Western Worshippers: Cowboy Christians gather at ranch, wait for
permanent home
By GLENN EVANS – Longview News Journal
Saturday, February 07, 2009
Four rows of pickups sat parked on matted grass as the muted twang of
Western swing escaped a wooden building nearby. Small boys in denim and
cowboy hats played tag under the building's awning, darting around four men
clustered far enough from the entrance to not block the way.
Horses stood in distant pens.
The gatherin'
Inside the meeting hall at Triple Creek Ranch, two miles south of Hallsville, a
crowd that would reach about 110 was arriving. Most of the men were dressed
like those outside, in jeans, Western shirts and cowboy hats. Nearly every
cowboy remembered to take off his hat by the time the meeting started.
The women complemented the men in dress. One lady wore jeans and a black T-
shirt that asked, "Got Jesus?"
Raymond Murray spotted a stranger.
"Welcome to the cowboy church, make yourself at home," he said. "It's a good
place to be. It's good people."
It's cowboys, Christians who live the farm and ranch life or simply appreciate
the lifestyle.
"These things are springing up all over the country," said Murray, who owns
Triple Creek and invited his church family to meet at his place while a
permanent sanctuary is planned. "They are really popular, because it's like it
used to be. This place here, it's like home — come as you are."
The church expects to break ground for the sanctuary this spring, which will
be on FM 450 South, close to Hallsville High School.
Cowboy churches have placed a brand on the larger Christian community in
recent years. The Cowboy Net directory, an online resource, lists 636 cowboy
churches around the world, most in America.
Locally, the Cowboy Church of Harrison County sidles up to similar
congregations in Tyler, Henderson and Carthage.
The trail so far
Believers kept on coming as the electric combo at the front struck up, "When
the Saints Go Marching In," to a swing beat. Before the service formally began,
member Mickey Shirley said this is the third meeting place for the church,
which began about a year and a half ago with two families gathering in a
building at First Baptist Church in Hallsville.
"And the Lord put it on our hearts, to kind of just let that boil and simmer,"
Shirley said. "And finally, the Lord stepped out."
Next stop was a barn on Shirley land along Galilee Road, " ...and it just took off
like a wildfire," he said. "It's like something out of old time. They'd come in out
of the fields, come in on Sunday and go back to work."
In April 2008, the congregation named Joe Hall, a Gregg County assistant
district attorney, as its pastor.
The announcin' and singin'
Hall took the pulpit wearing a tan vest over a green shirt. Worshippers sat in
folding chairs lined on the smooth, concrete floor, or at one of the tables in
back. Pine walls rose from the perimeter of people.
Hall led off with weekly announcements, including a call for vacation Bible
school volunteers.
"We need to see if there's going to be 20 to 30 here to help, or if it'll be two or
three," he said, and reminded the men of a round pen Bible study on Monday.
The name comes from circular corrals used by horse trainers.
"Come and join in," Hall said. "There'll be something good there for you."
A children's sermon followed, Vicki Brown leading a small herd of youngsters
who joined her at the front to sing, "This Little Light of Mine." They seemed
convinced they weren't going to hide their lights under a bushel, and most of
them probably know what a bushel is.
The combo then led the congregation in, "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky," lyrics
projected on the wall revealing a soul-saving message in the country music
classic: "If you want to save your soul from hell a-riding on our range; then
cowboy change your ways today or with us you will ride."
The preachin'
Taken from Jesus' encounter with the woman at Jacob's Well, the sermon
contained many messages.
"Jesus doesn't care who you are," he said. "If you're looked up to in the
community, so what? And if you feel like nobody else in the world cares about
you for a second, Jesus is not swayed by what you think about yourself. Do
you remember in, 'Lonesome Dove,' when Jake Spoon fell in with those
robbers?"
In the Larry McMurtry Pulitzer-winning novel that Hall cited, good-hearted
Spoon is disgusted when his fellow riders demean two farmers as, "sod-
busters."
"There's a lot of folks in our society that kind of take this approach to other
people, who maybe don't look like them or speak like them or live like them,"
Hall said. "Jesus didn't deal with people that way."
* * *
Gatherin' times
When: 9:30 a.m. Sunday breakfast, 10 a.m. Singin' and Preachin'
Where: Triple Creek Ranch, 2115 FM 450 South, about 50 fence posts south of
Interstate 20
Cost: Free
Attire: Casual duds
Contact: Call (903) 232-1718 or go to www.cowboychurchofharrisoncounty.com
permanent home
By GLENN EVANS – Longview News Journal
Saturday, February 07, 2009
Four rows of pickups sat parked on matted grass as the muted twang of
Western swing escaped a wooden building nearby. Small boys in denim and
cowboy hats played tag under the building's awning, darting around four men
clustered far enough from the entrance to not block the way.
