From Wild to Mild
Ricky Bowman wears his hair slicked back into a skinny ponytail, has tattoos on his arms and loves to ride his Harley.
Although he looks like a biker gangster, he has a title that betrays his looks--pastor.
With his black leather jacket slung over his shoulder and a cigarette in his hand, Bowman is arguably the toughest-looking minister around. In his estimation, “Jesus would have rode a Harley,” as it says in a gospel flier he designed.
But then his church is not exactly like any other in his city, or in most other places for that matter. Bowman’s Church in the Alley is literally in a downtown alley.
“We’re alley cats, this is where we belong,” he said. “We get prostitutes who come here off the streets and just listen and be a part of what’s happening.
“There are a lot of guys who come in here under the influence. We just say, ‘Here man, that’s your seat. We’re just going to love you.’ ”
Bowman, who started the ministry about two years ago, understands his congregation well. He used to be one of them.
“I have a pretty colorful background,” he said. “I’ll just leave it there, because I don’t like to get into that grungy stuff.”
Bowman, now 40, said he grew up idolizing biker gangs and wanted to be just like them, riding on a Harley and acting tough.
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But after several run-ins with the law, a couple of failed marriages and a drug addiction, he ended up in a mental hospital where he seriously thought about his life’s priorities. In 1986, he was referred to Steve Warren, a reformed biker gangster who worked with ex-convicts. He took Bowman into his home here and taught him about Jesus Christ.
“He was probably the only guy around for miles and miles that had a home specifically for convicts, dope fiends, nuts and bikers,” Bowman said. “He just took everybody in and loved them.”
After about three years, Warren and his wife left for Costa Rica as missionaries. Bowman decided to continue the ministry. “We had Friday night Bible studies in our home, and it got so packed up that we needed to get out,” he said.
After a few outdoor Sunday services at a city park, Bowman decided to look for a building and in an alley found an old, run-down warehouse that was falling apart.
But with volunteers and donations from unexpected places, the church still stands, and the sanctuary is packed with about 200 people Friday nights and Sunday mornings. The warehouse has a stage area where a band plays music ranging from “rock ‘n’ roll Jesus style” to soft contemporary worship music.
“First 45 minutes is definitely head-banging music,” Bowman said. “It’s all Christian lyrics, it’s all Jesus, but it’s definitely high-wattage music.”
The church also has a clothes closet for the homeless and serves food to the hungry after the Sunday morning service. It’s not unusual to see criminals and working prostitutes stop by looking for help.
“Most of these guys don’t know what love is. Most of these guys come from single-parent homes and abusive homes,” he said. “It takes two or three years for my guys to feel like human beings again.”
But it’s worth the wait, he said. “They were straight up gangsters. They’ll shoot you in the face and beat you up. They were drug fiends, but now they’re different inside,” Bowman said.
Though there have been opportunities for Bowman to move his church to a storefront in a better part of town, he said the alley is where the ministry belongs. “What does a Christian look like? Are they all 18 to 45, white, with middle-class income? I don’t think so,” he said. “This is just us. We belong here.”