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Cowboy churches: I have now seen everything


Terrie

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowboy_church.

 

I first discovered this over the weekend, while visiting my grandmother in the nursing home. We passed one along the way: openrangecowboychurches.com/. Haven't look at all 200+ chruches, but seems to be a twist on "manly" fundism. For instance "Men's Leadership will focus on men who will "cowboy up" as leaders in our church and in their families."

 

As the subject says, I have now seen everything.

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it would be interesting to see a church that combined the cowboy church thing with the fight church thing.

or is that just me?

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I saw one of those a few years ago. My aunt videos horse shoes and I went with her to one show to help out. This guy approached her to video the services so they could post them on-line and "spread the word".

She declined.They had a trailer with a cowboy on a horse and some Bible quote about horses. We both thought it was odd.

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I work in TX a lot and have seen several of these.

I've not been. Not my cup of tea.

They don't have cage fighting, they have rodeo arenas out back...

A distinguishing feature of a cowboy church is the rodeo arena on the grounds. Conventional churches have family life centers; most cowboy churches have places to rope and ride. At Open Range Cowboy Church, two of the most popular activities are barrel racing and junior sheep riding, known as "mutton busting."

"Little kids, under 55 pounds, they put on helmets and vests and ... when they ride that sheep, these little boys are living their 6-year-old dream as a cowboy," Penner says with a chuckle.

Cowboy churches solve a problem for evangelical churches suffering from sagging attendance. They attract the "unchurched": those who never went to church or stopped going long ago.

npr.org/2013/09/01/217268202/cowboy-church-with-rodeo-arena-they-do-church-different

Which confirms my suspicions that many churches are just social clubs with guilt/superiority dished out weekly in return for some cash so one or more guys don't have to have real jobs.

Yeah, I know that sounds cynical...

I still want some fancy cowboy boots.....

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We a few in Mid-Mo. My aunt who FAR from fundie has enjoyed going.

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/a/171 ... oy-church/

The Missourians pages aren't loading well for some reason but if you search cowboy church on their site, several articles come up.

Woohoo, Mid-Mo! I lived in Jeff City for a while and I remember seeing these in the area. I was pretty far removed from the church-going scene though, so I was more in the "now I've seen everything!" camp.

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A little less than two years ago, we bought several acres outside the city and built a house. Down the street from my house is a Cowboy Church. I have heard of them, but I never actually seen an actual Cowboy Church until we moved. A lot of the people that attend ride their horses to church. If we go out on Sunday, we have to time it just right so we don't get behind several of the cowboys riding their horses down the road. Nightmare. The church has a riding arena and a shooting range. I am not sure how those two things make their way into worship and why either is necessary to have at a church. I find the whole idea bizarre, frankly.

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I have friends who go to one because it's a heckuva lot cheaper to tithe to the church (members get to use the covered arena on non-church days by appointment) than to rent time for practice at the fairground :D And they like the horsey crowd.

I kind of wonder on some of them if it's just easier to put a cowboy church in, zoning-wise (and insurance wise!) than a boarding barn, really....

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I've been several times to the one near me. I really enjoyed it. The pastor was "humble" (that is actually a compliment in the religious world; it means you matter little, that the gospel that you preach matters more). It was in an inside horse arena. The pastor gave the sermon on horseback. It was a small congregation. The pastor's family sang. I liked it because the service was at 6:30 pm on Saturday evening. (I am not an early riser, so this works better for me than early morning church). There were several dogs wandering around in the arena, and I ended up spending the entire service petting an elderly golden lab, which I enjoyed. To get to play with a dog during church? Awesome! Prior to service, everyone brought a food dish, and we had dinner together (getting fed at church? Right up my alley!). They have several events during the year, one of which is where they have a cattle round up... they ride on horseback to round up cattle for a rancher. The non riding congregation follow along in a chuck wagon to provide lunch. I didn't get to take part in this, because I had recently had surgery, but I am sure it was fun. I would have loved to go to a church like this, while my kids were young.

One little aside, that makes me giggle secretly: I live in south-central Wyoming, and the racial makeup is overwhelmingly white, with the main minorities being Native American and Hispanic. There are only a few African American families in town. A close friend of ours moved up here about a year after we did. We would have liked to invite them to the Cowboy Church, but they are black, and we were afraid that bringing them into a congregation that was totally white, and a white guy on horseback giving a speech in front of a life sized wooden cross tied together with ropes, might seem a little weird. I mean, really, all that picture needed was some white robes, and............

