Cowboy Churches

Comment

Comment by Rev./Dr. Steven C. Spalding on March 3, 2011 at 8:31pm

Having help to plant cowboy churches and being an itinerant pastor/traveling evanglelist to over forty cowboy churces....I feel qualified to be on this group and I hope to be able to add some insight from time to time.
I have had the pleasure of talking with a few folks here and really enjoy the warmth of this campfire.....Steven

Comment by Bob and Sylvia Jordan on February 12, 2011 at 9:17am

Howdy Karmann at Spur Cross Cowboy Church in Arizona!

We have have sang there a couple of times, I know you guys have gone through a lot but you have a great pastor now and I pray that your ministry there will grow.

We have always enjoyed the warmth and fellowship when we have ministered there.

Comment by Genevia Johnson on February 10, 2011 at 1:29pm

We also agree, we have had to learn that the true church is not a building but our Lords church and as Christians we all make up that one church. When I begain my ministry I prayed long and hard for how the Lord wanted me to proceed. It didn't take long for his answer for me to know that I was a minister if music and not a speaker. As a result I have been welcomed more openly to many different churches. The one thing I have found through prayer is that the Lord will direct us, and that we all have one common belief and that is the ( birth, life, death, & resuraction of Christ our saviour ) as long as we hold to theses truths we will never go wrong and. I strongly belive in my case that I'm to prepare the people for the pastor through music for who knows his people better than he does. I follow my Lords direction then I should never offend anyone or cross denomation lines.

Music is the ministry I was called for and the talents I was given.

Comment by Karmann Powell on February 10, 2011 at 12:19pm

While I've attended cowboy church and led worship in cowboy church services, I was not intimately involved with a cowboy church until May of last year when I became the worship leader/music director of Spur Cross Cowboy Church.  The church had lost one pastor, then the other one quit.  The board nearly shut everything down, but decided instead to struggle through. They did an extensive pastor search and finally picked one - who has turned out to be an excellent choice.  (PRAISE GOD!!!)

 

God sent us to several dysfunctional churches before we came to our current church.  I look back and realize what all He was teaching us.  Here's an example:  We went to one church where the worship leader had been hitting on women.  When confronted by the pastor, he assulted the pastor which resulted in a restraining order, a trial, conviction and probation.  I was asked to lead worship.  My husband and I love to do service.  He's REALLY good at technical stuff.  Had we been informed of the history, we might have decided not to become involved.  We didn't find any of this out until later.

 

The former worship leader's wife was on the board of the church as well as the worship team.  For the entire time we were there, his wife did everything she could to sabotage the worship and the board, ever holding a place for her husbands return, as soon as the restraining order expired.

 

Through our experiences, we've learned that we need to be "in the church and not of it".  The work we do in any church is for the Lord.  We have been to churches that were dieing and had no idea that they were.  We've been to churches that were cults of personality and didn't even realize it.  We've been to churches who thought they could allow sin to run rampant (openly acknowledging that it existed) and that they would still be blessed. 

 

Thank God, we've also been to churches that fought the good fight, built themselves on the word and did everything they could to be the church that God wanted them to be.  That, I think, is where our little church is today.  The past leadership has not had the integrity it should have.  Many folks have left.  It's sad to see some of them go because they've contributed so much, however, based on personal observation, it seems their motives were not in the right place.  They used the church for their personal aggrandizement rather then for their stores of treasures in Heaven.  What's left are those who are committed to making things work.  The church is being rebuilt from the cornerstone on up.

 

I'm one of those people who had been hurt by churches and Christians in them.  As a non-Christian, the folks that made the most impression upon me, personally, were those who lived it rather than give it lip service.  There was a quiet confidence about certain people.  I would ask them what was different about them and they'd tell me they were followers of Jesus Christ.  That would usually send me running away screaming.  I didn't want anything to do with Christianity.  When I did come to Christ, I did it kicking and screaming.  I was a Buddhist up to the moment I became a Christian.  I've run into several former Buddhists since then.

 

We would love to see our congregation grow from the ground on up - cowboys, cowgirls, bikers, addicts - come one, come all.  Also, Buddhists.  We'd love to see more Buddhists in the seats.  Personally, I don't care if we never grow huge.  We'd lose the intimacy we have now.  What I want is that we grow strong in the Lord, that I can grow strong in the Lord along with the church.  God saved me for a purpose, and I think He saved our church for a purpose.  We've got a ways to go.  I pray he leads us with His light and that we're all smart enough to follow.

 

As for the music, I am the only one doing it right now.  The pastor wants us to keep things consistent until we start leveling things o

Comment by Ross Pollock on February 10, 2011 at 9:31am

Andy, you said a mouthful.  We have been doing Cowboy Church for 40 years as well and can attest to the fact that we should not have had some of the speakers we did. Just as important, we wish we would have learned earlier in our ministry how to effectively shut someone down when things were 'going south'.  That goes for people sharing in between their songs as well or trying to promote their style of worship. 

Our Cowboy Church is an outreach to the unchurched and unsaved as well as a blessing to those of us who love the country music and country way of life.  We have learned to warn the people we have invited to participate that if they can't stay within the peramiters we set, we will have to shut them down. Part of OUR mandate is to 'despook' people that have been hurt by churches and their run-ins with Christians over the years and their are lots of them.

Thanks for the advice, it is appreciated.  Many times we would have been saved 'a wreck' if we had listened to that 'glitch' in our spirits as the Holy Spirit tried to lead and we weren't listening, or didn't know how to deal with the situation. 

Please pray for us as God seems to be leading us to start a Cowboy Church once a week in yet another location.  We need the Holy Spirit's guidance. 

Ross & Claire Pollock

Diamond Willow Cowboy Church.

Comment by Andy Starks,ICCAN Int'l Director on February 7, 2011 at 9:05am

When getting a PREACHER, I have learned over the years to be extremely careful. I make sure I've seen and heard him live before turning over my responsibility to minister to the people God has called me to lead.

When calling a SINGER, I'm not that careful. I'll take a recomendation from another pasor I trust, or even watch them on YouTube. They are coming to sing, not preach, and my people know to accept them that way.

Once I pray and decide to call them, I contact them, either through email or phone, and discuss it with them.

All preachers are not alike, and neither are all singers of course. If you are new at this, be careful, pray, and trust the leadership of the Spirit of God. God's in no hurry. But when He starts to move, get out of His way!

I strongly recommend some folks you'll find at the bottom of the home page on our web site. I've been pastoring almost 40 years now, and have known some of these a long time. I promise you they'll bless your people. They usually make a loop through a given part of the country once or twice a year, and you'll have to choose a date in that time frame. Be blessed, and if we can be of assistance in any way, please let me know. Andy Starks CornerstoneCowboyChurch.com

Comment by Karmann Powell on February 6, 2011 at 9:15pm

Hi!  I'm Karmann Powell.  I'm the worship leader/music director for Spur Cross Cowboy Church in Pioneer, AZ.  My husband, Stan runs the sound.  Our little church has been there the mill the past few months, but we have a new pastor - Kirby Moses - who is bringing stability and strong biblical teaching.  We are praying that God blesses our ministry and grows our little church.

Comment by Ross Pollock on January 25, 2011 at 10:39pm

Ross & Claire Pollock and we pastor "Diamond Willow Cowboy Church" at Maple Creek, Sask, Canada.  Our website is dwcowboychurch.com

Comment by Kevin Corbin on January 20, 2011 at 10:15am

Howdy y'all - I pastor "the cowboy church" in Sherwood PArk, AB, Canada   our website is cowboychurch.ca

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