Must evangelicals turn every human activity into yet another Jesus-loving experience? (You remember we talked about Christian gyms not long ago.)
According to a an article in the Los Angeles Times there are now at least 600 hundred so-called "cowboy churches" sprawled across the country, where people worship while on their horse:
Wearing a white cowboy hat and preaching atop his horse Coby, Pastor Steve Hamson gives a modern-day meaning to "sermon on the mount." With a Bible in one hand and reins in the other, Hamson strikes the fear of God in his parishioners -- more than a dozen of them listening on horseback in a humid riding arena.
The cowboys put their hats over their hearts when Hamson prays for those who are missing because they "had to do hay."
Men chew tobacco and the horses kick at the ground. And no one minds. This, after all, is cowboy church.
No more tacky velvet-lined offering plates! Many of these congregations pass around their very own cowboy hats when it comes time to collect the Sunday offering.Other perks include short sermons and corny jokes. If you want your horse baptized, most cowboy churches can take care of that as well.
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