Jeff Smith On Cowboy Church Planting

Cowboy church planters?Some say they go too far in contextualization, doing something avant-garde simply to draw a crowd.  Others say they have taken the concept of the homogeneous unit to an extreme, only planting churches for cowboys, and then raise questions such as, "Do we then need to plant churches only for NASCAR fans?  Do we then need to plant churches only among old men, who play chess in New York parks?  Or, what about only planting churches among van-driving, soccer-moms who are members of Oprah's Book-of-the-Month Club?"Others say this is a unique movement of the Holy Spirit among an American subculture.  Regardless of what both the fans and critics are saying and asking, there are three things I have noticed over the past several years (Please note that numbers 2 and 3 are based on anecdotal evidence):  1) The cowboy subculture is not just an American phenomena, it is a global matter--IMAX even produced a movie about it; 2) A large number of churches have been planted (across denominations and many non-denominational) among this subculture in the past decade; and 3) Reports are coming from the field that large numbers of people are making professions of faith and being baptized through the work of such church planters.  Recently, I was able to interview Jeff Smith, the founder of the Cowboy Church Network of North America.  He shares with us what the Lord is doing among the subculture, and some information about cowboy church planting.While cowboy churches can be found in different denominations (and some non-denominational), Jeff works in partnership with the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina and the North American Mission Board, training others to plant cowboy churches throughout America and Canada.  According to the network's website, they are "impacting the cowboy culture with the gospel of Jesus by planting cowboy churches in every county."  

Research is Needed

For sometime I have wanted to study what is going on among church planting in this subculture.   I believe there is a great story to tell and much to be learned.  Over the past few years, I have been thinking about writing a book on this topic, much like my first book Missional House Churches.  However, don't wait on me!  Do the research, and tell the story about missional labors among this subculture (share the good, the bad, and the ugly--no pun intended)!I have started a category in the Links section of my web site.  There are a few links on this topic HERE.  This will get you started.Want to learn more about The Cowboy Church Network? Check it out HERE.  Or, checkout their YouTube channel HERE.