[NYer]

[MNJohnnie]

Broke Back Churchs?

[PBRSTREETGANG]

What nonsense.

The only "Cowboy Churches" should be when real cowboys go to church.

[NYer]

Hidden Hero - Father Julian Cassar

Father Julian Cassar, Oregon mission priest.

Palm Sunday Mass.

Blessing the animals.

He winds his way up an icy ridge, near Oregon's 6,151-foot Dooley Mountain to get to his little mission chapel in Unity, counting 129 hairpin turns. Under his quickening breath, Father Julian Cassar murmurs, "God, please be my co-pilot…"

It's another day in the life of this mission priest in the Diocese of Baker, who is not the type to stay in his rectory and wait for people to come to him. "I try to go in search of the lost sheep myself, and have retrieved quite a few, " he said.

Father Julian tends to the flock in three mission chapels in this vast, craggy, breathtakingly beautiful region of the country: North Powder, Halfway, and Unity. He covers many miles, regularly making an 80-mile round trip to visit a sick parishioner, and keeping himself company in his car with Beethoven and Fats Domino cassettes. It's a quite a change from his native homeland of the tiny island or Malta - and the hustle and bustle of New York City, his assignment before coming to Oregon.

To accommodate the influx of Mexican orchard workers who gather in this area during the planting and harvest seasons, he offers Mass in Spanish - and has seen attendance go from a dozen or so to several dozen.

Money is tight, but a subsidy from Catholic Extension helps. "I've seen Catholic Extension tags on various vestments and altar furnishings," Father Julian said. "Catholic Extension donations helped build nearly all the churches I've served in."

For that support, Father Julian is grateful. He's also awestruck by the generosity of his hardworking parishioners, who "give to the Church as much as they receive from her." Father Julian keeps a parish fund for the needy, and every week, a handful of his parishioners are helped with food vouchers, gas for their stranded cars or trucks, an electricity bill, a rent payment - or even - in a dire emergency - a night in a local motel.

In the Diocese of Baker, which covers two-thirds of the state, Catholics amount to only 9 percent of the population - a situation that delights the traveling priest. Why? "Simply because there is the possibility of reaching out to make converts."

[siunevada]

I saw the headline and figured Alex was posting something from Lark News. Yee Haw!

[colorcountry]

I'd prefer a "cowboy" type Christian Church to the majority of "churches" found in my neck of the woods.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

As evangelical Christian congregations within the country and western culture, cowboy churches often meet in a barn or western-themed building. Some have their own rodeo arenas and country bands. Oftentimes, cattle tanks are used for baptisms.

When we did this sixty years ago it was because we were having a revival meeting. Ah the old brush arbor days...

[starfish923]

"We don't want to be a place where people who are disgruntled with the traditional church come to in order to leave their church; we want to be a place for the unchurched," he said. "We certainly have a different atmosphere here — it's a Western way of life. But there's really only one church, and that's the Lord's church."

unchurched!?
What nonsense.
Church du jour....only in America and other spoiled, materialistic, self-centered societies.
Where DO they come up with such nonsense?
Drugs.

[wmfights]

"I had not been in church in over 20 years," he said. "I had been hurt in church before. Two years ago, an evangelist stopped by my work, and I was saved right there at work. It goes to show that you don't have to be at an altar in a church to get saved."
_______________________________________

JESUS spent a lot of time preaching outside the temple.

[Brian Allen]

BUMPping

[Lexinom]

Woodstock churches.

Goth churches.

Hip-hop churches...

[dangus]

Glad to know those clown mass nutjobs can find steady work again. (What cowboy church doesn't need a rodeo clown?)

[Richard Kimball]

I'm a little surprised at the overall negative and insulting tone of this thread. The Apostle Paul stated "I am all things to all people." In Greece, he used a statue dedicated to "The Unknown God" as a method to reach the pagan Greeks. When he preached to Jews, he followed Jewish traditions, including dietary, etc. When he preached to gentiles, he did not. He did this because, as he clearly stated, the style of the worship was unimportant, so long as the truth of the gospel was clearly preached.

[VOA]

Why not?
In Southern California, I've heard of at least one "rock-n-roll" church
(really kind of a customized car oriented group).

Hey, at least it keeps some Californians out of The Church of Satan!