Starting a Cowboy Church

		Chisholm Trail Cowboy Church - Enid, Oklahoma

What God has taught us about a Cowboy Church

I am writing this in October of 2007. Four years ago, God led us to start Chisholm Trail Cowboy Church here in Enid, Oklahoma. I thought it would offer those who compete in rodeo events a place to come to church. I also thought that 50–100 in attendance would be tops. However, God had other plans. The church got big in a hurry. We have 350–400 show up every Thursday night.

Over the past four years, we have baptized 91 people and seen God work in the lives of so many others. My purpose in writing this is to share with others what God has led us and taught us to do because it has worked so well for us here in Enid. It is not my purpose to tell you this is how you have to do it, but just tell you what has worked for us. Use it if you can. And if not, that’s fine, too.

Get together on an “off night.” We meet every Thursday night at 7:00 p.m. Some only want to meet on Sunday, and that’s OK if that’s what you want. We started ours as a place for those who compete in rodeos on Sundays. We thought that those who rope, barrel race, etc., needed a place to worship. However, we have found that by having it on Thursday night, many people who go to other churches (where they may never hear a simple gospel message) are able to come—allowing them to come to Christ or to grow in Him.

Have your Cowboy Church in a non-threatening place. In our case, God provided a nice sale barn—we meet at Winter Livestock Auction. Ray Winter not only allows us to use his facility, but he has never charged us a dime for the use of it. This allows us to do more than we ever could if we had to worry about keeping up a building and having a big overhead. We’ll talk more about that later.

One day I went to see a couple who had asked me to come over and have “that talk” with them. We sat at their kitchen table, and they both came to the Lord. After that, I asked them what it was that had drawn them to cowboy church. She said, “When we were a young married couple, we started going to a church. The church got into a big fuss over some things, and we were deeply hurt so we just dropped out. However, every time we went to a funeral there and saw the pulpit and communion table, all that hurt came back. But when we came to the Cowboy Church, there wasn’t a pulpit or any of that and we felt at home.” The first Thursday night we had Cowboy Church at the sale barn, a lady came up to me after the service and said, “You have to have a piano and an organ to have church.” My reply was, “If those are important to you, there are about 50 churches in town that have them.”

Meet people where they are. Christ did a great deal of his ministering to people as he passed by them or on a hillside. He spoke in a simple way that they could understand. If you’re going to have a Cowboy Church, you need cowboys and cowgirls leading it. I was raised on a quarter horse operation, and my uncle was a rodeo stock producer. When it comes to cowboys, they speak a language all their own and can spot someone at the drop of a hat who doesn’t speak that language. Someone who is not a cowboy who tries to lead a cowboy church will be as successful as I would be trying to start a hip-hop church. When it comes to a cowboy church, it is important that the pastor speak the language of the folks who attend.

Structure your church leadership correctly. Here in Enid, we are an elder-led church, which means the elders make decisions for the church. All of our elders are cowboys or from a cowboy background. Under our constitution, it is clearly stated that all elders and the pastor must agree on anything brought before them. If we don’t agree, we pray over it until we do. If any elder or the pastor begins to sow discord among the elder body or the church, he will be reprimanded. If it continues, he will be dismissed from the elder body. In the four years we have been in existence, we have only had to reprimand someone one time and he repented. If a church is structured so that everything goes to a vote and the majority rules, then it is easy for someone to begin to seek his or her way—whether right or wrong—by getting out and gathering up the votes. However, under a good elder structure, those men want to seek and do the will of God.

Most important of all is to let God be God. That sounds so simple but it’s not. There is a tendency to fall into the trap of over-structuring a church. By that, I mean mankind tends to want to plan ahead and set up rules and regulations, which is necessary to a certain extent. However, God works in unusually mysterious and powerful ways. From the time of Christ until now, churches and denominations tend to feel that everything must be done as they have structured it. The Pharisees and others found fault with Christ because He did not come through the structure they had set up—even finding fault with all He did (raising of the dead, causing the blind to see, etc.).

We have found that God is really eager to glorify Himself if we are willing to just follow His lead. Don’t get me wrong. We are not a church where we speak in an unknown tongue or run up and down the aisles in a wild way. If that floats your boat, that’s fine. It’s just not what we do. However, we find that God has worked (and continues to work!) in such a powerful way that no one can doubt it is Him. That can only happen when we are open to letting Him move how and when He wants to. We can’t be so structured that if it’s not on our program, He’s not allowed to horn in. We have found that staying loose and watching for God moving in a church service is wonderful. There will be times when I feel led to crawl over the sale ring fence and pray over someone, or hand someone the microphone and let us all hear what God has to say through them.

Don’t get too churchy. By this, I mean most of us who have been a Christian for long tend to learn the language spoken in the traditional church. This can be the very thing that turns off the people we are trying to reach. In Ecclesiastes 7:16, King Solomon says, “Do not be over-righteous, neither be over-wise. Why destroy yourself?” Then in verse 18, he says, “The man who fears God will avoid all extremes.” We tend to somehow equate using words or phrases used in a denomination or church with righteousness. But if we look at the teaching of Christ, He spoke using words and terms that were spoken in everyday language.

