news-record.com

On the last night of summer Bible school, the church bus fleet of Cornerstone Baptist Church doesn't really spring to life as much as it is prayed into action. It's a ragtag fleet of school bus has-beens, carrying children to study lessons from the good book instead of a textbook.

The Rev. Bill Davis, who is piloting Bus No. 1, spends the afternoon ministering to his fleet, battling its mechanical demons with wrenches and jumper cables. It's hard work. But how do you put a price on the potential of the 61 children who will be delivered to the church this particular night?

The crew of Bus No. 1 includes a runner, a captain and a team of helpers. Davis navigates the maze of apartment complexes. The runner sprints from door to door and alerts people that the bus has arrived. The captain teaches the gospel, using songs and games with the flair of a showman. As Davis likes to say, "Heaven can be your home."

Davis knows what he's talking about. At 18, he was saved. For the past decade, he has been a pastor. Since then, he has dedicated his calling to help families, he says, "one child at a time."

For Davis, salvation by church bus is very personal. The journey began in the summer of 1976 when he was 10 years old. Davis had just been released from juvenile jail, for skipping school and breaking into a stable to ride horses, when two church bus captains knocked on his door, altering his life forever. He slipped on the shirt and clip-on tie his mother bought him and started attending church with the help of the church bus.

Now, some say the marriage of buses and the church had its peak in the 1970s. Don't tell Davis that. "We want to keep that remnant going, of what I think was the greatest outreach tool that we have," he says. "And that is the bus ministry."

The numbers bear out Davis' faith in buses. He says at least 75 percent of his church's Bible school attendees came to hear the teachings from the good book on one of the buses -- just as he did 33 summers ago.