The big topic in West Texas is the lack of rain. That’s always the case, but especially this year.
Tomorrow’s forecast is typical: 103 degrees with wind. Chance of rain—zero percent. The buffalo grass is blond, the bluestem reddish-brown, both are curly and crunchy. Cattle are disappearing from the pastures. First it was lack of grass, but now the tanks are dry. It doesn’t matter how much grass or hay you have if you don’t have water. And most of the peanuts and cotton were never planted. The farmers who did plant probably won’t yield more than the ones who didn’t.
While the cowman’s funds fade, the cowboy church thrives. The group that started meeting in the cattle auction barn a few years back has become the second largest church in the county. The church is affiliated with the SBC, but the sermons, music, and fellowship cater to those who would rather ride horses than drive Hondas. Last week’s local paper advertised a ranch sorting contest to be held immediately after Sunday’s services.
That there are cowboy churches at all causes some debate. Here’s part of an email a friend sent me the other day:
“There is something about the cowboy churches or biker churches that doesn’t seem right to me. I never have been able to place my finger on it, but basically here is the question that …I can’t answer: what is there about being a cowboy that requires a church dedicated to them?
“Now I know there is lot about being a cowboy and that lifestyle and so forth, but what about it is necessitating all these western heritage churches? [W]hen I bring up my discomfort, I usually feel bad because people say, ‘Well, if one person is saved because of it, then it is a good thing.’ Then if I disagree with that statement about the fictitious ‘one person’ who is saved at all these silly things that we do in the name of Christ and His Church, I look like a total jerk.
John, as a cowboy sympathizer, what is your take on the cowboy church movement, and am I a jerk?”
And my response:
“[Friend], I agree with you completely on this. No, you’re not a jerk. Or maybe we both are, but I think that we are right….
The bottom line is that as brothers and sisters in Christ, matters of essential doctrine (or possible language barriers) should be the only things to divide us. When we create a cowboy (biker, skater, whatever) church, it says that our worldly preferences are the main priority, and that even our church has to conform to our way of life or hobbies. It’s the extreme example of churches having to be ‘culturally relevant.’”
But after my initial email, I thought more. What is it that makes the “cowboy type” uncomfortable in the average church? I think I know, partly because I can sympathize. Maybe the other churches have become too culturally relevant themselves.
Can we blame the man who still works by himself on horseback for 15 hours a day, 30 miles from town (and there are still plenty left around here), if he’s uncomfortable singing girlish pop songs from a movie screen while people wave their hands on both sides of him? Maybe he doesn’t want to hear the college boy—the one with the soul-patch and flip-flops—playing his bongo.
I’m not John Wayne, and I don’t work on horseback 15 hours a day. And while I don’t want to sit on a bale of hay while listening to a sermon from a man wearing his team roping spurs, I would prefer that to a lot of the places I’ve been. Preachers who act like Barney, music fit for little girls, rock concerts, coffee shops, intellectuals, anti-intellectuals, you name it—we have it all. Why not cowboy churches, too? If the mainline churches can have golf tournaments, splash days, and Super-Bowl parties after church, then what’s wrong with a little rough-stock riding?
Maybe this is the bottom line: if we’re going to bring contemporary culture into the churches, we need to accept the cost. Not everyone shares or appreciates our particular culture. If it was easy to find a church where the services consisted of preaching the word, singing traditional church hymns, and prayer (without all the extras), then I bet there wouldn’t be a need for cowboy churches. But if we insist on bringing our pop culture into the church, then we can’t blame the cowboys for leaving.
Comments are open, so fire away.
