Cowboy Church

Ok, I am probably going to get in trouble with my family here, but I have to get this out in the open.  Even though my nephew (PBR professional bull rider) is a member of a cowboy church, I don’t think I like the idea of cowboy church.  Maybe that isn’t the right way to say it. 

I do like the fact (as this story reports) that people are coming to Christ who otherwise would not attend a worship service.  I also like the fact that people don’t feel they need to dress differently just to go to a worship service.  There is something genuine and real about the Marlboro man dropping his saddle and sitting with his boots on holding a Bible.  I like that; it is a masculine picture (something churches need more of, for sure).

However, I also grieve at how our churches are disintegrating like the culture around them.  As Christians, do we really have to subdivide into social groups?  Isn’t the gospel supposed to break down the barriers and the dividing walls?  Paul seems to think so in Ephesians 2.  The gospel is not smaller than “cowboy” or “generation X” or “generation Y.”  The gospel is larger than these social concepts.  What I think we should see is a bull rider, doctor, nanny, hispanic housewife, and black athlete all singing the same praise song to Jesus Christ at the same time.  O, for a thousand tongues to sing our great redeemer’s praise [all together, united, at the same time].