What's a church really. Is it a fancy alter? A band? Your Sunday best? Or what you need it to be.
"I went away from the Lord for a long time....We looked for churches we felt comfortable in, and we found this one," said member Ron Parker.
Call it what you will, but every Sunday about 15 people gather in a simple building on the land of the Shiny Top Ranch in Salado. The sermon is quick. The songs right out of a campfire. They say properness has no place here. Only faith and community.
"This church is for the people, you know, that's what I stress most, the church is the people of the church, it's just a building without the people, and God," said Pastor James Freedman of the Shiny Top Ranch Cowboy Church.
"We just come for the Lord, you know, he 'aint' lookin' at your clothes anyway, he's gonna' be lookin' at your heart," said Parker.
This group calls themselves a Cowboy Church, a renegade against the age of super-congregations and million dollar worship centers. Started in 2001, the church actually originated to give the ranch hands there a place to worship on Sundays. Since then it's grown to a community church the people here say gets down to the roots. Theirs isn't the only community to embrace them. Growing in recent years, Cowboy Churches now span the U.S. from Alaska to Florida. There are hundreds in Texas, and the congregations cross generations.
"We don't really mind, not having bowling nights here, or meeting up on Wednesday nights, because we have Sundays where we can see everyone," said 12-year-old Tanna Freedman.
The Shiny Top Ranch Cowboy Church invites anyone to come join their service. They begin at 11 am on Sundays. To get there from I-35 exit onto FM 2484 toward Stillhouse Hollow Lake. After about five miles take a left at Crows Ranch Road. Go two miles and you will see the sign for the Shiny Top Ranch. Go up the driveway and the church building will be on your left.
Reporter/Photographer: Joshua Skurnik
