Cowboy churches rope in new Christians

[RamboLiberal]

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 about 30 miles south of Dallas now 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, North Carolina-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.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28567031/


Matt Slocum / AP
Chris Maddox, a lay pastor at the Cowboy Church of Ellis County speaks during a service on Dec. 7 in Waxahachie, Texas.

[YOY]

1. Vomit.

n.t.

[Arkansas Granny]

2. Just another gimmick, much like this one.

This is a Christian bike rally. Note the podium.

[8 track mind]

3. These people are

vastly more annoying than regular baptists. I live around a few cowboy churches and its quite a good laugh to see all of the urban cowboys in western garb walking from their huge diesel powered 1 ton pickups up to the 'ol Bible powered hitchin' post. Texas is a very very very silly place. Way more than Camelot ever could be.

[HillWilliam]

4. I found TGRA a lot more interesting, fun

and the cowboys were real -- and real fun :evilgrin:

[Harry Monroe]

5. Brokeback Baptist Church

...not that there's anything wrong with that...