that they enjoy biking and using these events to evangelize. 

Wayne Bruzzese, another biker, said that the biking community welcomes CMA gladly each year. 

“The biker community welcomes and invites the Christian Motorcyclist Association to come to a lot of the rallies, because we are not a threat. We’re not Bible thumpers and telling people ‘you’re going to hell if you don’t do this,’” Bruzzese said. 

In fact, those bikers at the rally look forward to CMA’s appearance each year. People search them out at Jonesboro specifically for bike blessings and for prayers over their bikes. 

Stephen Mitchell of the Marion chapter said, “Our motto is ‘changing the world one heart at a time.’”

Billey said events like the River Rally can be very important for groups like CMA. Because they are an organization and not a club, other motorcycle clubs do not feel threatened by their presence. 

“The motorcycle club world, it’s all competition. You know, they all have turf. They all have territory. They all don’t get along with one another.”

And despite the territorial nature of club biking, the CMA is welcomed back each year. 

Over the weekend, the CMA booth handed out over 700 cleaning rags with the CMA logo and a Bible verse alongside a tract with a message about Christ cleaning up your life as well. 

Billey said he is proud to be a part of this type of mission group. 

“There’s a mission and a purpose. And so we use the motorcycles as ministry tools,” Billey said. “And the other thing that attracted me is that most of the riders we encountered who are part of CMA are bikers who have come to know Christ, not just Christians who ride motorcycles.”

Members of the Christian Motorcyclist Association use biker events like the Jonesboro River Rally to evangelize to the motorcycle community.

Biking through tragedy

The Jonesboro River Rally originated in 2005 by founders Pat and Carmen Mitchell. Pat owned a bike store on main street Jonesboro called Ride and Leather and the couple brought the biking community to Grant County.

The River Rally has grown to bring in ten times the population of Jonesboro to what the event has coined “The State of Indiana’s largest biker rally.” 

In 2023, Pat Mitchell passed away, much to the disappointment of the community, but the River Rally rode on under the supervision of his wife, Carmen. 

This year, on the opening night of the Rally, cyclists gathered together for the first annual Pat Mitchell Memorial Ride in honor of the late founder. 

Despite the smaller crowds due to a rainy weekend and the loss of a founder, the 2024 River Rally still managed to be another big success for the small town of Jonesboro.