Jesus and Joy while wearing boots!

      Coca-Cola is a soft drink that nearly everyone in the world knows.  Its tried and true formula, although it was changed in the 80s and then changed back, is a hit.  You know what you’re getting when you open a can of Coke.   A good business owner knows when a product must remain what it is and when it is time to change.  The church is no different and one might notice, there’s been a lot of change in our lifetime.  After all, true fellowship and joy can be had in a pair of well-worn cowboy boots.

      About a month ago my family decided to try a church in our new community.  Seed and Supply is the name which really gives no one wanting to categorize it any clue.  For lack of a better way to describe it, it is a “Cowboy” church made popular in the last couple of decades.  The message is simple, the service is casual and the good times are certainly happening here.  It is not the only church who has put away the robes and choir.  Churches are changing to meet the needs of people who need Jesus.  We had been a member of a church with a contemporary service back in Colorado Springs but the experience we were about to have was like none other.

     As we approached the front door a bubbly blonde with a gargantuan smile on her face and a thick Texas accent bursts out a hearty “Welcome Y’all!” and then the hugging starts.  I am from Oklahoma originally so this culture is normal and comfortable, my Colorado born daughter appears apprehensive as she goes in for the squeeze.  I almost instantly wanted to call her “Aunt Sharon” as I felt I had known her forever. Jesus was in her heart.

 

     Men decked out in boots, jeans, western shirts and hats filed in to shake hands and make small talk about the weather, crops, bad bulls and who needed prayer.  I think I had been living in the city too long when it surprised me to see the young teenaged boys opening doors for ladies, taking off their hats and extending their hands with the proper use of “ma’am” to introduce themselves.  This is, after all, the way it used to be.  This is one of the many reasons I had a strong attraction to the real cowboys at Oklahoma State, that and I liked to ride in big trucks, let’s just be honest.

      Guitars, keyboards, drums and lively leaders of worship wrangle the conversation to a halt to start the service.  The music is simple and fun.  If you do not know the words you can still follow along on a big screen.  As I sing along I think of all of the ways this service would be criticized by some as being too casual.  But back to my main point, the church is finding new ways to reach people who need to know Jesus.  Many folks who didn’t grow up in a formal church, exposed to the choir, a pipe organ, and sitting behind the original church lady who always had cough drops in her purse and smelled like Channel No. 5, do not have preconceived notions about what church “should” be like.  And some of us are just finding that fellowship in a way that suites us better is more uplifting and interesting.  

     It appears that Seed and Supply is part of a ministry called Morgan Ministries which may or may not be a cousin to the Cowboy church.  I bring this up only to give you an idea of how to describe it.  On a national site that explains the concept of the Cowboy Church it states that the number one goal is “…that you will come to know out Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, and that He wants to be your Best Friend.” (http://www.cowboychurchministries.org/)  It is this simple message and goal that makes the type of worship organic and real.  People have been turned off by all of the “have-to-do’s” of the world.  For example, you have to wear a dress to church, you have to dress up, you can’t wear jeans, you can’t clap because it’s irreverent, you can’t laugh at something amusing.  You have to sing old hymns that are played by a blue-haired woman on an organ who is out of key and out of rhythm. It is no wonder many left the church and slept in on a Sunday.  That’s as obvious as a fart in church.  Don’t judge, I’m sure even Jesus tooted.  I like to keep it real.

      On the first day of our visit to our now church home, it was raining and had been all night.  In a farming community this is a joyous event.  After our “welcome y’all” bear hug from Auntie Sharon we took our seats but didn’t sit.  The visiting worship team had us up, clapping and praising our Lord for the rain.  Our God is greater! Our God is stronger!!  The crowd shouts and sings and if you didn’t know better you’d think you were in a spirit filled, hand clapping, African American southern gospel church, except you aren’t.  A random AMEN can be heard from all parts of the room as they’re reminded that the chains are broken and they’re free.  God gave his son to die for sins that we might all come together and worship, no matter what that looks like.  So whether your worship service is adorned with pretty clothes and robes and hymn books or jeans, boots and a big screen the message is the same.  The way churches are reaching people is meeting them where they are.  Seed and Supply appears to be doing that.