Cowboy churches tweak twangy tunes to share Christ_72505

Posted: 7/22/05

Cowboy churches tweak
twangy tunes to share Christ

By George Henson

Staff Writer

LONE OAK–Many western heritage or cowboy churches are taking a page from history and converting the tunes of the barroom for use in the church house.

“That's the nature of the cowboy church–taking Top 40 country songs and tweaking the words to make them have a Christian message. I think hearing the tunes of songs they are comfortable with makes coming to church much more comfortable for some people,” said Tammy Marler, the band leader at Bull Creek Cowboy Church in Lone Oak.

John David Walters, band leader and lay pastor over music at Ranchhouse Cowboy Church in Maypearl, agreed.

Baptist Standard News by the Ranch House Ranch Hands (length 3:13)

“It's really what you'd call standard operating procedure for cowboy churches,” he said. “I've rewritten 10 to 15 songs myself that we use from time to time.”

For example, on a recent Sunday morning at Bull Creek, the church sang a medley of songs that included “Amazing Grace,” “I Saw the Light” and “When the Saints Go Marching In.” Also included, however, was a song called “Cowboys for the Lord” written by band member Bob Ferguson to the tune of “Ghost Riders in the Sky.” The pop tune “Wind Beneath My Wings” also had some words changed to make it a song that glorified God.

Band member Buk Aucoin sang a song by Cross Canadian Ragweed titled “Faith is Believing.”

Walters strays a little more in his rewrites, with Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show's standard “Cover of the Rolling Stone” converted to “Baptist Standard News,” and the tune of the Charlie Daniels Band's “Long-Haired County Boy” rewritten with the words of “Jesus Did It On His Own.” He also has a completely original tune called “Duct Tape and Baling Wire.”

“I grew up kind of bouncing 'round Baptist and Methodist churches, and the music never grabbed me the way the country music did,” Walters said. “But people will be sitting in the pews and say, 'Wait a minute. I know that song or that tune.' And they'll listen to the message it has.”

“We take a lot of beer-drinking songs and use them to communicate the gospel,” he explained.

Marler said the method is historically sound.

“This isn't really anything new; a lot of the hymns were written to the tune of bar songs,” she said.

Another thing that harkens back to history is that the music is led in large part by talented, but untrained, musicians. Not many cowboy churches use pianos or organs but lean heavily on guitars and other stringed instruments.

Marler said it sometimes takes a little longer to prepare a piece for use on Sunday because most of the musicians play by ear.

All are very talented, Marler said, and the effort is made to allow each of the group of about 10 to showcase his or her talents.

While Marler had a contemporary Christian music ministry and sang in numerous churches over the course of 10 years, she admits that being the lead for the group in the cowboy church was a little unnerving.

“I had grown up in Baptist churches and sang primarily in Baptist churches during my ministry, but this was a different kind of church and a different way of doing things. We had a bunch of cowboys who pretty much led out, and I was a little uncomfortable in the beginning, but it's worked out great,” she said.

While cowboy churches have common traits, they also are as individualistic as the people who sit in the chairs.

“Every cowboy church has its own style and its own way of doing things,” she said. “Here at Bull Creek, we are a very diverse group. Some are really cowboy, and some are just small-town people who feel comfortable with this style of worship. My job is to meet everybody's needs and make them as happy as I can.”

Walters said the most important thing is for the music to communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ.

“If the preacher comes down with laryngitis, the people are still going to get a taste of the gospel,” he said.