Our Mission- "Making Christ-like disciples in the Western Heritage Culture."
"Cowboy Church University" - Southern Nazarene University, Bethany, OK
September 24-26, 2010
For a complete schedule of the event click here
Registration Cost:
$250.00 for the Cowboy Church Pastor/leader
$150.00 for support people
Register by clicking here and complete the form. You will have the option to pay with PayPal at the end of the registrtion process. If you would rather send a check, simply close the payment window and send a check to:
NCS
123 N. Washington
Unit #1
Chandler, AZ 85225
Lodging information coming soon
In 2005, NCS began studying the rapid growth of Cowboy Churches across the southern United States. In the fall of 2007, we were hired by the Texas Fellowship of Cowboy Churches (TFCC) to build and deliver a Cowboy Church Coaching System. Through the TFCC, 139 Cowboy Churches have been planted in Texas since 2005 with over 10,000 people now attending Texas Fellowship Cowboy Churches.
Who is in the Western Heritage Culture?
1. Working Cowboys- makes all or part of their living horseback, they represent a small part of this population and they may be the hardest to reach.
2. Professional Rodeo Cowboys make all or a part of their living on the rodeo circuit and again are very few in number.
3. Arena Cowboys & Cowgirls- makes his or her living somewhere other than the ranch or rodeo but they love arena activities such as team roping, barrel racing, team penning, ranch rodeo, sorting, cutting, play day etc.
4. Cattle people- these may be large ranchers with hundreds or thousands of head or people who own a few cows or even one FFA steer. They may or may not use horses.
5. Horse people- these people love horses, they may trail ride, western pleasure, show horses, raise horses, race horses or just have a few nags in the pasture and they may or may not care anything about cows.
6. Cowboys at heart- people who just love the cowboy and what he stands for. They wear boots, jeans and a cowboy hat, they listen to country music, have all of John Wayne's movies on DVD and Capt. Augustus McCrae and Capt. Woodrow F. Call are their heroes.
7. Cowboy mentality people- these folks may be linked to the culture through their past, parents or family, they are people who live by a code, your word is your bond, a honest day's work for an honest day's pay. They may be electricians, carpenters, law enforcement officers, firefighters, business men, working folks, country folks, people who love the land, farmers, hunters and fishermen. Even to the extent as one put it, those who have ever watched a western.
The further you go down this list a larger number of these folks are in the population. These are the people God has called us to reach that traditional churches have failed to reach in large numbers.
Values- What is important?
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Simplicity with excellence – Mark 7:37
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Non judgmental – John 8:1-11
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Empowerment with accountability – John 20:21, Eph 4
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Cultural relevance - 1 Cor 9:19-23
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Intentional Reproduction – Matt 28:19-20
How do we reach this culture?
The working cowboy may be the hardest to reach. If you can do church in a way that he will come, you will reach everyone else on the list. If you can reach those that are die-hard in the culture, they will draw others like themselves. They will draw those who admire their lifestyle. Again it is using the culture as a tool to reach more people for Jesus.
The Cowboy Church takes a different approach to starting new ministries. It is all right to plant where other Cowboy Churches exist, but it will be more effective where there are none. Demographics are important. We use very different criteria versus when starting other types of church plants. Great ways to tell if the soil is fertile is the extent of the population connected with various associations such as; AQHA – American Quarter Horse Association, American Paint Horse Association, American Buckskin Association, Pinto Association, Cattle Breeders Association and Cattlemen’s Association. These associations come together for national shows and events, rent coliseums for major events and draw large numbers of Western Heritage people.
