Cowboy Church

Hunter and I have recently started attending a "Cowboy Church" here in the hill country of Texas. What is a cowboy church? According to wikipedia:

Cowboy churches are local Christian churches within the cowboy culture that are distinctively Western heritage in character. A typical cowboy church may meet in a rural setting in a barn, metal building, arena, sale barn, or old western building, have its own rodeo arena, and a country gospel band. Baptisms are generally done in a stock tank. The sermons are usually short and simple. Some cowboy churches have covered arenas where rodeo events such as bull riding, team roping, ranch sorting, team penning andequestrian events are held on weeknights. Many cowboy churches have existed throughout the western states for the past forty or fifty years, however just in the past fifteen or so years has there been an explosion of growth within the “movement”. Prior to 1980 there were no less than 5 cowboy churches in Texas, now the number exceeds 200, and there are an estimated 750 nationwide. There has been no definitive group that established the movement; rather it seems to have had a spontaneous beginning in diverse areas of the country at nearly the same time. Some of these cowboy churches are an outgrowth of ministries to professional rodeo or team roping events, while the roots of many can be traced back to ministry events associated with ranch rodeos, ranch horse competitions, chuck wagon cooking competitions, cowboy poetry gatherings and other “cowboy culture” events.

Cross and Spurs is the name of the particular church we are attending. The photo is of their own country gospel band. The music was wonderful and brought you "right into the presence of God"! The congregation was extremely welcoming and you could "feel" the atmosphere of love. I felt like I was "back home" in the country where I grew up and at the same time out west where I spent summers as a horse wrangler. The only thing I missed was my own cowboy hat and boots! And, of course, a horse to ride!!