DALLAS (ABP) — The “cowboy churches” that are springing up throughout the United States are about more than worshiping God while wearing boots and cowboy hats. They are about finding ways to be relevant in the rodeo-circuit, country/Western culture.
In many ways, congregations that identify with the so-called “Western Heritage” movement are like traditional ones, with minor differences.
Cowboy churches are not just about wearing hats and boots to worship, they are about finding ways to be relevant in the country/Western culture.
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For example, boots placed at the back of the worship space as receptacles sometimes replace collection plates and offertories. Baptisms often take place in horse troughs. And, of course, country/Western, Southern gospel and bluegrass music often feature prominently in worship services.
Ron Nolen, founder of the Texas Fellowship of Cowboy Churches, said that some traditionalists have criticized cowboy churches for building rodeo arenas. But Nolen believes that’s no different than a traditional church building a “family life center” or gymnasium. He said that, while the appearance may be different, the message is the same: Christ, and Christ alone.
“We have got to get the gospel to the people in America,” Nolen said. “Western Heritage is one way of getting the gospel to the people of this nation.”
The cowboy-church movement has its roots in Pentecostal ministries from the middle of the 20th century, but has spread significantly among evangelicals — and especially Southern Baptists in rural areas — in the last 10 years.
In 2000, Nolen, whose son competed in rodeos as a roper, began wondering where all the people he always saw at rodeos went to church. He found out that most of them didn’t.
To reach the rodeo community, he helped found the Cowboy Church of Ellis County, in Waxahachie, Texas. With an average weekly attendance of more than 1,200, the congregation bills itself as “the largest cowboy church in the world.” And it was one of a growing movement.
“Baptist people began to see there was an open door here,” Nolen said.
He also started two more churches before becoming the Texas fellowship’s coordinator. The group has 129 affiliated congregations, and it cooperates with the Baptist General Convention of Texas and Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary. Fellowship leaders hope to increase the number of affiliated churches to 250 by 2010.
Although the BGCT has 5,700 member churches, about 10 percent of the baptisms have been coming from its 80-plus affiliated cowboy churches, according to Charles Higgs, BGCT’s director of Western Heritage ministry. These churches average about 40 baptisms a year. Seventy percent of those baptisms are adults.
“This is a movement that is reaching the men and the adults,” Higgs said, citing the demographic groups that tend to make up a disproportionately small share of baptisms in most Baptist churches.
Cowboy-church leaders from other states have, with Texas leaders’ help, recently organized an American Fellowship of Cowboy Churches. So far, about a dozen churches have affiliated with it — from states such as Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Alabama.
“The AFCC is in the embryonic stages of coming together,” Nolen said. “What is happening in Texas is also attempting to happen across America.”
Todd Hervey, AFCC’s nationwide strategist, believes that the spread of cowboy churches is just getting started. He said many people who identify with country and Western culture feel intimidated in traditional churches.
“We are trying to remove the barriers that have kept lost men from coming to church,” he said.
There are also cowboy churches popping up under the Cowboy Church Network of North America, which was started in 2004. It became affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board in 2005. About 40 congregations identify with the network. They are located in places as diverse as the Carolinas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Florida, Idaho, South Dakota, Wyoming and Ohio — and even Canada.
“God is moving in this and the people are responding,” said Jeff Smith, executive director of the network.
Smith said cowboy churches and traditional churches are “different only in flavor.” Cowboy churches, he added, have been popular among unpretentious rodeo lovers because of their down-to-earth atmosphere.
But not all people understand the need for cowboy churches. Smith said he has been asked, “Can you worship in a barn?”
His response? “Jesus was born in a barn.”
Smith likes the idea of starting churches that focus on the interests of particular groups. And the cowboy-church model could be replicated among other communities of aficionados.
For example, Smith said, he has had a biker take one of his courses on pastoring cowboy churches to get ideas about starting a church for his own lifestyle community.
“I like the idea of the biker church,” Smith said.
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