Cowboy church

cowboy churchMany times when I begin a marketing campaign we put on our creative hats and look at new and original ways to tell the story, but sometimes the best marketing is to simply be who you are. A story from the Denver Post tells of a great example. In it Pastor Shorty says it best:


“You can come here straight from the field with manure on your boots or tractor grease on your jeans. There are people here who would never grace the door of a conventional church.”

Pastor Shorty is the pastor of a cowboy church. A relaxed, informal church that meets…in a barn, where else? They don’t meet on Sunday’s because Sunday’s are busy for cowboys, they’ll meet on a Monday night instead. And there’s no offering plate passed around the barn.

“We don’t pass that kind of plate here,” Shorty says. “If you pass a plate in this church, it better have food on it.”

Here are some elements of cowboy church all churches can learn from:

  • Cowboy church is “come as you are”. Too often I think we put on our church face and wonder why nothing ‘real’ is happening. I think it starts by coming in real.
  • Cowboy church is “come to where you are”. It’s not just about Sunday morning. It’s about caring about someone’s sick grandmother (or horse).
  • Cowboy church starts with community. Church shouldn’t be about tradition, it shouldn’t be all about you. It should start with your neighbor.
  • cowboy churchCowboy church might not be for you, but is a great example of getting outside your walls and exploring new ways to do this thing we call church.

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    • Russ your comment reminds me that church should be about church...it should be about community and worship, really easy to get sidetracked from that when we focus on "church" as an item on our activity list.

      Flotsam...you'd have to have a potluck EVERY service. Mmmm...I love potluck Taco Salad!
    • Flotsam
      Hmmm.... I wonder what would happen if I started a church for graying crabby old fat guys (like me)? I could call it "Codger Church". We could meet in a back yard, all sit in lawn chairs, wear shorts and sandals with black socks, gripe about it being too cold (or hot) (or both)... yeah, I like it.

      I may have just found my missionary calling!
    • Very cool. I actually have friends that participate in "rodeo" church. They're not super active, as their children (the rodeo participants) have grown up and moved on, but this family still holds a "home church" meeting where a bunch of their neighbors, all of which, are farmers and "cowboys" come together informally and have church. It's very real.
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