Keep it simple. I have found that reaching folks for Christ requires making everything said and done as easy to understand as possible. When we started the Cowboy Church, I had been a pastor for almost 40 years. During all that time, I had used the King James Version of the bible because it was what I had started with when I surrendered to the ministry. Over the years, I had memorized many verses from it. However, when we started the cowboy church, I quickly realized that many people found it hard to understand. Well, we ordered some cowboy new testaments to give away called The Way for Cowboys. They were the new international version and easer for folks to understand. Because of that, I began to preach from the new international version. It would have been easer for me to have stayed with what I was used to, but I wanted to reach folks, and keeping it easy to understand is the key. I try to use illustrations about cows, horses, and farming when illustrating a biblical truth to make it understandable to everyone.

THAT TALK. When I say having “that talk,” I mean going through the Romans Road and showing a person what the Bible says we have to do to come to Christ.

At Chisholm Trail Cowboy Church, we do not have an invitation after the message where we ask folks who want to come to Christ or have other needs to come forward. Instead, at the end of my message on Thursday night, I say something like this.

“If you are here tonight and would like to know what the Bible has to say about how to know for sure that if you died you would go to heaven, look me up after the service and whisper, ‘Dan I need to have that talk.’ Then I’ll meet with you at some place where you feel comfortable and show you what the Bible says a person needs to do to be saved. Then I promise you that I won’t put one ounce of pressure on you. It will be your decision. And no matter what you do, I’ll love you just the same. We can meet at your house, or your barn, or in your pasture, or wherever you feel comfortable. And if you’re here and have other needs you would like to talk to me about, look me up.”

It is important that folks don’t feel any pressure. Now, for those of you who are pastors, let me say to you that there is a little more to this than just saying, “Look me up and we’ll have that talk.” We do have some who come to me, but for the most part folks seem to have trouble mustering up the courage to approach me about their need for Christ. For that reason, it is important that I am careful to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. That’s the only way that I seem to become aware of who and when to talk to is in this way.

(1) I work hard at building rapport with as many folks as I can. The café at the sale barn where we meet is open before and after church. I make it a point to go from table to table just “howdy’ing around” with folks. I try to get to know them and keep everything light and fun. Our service begins at 7:00 p.m., but folks start arriving about 4:30 at the café and about 5:00 for church. My wife and I move through the crowd and visit with as many people as we can right up to church time. By doing this, we build rapport with a lot of people.

(2) After I have gotten to know someone and am impressed by the Holy Spirit, I catch them at a time when I can quietly ask them, “Have you ever had that talk?” If they say no, I say, “Well, when you’re ready, let me know.” Some will say, “Well, any time!” and we will set a time and place. Others will say, “OK. I will.” As you can see, that exchange took place with no pressure at all. If you put pressure on someone to make a decision that minute, all kinds of walls go up.

(3) I begin to pray for them every day. As I pray for them, the Spirit will prompt me from time to time to catch them when it’s just the two of us and I will ask, “Are you about ready to have that talk?” Some will never be ready but most will. The key is to let the Spirit of God have time to move in their hearts.

(4) When they say they are ready, we set a place and time. When we meet, I don’t just rush into going through the Romans Road, but I let them tell me about themselves and their life. Then I say, “Would you like me to show you what the Bible says you need to do in order to know for sure that if you died today you would go to heaven?” When they say yes, I take them through the Romans Road. After we have done that, I ask them if that sounds like something they would like to do. If they say yes, we pray together and they ask Christ to come into their life. Every now and again, someone will say, “Well, not today.” At that, I simply say, “Well, when you are ready, let me know.”

Over the past four years, we have had so many men and woman come to Cowboy Church and come to Christ—when other people who had known them through the years had said, “They’ll never darken the door of a church or come to Christ.” But they do! And another amazing thing is that many were 60 years old or more–some were even past 90 years old. Only God can do that!

One great thing for me is that I get to be there when it happens and get to watch, which shows you that God will pick up an old rusty hoe every now and then and use it for His glory.

THE BUCKET. We have a couple of old beat up buckets at each entrance of the sale barn. At announcement time, I welcome everyone and say, “For those of you who are here for the first time, we have a bucket hanging down there. We really like to help people who need a hand up, so if you want to drop something in the bucket, feel free to do that. And if you have a need, let us know, and we’ll help you if we can.”

That’s all we ever say about money. By meeting at the sale barn, we have very little overhead. This allows us to help people who really need a one-time hand up that will put them on their feet again. When we first started, we said the same thing except we used to say, “If you need help, feel free to take from the bucket.” Soon the word got out and we had a lot of church bums coming to get a hand full of money every week. These were people who go from church to church doing just that.

We like to help folks who find themselves in need because of something life has thrown their way, and a little help once or twice can get them back on their feet. We have given a lot of money to folks like that. I’m not sure just how much, but I know at the time of this writing, it’s getting close to $100,000 that we’ve given away. However, we do have one constant problem that keeps coming up at every Elders meeting–we have more money than we can give away. Isn’t that just like God to give us a problem like that?

All of this may or may not help some of you. I hope it will. There has to be a lot we have not covered, so if you think we could help you in any way, feel free to call me. My name is Dan and I can be reached at 580-541-7815. May God bless each of you.