The American Fellowship of Cowboy Churches, wannables for Christ. Cosplaying cowboys for Jesus.
Though there are actually few cowboys in existence anymore, there is a major Christian movement of Cowboy Churches were I supppose they don't have to worry about a ssissified Jesus.
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Cowboy Churches
This a phenomenon where the church is imagined to be a cowboy church and it is designed to have a cliche frontier Western look. Members attend wearing cowboy type clothing. Basically it is cosplaying cowboy for Jesus.
The following is a fairly good description of the cowboy churches.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowboy_church
Baptist Standard, June 16, 2008, “Cowboy churches a movement of God, not just a fad.”
A large number are affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
https://baptiststandard.com/news/texas/cowboy-churches-a-movement-of-god-not-just-a-fad/
These two scholars have a more indepth article on the Cowboy Church movement.
This is a fairly indepth history. It has the Cowboy Ten Commandments in some type of imagined cowboy English.
(1) Just one God
(2) Honor yer Ma and Pa
(3) No tellin’ tales or gossipin’
(4) Git yerself to Sunday meetin’
(5) Put nothin’ before God
(6) No foolin’ around with another feller’s gal
(7) No killin’
(8) Watch yer mouth
(9) Don’t take what ain’t yers
(10) Don’t be hankerin’ fer yer buddy’s stuff
https://wrldrels.org/2016/12/16/cowboy-churches-2/
This video by the American Fellowship of Cowboy Churches shows a representative example of the decor of a cowboy church. Nothing fancified.
The Texas Baptists have a formal outreach to the Cowboy Churches in Texas.
https://www.texasbaptists.org/ministries/western-heritage
American Fellowship of Cowboy Churches
The primary organization of Cowboy Churches is the American Fellowship of Cowboy Churches. The website is heavy on frontier western themes.
For the frequently asked questions, they stated that if a church was interested, they had a set of recommended bylaws and you would have to ask for them.
https://americanfcc.org/about/frequently-asked-questions/
https://www.facebook.com/AmericanFCC/
https://www.youtube.com/@americanfellowshipofcowboy7041
https://www.instagram.com/americanfcc/
It appears that the AFCC is a program directed by the Baptist General Convention of Texas, a homophobic group.
Baptist Standard, Aug. 18, 2006, “Nolen to coordinate Cowboy Fellowship.”
The Texas Fellowship of Cowboy Churches became the American Fellowship of Cowboy Churches.
Ron Nolen will retire Aug. 31 from the Baptist General Convention of Texas to become full-time coordinator of the Texas Fellowship of Cowboy Churches.
Nolen, 61, has served 11 years with the BGCT, most recently as director of western heritage ministries.
And:
“The Texas Fellowship of Cowboy Churches is going to focus on helping the BGCT start cowboy churches and develop them to fulfill their potential,” he said.
And:
“We view ourselves as a service organization of the Baptist General Convention of Texas and will work exclusively with the BGCT in its vision for starting western heritage churches.
https://baptiststandard.com/archives/2006-archives/nolen-to-coordinate-cowboy-fellowship/
They publish the “Learning the Ropes Bible.”
“This bible was created with cowboys in mind.’
A more accurate statement would be, “This Bible was created with cosplaying cowboys in mind.”
https://americanfcc.org/resources/learning-the-ropes-bible/
Their bylaws are not online and to find them I had to do some research and then pull them up from the Internet Archive. The Internet Archive can take a minute to upload a page. By 2015 this page has disappeared.
Article III Affiliates
3.1 Affiliates of the Fellowship shall be Cooperating “Baptist Way” Cowboy Churches. A Cooperating “Baptist Way” Cowboy Church:
(a) Subscribes doctrinally to the Baptist Faith and Message of 1963, with this exception: Elders are recognized as Scriptural Officers.
(b) Generally functions under the model reflected in the AFCC recommended bylaws as presented in the Ranch House Schools.
3.2 No official application process is required to become an affiliate of the Fellowship beyond meeting the criterion laid out in Article III, 3.1 above.
3.3 Affiliation with the Fellowship may be terminated for the following reasons by a majority vote of the Board of Directors at any regular or special meeting:
(a) Failure to meet the criterion laid out in Article III, 3.1.
(b) Moral or ethical misconduct.
https://web.archive.org/web/20130725210152/https://americanfcc.org/content.cfm?id=2043
From the 1963 Baptist Faith and Message. Stonewall hasn’t happened yet, so it doesn’t rail against homosexuality.
XV. THE CHRISTIAN AND THE SOCIAL ORDER
Every Christian is under obligation to seek to make the will of Christ supreme in his own life and in human society. Means and methods used for the improvement of society and the establishment of righteousness among men can be truly and permanently helpful only when they are rooted in the regeneration of the individual by the saving grace of God in Christ Jesus. The Christian should oppose in the spirit of Christ every form of greed, selfishness, and vice. He should work to provide for the orphaned, the needy, the aged, the helpless, and the sick. Every Christian should seek to bring industry, government, and society as a whole under the sway of the principles of righteousness, truth, and brotherly love. In order to promote these ends Christians should be ready to work with all men of good will in any good cause, always being careful to act in the spirit of love without compromising their loyalty to Christ and His truth.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/texasbaptists/about/Baptist-faith-and-message.pdf
Also, the recommended bylaws for AFCC churches is not online and has to be requested.
Though you can’t get documentation on the American Fellowship of Cowboy Churches in terms of policy documents, they do express themselves online.
This is documentation of the homophobia of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
As reported in the articles, many of these Cowboy Churchs are part of this homophobic denomination.
This video has a short summary of their history.
Some thoughts.
I think this cowboy clownery helps undermine the Evangelical movement by making them look like ridiculous wannabees. I think there must be some fear of sissified Christianity behind this movement.
It is interesting that though they are homophobic, they generally avoid the topic. Perhaps in their recommended bylaws for member churches it might be found, but I was unable to track down a copy.