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Some of them used to have hay bales for pews :D But i think they've gotten past that. The one i have visited was pretty churchy-normal inside except that it was a metal building.

Sorry for this rant, it's not directed at anyone else but growing up around actual farmers and people who had horses and cows it's hard to take posers, i would get tired of going to a church with a bunch of people looking like the duded up honky-tonk crowd and spitting in the parking lot or stomping around in spurs, not that all the people that go there are like that but a lot of Mennonites who move down south go big into Cowboy[tm][/tm] crap once they see the light and get away from their religiousness. We all know real farmers and people who work with cattle mostly wear baseball caps and t-shirts, cowboy hats for special stuff yeah but mostly ball caps, riding horses or not lol. :shrug: And i think that's the draw of those churches - come as you are. They probably have a good laugh at the expense of the lifestyle wannabes who swagger in. :D It's kind of sad that when Mennos leave their rules they jump right into another kind of idealized lifestyle. I guess it just takes them a while to climb out of needing that sort of structure and be their true selves.

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Now nobody steal my idea, but I just had a huge one. Football churches! For manly men who like to suit up, and their veggie-tray-serving wives! There's even built-in prayer-practice complete with finding out instantly who filling the clown's mouth fastest. Have all the people for A on the left and for B on the right, and pray with all your might at the game on the Jumbotron, and whoever does it better will find out by God answering a prayer in real-time! Now tithes are 15% since those Jumbos ain't cheap, but how else are you going to get the win-win of church AND football? See how God worked through me to benefit everyone? Glory!

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The hubs and I were looking for a new church home and looked online to see what was available in our area. We came upon a cowboy church about 30 minutes away from home. We never checked it out but from the website, the service has a laid back atmosphere (preaching, music, dress) and there are frequent pot-luck dinners. Other than that, I have no clue what they're about. I live in the Southeast so I found the idea of a cowboy church in my area to be pretty humorous.

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Now nobody steal my idea, but I just had a huge one. Football churches! For manly men who like to suit up, and their veggie-tray-serving wives! There's even built-in prayer-practice complete with finding out instantly who filling the clown's mouth fastest. Have all the people for A on the left and for B on the right, and pray with all your might at the game on the Jumbotron, and whoever does it better will find out by God answering a prayer in real-time! Now tithes are 15% since those Jumbos ain't cheap, but how else are you going to get the win-win of church AND football? See how God worked through me to benefit everyone? Glory!

Not exactly that, but endurancechurch.tv/ makes a huge deal about how the pastor is a former NFL player, and prone to sticking football metaphors and images on things.

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There are several of them in my area, but I have never been to one. They are designed to appeal to people (mostly men) who might not otherwise attend any kind of formal church service. I haven't heard anything bad about them but I will report back if I do.

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Know of several, I went to one for a short time but it was the church that espoused Pearls and your husband is God to you crap so it was less than a year.

That church was equally split between bikers and horses.

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  • 4 months later...

I have been to many weddings and several funerals that were at a Cowboy Church. Some have a physical building and some are a travelling ministry that travels around the horse shows and rodeo circuits. It's definitely an interesting crowd.

Now if you really want to see interesting- try a Bikers for Christ service or rally. One of my uncles retired from law enforcement in California and is heavily involved in this ministry. They have everything from squeaky clean pastors and physicians to serious ex-cons who found the Lord in prison. I think it's awesome that my uncle and his wife are not scared of people who have walked a different path through life. I know their club does a ton of charity work and in my mind- they are living Jesus' teachings more than all the judgey missionaries in our family.

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  • 1 year later...

Sorry to necro this, but I bet I'm the only person here who has met a lady trampled by a horse while attending a Pentecostal 12-Step Cowboy Church.  Actually, given the community I won't bet on that, but this was maybe 12 years ago and I don't think I've thought of the memory in at least 5.

Cut to the chase for you... horses *don't* enjoy being circled by a dozen Pentecostals screaming in forgotten languages. Who knew?

But hey, if you're ever in Wyoming and want to witness pretty much any flavor of Christian being trampled by a frightened horse, please hit me up! I think every church in the state has an "arena ministry," now.

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