Horses stood in distant pens.
The gatherin'
Inside the meeting hall at Triple Creek Ranch, two miles south of Hallsville, a
crowd that would reach about 110 was arriving. Most of the men were dressed
like those outside, in jeans, Western shirts and cowboy hats. Nearly every
cowboy remembered to take off his hat by the time the meeting started.
The women complemented the men in dress. One lady wore jeans and a black T-
shirt that asked, "Got Jesus?"
Raymond Murray spotted a stranger.
"Welcome to the cowboy church, make yourself at home," he said. "It's a good
place to be. It's good people."
It's cowboys, Christians who live the farm and ranch life or simply appreciate
the lifestyle.
"These things are springing up all over the country," said Murray, who owns
Triple Creek and invited his church family to meet at his place while a
permanent sanctuary is planned. "They are really popular, because it's like it
used to be. This place here, it's like home — come as you are."
The church expects to break ground for the sanctuary this spring, which will
be on FM 450 South, close to Hallsville High School.
Cowboy churches have placed a brand on the larger Christian community in
recent years. The Cowboy Net directory, an online resource, lists 636 cowboy
churches around the world, most in America.
Locally, the Cowboy Church of Harrison County sidles up to similar
congregations in Tyler, Henderson and Carthage.
The trail so far
Believers kept on coming as the electric combo at the front struck up, "When
the Saints Go Marching In," to a swing beat. Before the service formally began,
member Mickey Shirley said this is the third meeting place for the church,
which began about a year and a half ago with two families gathering in a
building at First Baptist Church in Hallsville.
"And the Lord put it on our hearts, to kind of just let that boil and simmer,"
Shirley said. "And finally, the Lord stepped out."
Next stop was a barn on Shirley land along Galilee Road, " ...and it just took off
like a wildfire," he said. "It's like something out of old time. They'd come in out
of the fields, come in on Sunday and go back to work."
In April 2008, the congregation named Joe Hall, a Gregg County assistant
district attorney, as its pastor.
The announcin' and singin'
Hall took the pulpit wearing a tan vest over a green shirt. Worshippers sat in
folding chairs lined on the smooth, concrete floor, or at one of the tables in
back. Pine walls rose from the perimeter of people.
Hall led off with weekly announcements, including a call for vacation Bible
school volunteers.
"We need to see if there's going to be 20 to 30 here to help, or if it'll be two or
three," he said, and reminded the men of a round pen Bible study on Monday.
The name comes from circular corrals used by horse trainers.
"Come and join in," Hall said. "There'll be something good there for you."
A children's sermon followed, Vicki Brown leading a small herd of youngsters
who joined her at the front to sing, "This Little Light of Mine." They seemed
convinced they weren't going to hide their lights under a bushel, and most of
them probably know what a bushel is.
The combo then led the congregation in, "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky," lyrics
projected on the wall revealing a soul-saving message in the country music
classic: "If you want to save your soul from hell a-riding on our range; then
cowboy change your ways today or with us you will ride."
The preachin'
Taken from Jesus' encounter with the woman at Jacob's Well, the sermon
contained many messages.
"Jesus doesn't care who you are," he said. "If you're looked up to in the
community, so what? And if you feel like nobody else in the world cares about
you for a second, Jesus is not swayed by what you think about yourself. Do
you remember in, 'Lonesome Dove,' when Jake Spoon fell in with those
robbers?"
In the Larry McMurtry Pulitzer-winning novel that Hall cited, good-hearted
Spoon is disgusted when his fellow riders demean two farmers as, "sod-
busters."
"There's a lot of folks in our society that kind of take this approach to other
people, who maybe don't look like them or speak like them or live like them,"
Hall said. "Jesus didn't deal with people that way."
* * *
Gatherin' times
When: 9:30 a.m. Sunday breakfast, 10 a.m. Singin' and Preachin'
Where: Triple Creek Ranch, 2115 FM 450 South, about 50 fence posts south of
Interstate 20
Cost: Free
Attire: Casual duds
Contact: Call (903) 232-1718 or go to www.cowboychurchofharrisoncounty.com
Pastor Joe Hall, right, sings
'Ghost Riders in the Sky'
accompanied by Julie Tucker on
bass and Mike Tucker on guitar
on Sunday at Cowboy Church of
Harrison County. The church
currently meets at Triple Creek
Ranch in Hallsville.
'Ghost Riders in the Sky'
accompanied by Julie Tucker on
bass and Mike Tucker on guitar
on Sunday at Cowboy Church of
Harrison County. The church
currently meets at Triple Creek
Ranch in Hallsville.