As pastor of a cowboy church, Byron Ash has a strict rule: No poaching allowed.
That’s not in reference to cattle or horses, but to church members.
“If someone in our church has a friend who is already a member of another church, I tell them NOT to invite them to our place,” said Ash, pastor of Cowpunchers Cowboy Church in Shelbyville. “In fact, I get mad if they do. We’re not here to take members away from other churches. We’re not rustlers. Our goal is to reach the unchurched.”
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Simple objective
That simple objective is being achieved each and every Sunday at Cowpunchers, which started 10 years ago with four adults and five kids in a small meeting space and has now grown into a thriving church that ranks among the top churches in the state in baptisms. Along the way, they’ve helped plant four other cowboy churches.
“There’s no way to explain what’s happened here other than to say it’s all Him,” said Ash. “It’s not me. It’s not our staff. It’s all Him. Jesus has allowed us to be used, there’s no other way to put it.”
Ash said the Lord has shown Himself time and time again during the life of the church, noting that even the church’s budget is a miracle.
“We’ve never bought a building, we’ve never passed an offering plate, and we feed everybody a meal every time we get together — and yet, we’re still making it. It’s because of Him and Him alone.”
Lewis McMullen, church planting specialist for the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, has helped the church move through its various stages of growth. He has served as a mentor, prayer partner and consultant to Ash through the years.
McMullen said he has been amazed by what has taken place. He said he believes the key is that the attendees at Cowpunchers are put in a position where they feel they are an important part of the church right from the beginning.
“They give new believers and newcomers to the church opportunities to serve right away because they have so many various ministries,” McMullen said. “It’s really been awesome to watch.”
Ash put it this way: “I’m very heavy on disciples. I don’t have any bench warmers in my church.”
There is an intimacy at Cowpunchers that doesn’t always exist, unfortunately, at more traditional churches, McMullen noted.
“One of the neat things about the church is, every Sunday morning before service, they gather for prayer — the women in one place, the men in another,” he said. “And they just go around in a circle sharing what God’s done that day, or sharing what prayer requests they have.”
Not complicated
The appeal of Cowpunchers appears to be found in its simplicity and its “no-heirs” approach to reaching the lost.
Work clothes, crying babies, messy hair, late arrivals — it is truly a “come as you are” environment. Cowpunchers takes its “open invitation” policy very literally.
“Things are different here,” Ash said. “And I think that is why the unchurched people are the ones that stay with us. They have no idea what church is supposed to look like to start with. Some Sundays, we have people who walk in straight from working — and we’re fine with that.”
The services at Cowpunchers, including the sermons, have a “no-frills” feel, with Ash saying that his messages aren’t intended for theologians.
“I’ve never spent 20 hours preparing for a sermon, and honestly, I can’t even imagine what that would look like if I produced one,” he said. “The commands of Jesus are the basis for every sermon that I’ve got. … I never get into the Old Testament too deep or get into Paul’s letters too deep. I focus on the words written in red.”
There is one constant about his sermons, Ash said: “One way or the other, the blood, the cross and the gospel are in every message.”
McMullen agreed that the absence of bells and whistles is what makes the church appealing for so many. “They keep it very simple,” McMullen said. “It’s the Acts chapter 2 model — they gather for teaching. They gather together in fellowship. The message is very clear and direct when they are preaching and teaching.”
In regard to church attire, causal clothing is not just acceptable, but basically required. Ash said if any of his regulars come to church wearing “dress up” clothes, he sometimes pulls them aside and asks them to go home and change.
“Clothes can become a barrier,” he said. “Some people don’t have clothes to wear to church and they’re too embarrassed in what they have, so they don’t come. We don’t want that to ever happen at our church.”
At many churches, crying babies are sometimes viewed as a distraction and no food is allowed in the sanctuary. That’s not the case at Cowpunchers.
“If people are hungry, they can eat while I’m preaching,” said Ash. “Doesn’t bother me at all. If a baby is screaming its head off, I’m good with that, because I just remember how blessed we are — I mean, there are a lot of churches that don’t have a baby in it.”
Different path
Not only is Ash the pastor of an unconventional church, but his path to becoming a pastor was also untraditional.
The son of a Baptist preacher, Ash dropped out of school in seventh grade, turned from the Lord as a teenager and began to hate anything associated with church.
On Sunday mornings, he said, he would sit in front of a country store and glare at the people who would drive by on their way to church. “I’d sit there with an empty beer can (that he would find in the street) and a cigarette just to make sure they knew that I didn’t want any part of what they were doing.”
Ash remained away from the church and away from the Lord for much of his adult life. At age 48, though, everything changed.
“One day, I met the sorriest man of all time — and I met him when I looked in the mirror,” Ash said. “The Lord had broken me, and even then, it still took a long time before I answered His call. But I eventually gave everything over to Him. And when I give my testimony, I always say ‘Jesus went around Mount Sinai in four days. Israel did it in 40 years. It took me 48.’ ”
Ash said Cowpunchers’ growth is a direct reflection of the commitment level of the staff.
“God has given me the exact ministry team that I needed,” Ash said. “They will ride with me to the gates of hell to keep someone out of it!”
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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by David Dawson and originally published by Baptist and Reflector.
