STEPHENVILLE, Texas (ABP) — On a chilly morning in central Texas, a man in ostrich-skin cowboy boots stood shivering beside a horse trough. Then he stepped in the water-filled tank.
Charles Higgs quickly dunked the cowboy. Higgs, the pastor of Cowboy Church of Erath County, had also baptized the man's wife and two kids outside the Stephenville, Texas, church.
The family-style baptism is just a sign of the times, Higgs said. He was a pastor at traditional churches for 28 years but now says he has a passion for those interested in cowboy culture.
Cowboy churches like the one in Erath County are growing in popularity as a way to appeal to non-believers who avoid potentially stuffy conventional churches. And water-trough baptisms are an increasingly common occurrence for the laid-back group.
Based on openness and grace, the movement appeals to those living the cowboy lifestyle — or city-slickers with the cowboy attitude. Suits, ties, pews and theological nit-picking are foreign to the movement. Instead, services often come before or after rodeos, branding days, roping events and barbecues.
It's difficult to track national numbers of cowboy churches, since most of them are non-denominational, but the Web site www.cowboyministers.com lists cowboy church groups in 29 states.
In Texas alone, seven thousand Christians have been baptized in cowboy churches since the western heritage movement began in 2000, according to Baptist General Convention of Texas records.
The average size of a cowboy church congregation is about 200 people; many churches split when numbers outgrow the barn or arena used as a meeting place. And the appeal — one associated with old-time cowboy ethics — is spreading.
“You can really feel grace [in a cowboy church],” Higgs said. “We preach that we are saved by grace, but we also try to react with grace.”
As the director of the BGCT's Western Heritage Ministries, Higgs said the movement has the potential to attract millions.
“Twenty percent of the Texas population embraces the western heritage,” said Higgs. “That's five million people we are trying to reach. Eighty percent of the [cowboy church] baptisms are adults. We baptized a lady who was 57 who had not been to church in 43 years.”
The movement continues to grow, with more than 80 cowboy congregations started in Texas in the last six years, according to the BGCT. Church planters nationwide have taken cues from the growth in Texas and are eager to build on that momentum.
“Our goal this year is to create 40 new cowboy churches in 2007,” Higgs said. “Five of them will be vaquero cowboy churches.” Vaquero is the Spanish word for cowboy.
To that end, the Texas Fellowship of Cowboy Churches recently kicked off a new $1 million “Riding the River with the Cowboys” fundraising campaign to start more than 200 new cowboy churches in Texas by 2010.
“We want to build on the foundation laid by the BGCT,” said Ron Nolen, the director of the Waxahachie, Texas, fellowship. “We need a foundation that will support 250 cowboy churches being planted in Texas.”
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