Churches rope in cowboys

Western, rodeo themes popular

Members of the Cowboy Church of Ellis County sang at a service in Waxahachie, Texas. The church, which began nearly nine years ago, bills itself as the world's largest cowboy church. (Matt Slocum/ Associated Press/ File 2008)

WAXAHACHIE, Texas - Moments after flying headfirst onto the arena floor dirt, the man gets up and brushes off his protective vest as rodeo clowns rush in to distract the still-bucking bull.

The crowd cheers as the announcer reveals he's fine, just before the chute opens with another cowboy atop a menacing bull.

But this isn't a typical rodeo. It's an outreach ministry of the Cowboy Church of Ellis County, which has grown from about 300 to 2,200 members since it began nearly nine years ago. The church, located about 30 miles south of Dallas, bills itself as the world's largest cowboy church.

The movement is about 40 years old but has grown rapidly in recent years, especially among Baptists. The Midland, N.C.-based Cowboy Church Network of North America, supported by the Southern Baptist Convention's North American Missions Board, has started dozens of churches in 12 states and Canada since 2003.

The Baptist General Convention of Texas has launched about 140 cowboy churches since 2000 - the first in Ellis County. The congregations now perform about 10 percent of all baptisms among the group's 5,700 churches statewide, officials said.

"It appeals to you because it's 'Come as you are,' " said Chris Maddox, who attends the Cowboy Church of Ellis County. "You don't feel judged based on how you're dressed, how you talk, how you look. We're not asking somebody to be something they're not."

Churchgoers wear cowboy hats and jeans, sing hymns accompanied by a country band, and get baptized in horse troughs. Churches vary. Some have Western-theme sanctuaries; others meet in barns or on rodeo grounds, some on weeknights.

A few months ago the Cowboy Church of Mobile, Ala., started meeting at a nightclub called The Whiskey on one Sunday each month - when the bar is normally closed for business.

On summer Sundays in Jackson Hole, Wyo., horse whisperer Grant Golliher leads cowboy church services at the Diamond Cross Ranch. As he works with an abused or unbroken horse in the arena, he talks to the crowd about biblical parallels and about an hour later he is able to ride the animal. He is not ordained but calls himself a "horse trainer with a message."

Organizers say the churches attract everyone from rodeo participants and farmers to country music lovers and people who embrace the western lifestyle.

"I met a man in a feed store who said he hadn't been to church in 40 years, and now he's going to a cowboy church," said the Rev. Jeff Smith, a North Carolina pastor who founded the cowboy church network five years ago.