The Cowboy Way

You might be reading this for one of two reasons. Somebody told you about a cowboy ministry and you don't get why such a thing exists. Or you're a long way from a pew, and something about the cowboy way of life feels closer to God than anything a stained-glass window ever showed you. Either way, you're in the right place. I'm Kevin Weatherby. I've been a working ranch cowboy and a preacher most of my life, and over the next five days I'm going to show you why those two things go together. Not the hats and the boots. The job. Because the actual job of a cowboy is the closest picture I know to the way Jesus has us live.

"Cowboy Church" is no different than "Spirit Filled." A spirit filled church is no more filled with the Holy Spirit than any other church, and a cowboy church is no more filled with cowboys than any other. What I mean by that is you don't have to be a cowboy to go to a cowboy church, and if you are a cowboy, it doesn't mean you have to go to one. You see, I hate that some people think "Cowboy Church" is about cowboys. It's not. It's about worshiping our God, who sent his Son to die for our sins. "Cowboy Church" is not about who we are trying to reach. It is a description of the method we use to spread the Gospel. Or in easier to understand terms: it's the way we tell people about Jesus.

We're not trying to turn anybody into a cowboy. That's not what we're doing. I could care less if you can ride or rope. What I care about is whether you are following God. We use the cowboy way of life because it's a great illustration of what that looks like.

The roping and the cool stuff that you think makes a cowboy is just the tip of the iceberg. That's what people see. The foundation is all the stuff nobody wants to do. Ninety percent of a cowboy's life is made up of mundane tasks, day in and day out. Checking fence is no big deal until it's your job to keep checking it all the time. Building fence sounds fine until you're doing it for a living through rock. You check water every single day, because it's the one day you don't that you're going to be out. You empty the trough and clean it out, because if you wouldn't want to drink out of it, why would you make your stock drink out of it? Working daylight until dark is the easy part. The hard work is taking care of your family the way they need to be taken care of, not just the way that makes you feel good. Not being selfish, but loving selfless.

Somebody will tell you that being a Christian is going to make you happy. That's crud. It's hard. That's why I love the cowboy life, because it's such a great illustration. Everybody says they want to be a cowboy until it's time to do cowboy things, like feed in a blizzard and chop ice every day. All that glamorous roping stuff happens about one percent of the time. The rest of the time we're fixing stuff, checking on stuff, doctoring stuff, and we're uncomfortable doing most of it. And it's the thing that fulfills us the most. That's what Christianity is. God is not concerned with your happiness. He's concerned with your holiness, because following him with everything you've got is the only thing that will ever fulfill you.

Recently, I had the honor of watching a young cowboy work with a young horse. I stood outside the round pen with the young man's parents as we watched a friend of mine teaching him. They asked what I did and I told them I was a cowboy preacher. I don't really think they believed me. Why? Because I had on running shoes, a hoodie, and a cap. I saw their reaction and laughed. I said, "I probably don't look the cowboy part right now." They both agreed (nicely). We talked for a few more minutes as I explained what Jase and their son were doing. I told them it was important to our ministry to spread the Good News and pass along the legacy, artistry, and traditions of the working ranch cowboy. "That's what Save the Cowboy does," I finished with. Both their eyes grew wide and the wife said, "You're the guy from Save the Cowboy?" I smiled as I walked away and said, "It ain't the hat that will make your son a cowboy. It's his heart."

Yesterday I showed you the job. Today I'll show you the strangest thing about it: the cowboy is the boss of everything he takes care of, and he doesn't own a bit of it.

Save the Cowboy has a leased ranch. A man told me one day that he'd love to have what I have. I asked him what he thought I had. He told me that he'd love to have enough money for a ranch where he could make a living raising cattle and kids like I do. I told him that it is a great life, but he was confused about three things. I don't have a ranch. God does. I'm just the steward. I don't have cattle. God does. I'm just the cowboy. I don't have money. God's people do. I'm just the servant. Then I asked him why he wanted all of these things. Did he want the life or the ownership? He said he wanted the ownership. I said, "Then you don't want what I have."

A ranch is the foundation of the cowboy lifestyle. From horse training to rodeo, the ranch is where all this comes from. The cowboy that works there does so because he loves the ranch and its lifestyle. His attitude is one of caring. Caring for the horses, the cows, goats, sheep, fences, windmills, grass, tanks. He puts himself last, and that is where his strength comes from. He doesn't do it for notoriety, but that is where his fame comes from too. Just like the cowboy takes care of the ranch, we are to take care of others. A cowboy on a ranch doesn't care about how cold it is during calving. He cares about ensuring that heifer has all the help she might need. He feeds his horses before he feeds himself. We are addicted to stress. Jesus says the only cure for stress is to die to self, not self-help books. We are to put others before us, not because we are weak, but because we are strong. Anyone can look after themselves, but it takes courage and strength to put your life in the hand of God and put other's lives before your own.

That kind of caring isn't something a man retires from, either. Years ago at a branding, I watched an old cowboy swing the saddle up onto his horse. By the way he had groaned when he picked it up, I didn't think he would be able to get it up there. With a motion that had been practiced millions of times, the saddle swung into place at just the right spot. There are two words this old cowboy had never allowed in his life: quit and unable. I watched him end the day in reverse of the way it had started out. You could see the tiredness in his eyes. His exhaustion reached down into his bones. The pain in his steps after dismounting showed with every wobbly step he took. Cowboys watched out of the corner of their eyes, ready to step in to help with a saddle or leggings. When other cowboys loaded their still saddled horses in the trailer and headed for the beer, the old cowboy unsaddled and rubbed his horse down. Only when he knew his horse was watered and cared for did he open his truck door and sit down for the first time. It was too hard to climb in and out, so he just sat there on the step between seat and door. Finally, he got up and tried his best not to limp when he came over to bid everyone adios. We were all kind of silent as we watched him go. All of us had learned a lesson on the meaning of weary. And it had all been accomplished with a smile and without a complaint.

One more thing about why we keep cattle in the first place. We gripe about cattle, but we have them because we love them. And I believe that's exactly why God wants us. So he can love us.

Two days in, you know the job and you know whose stock it is. Today I'm going to show you the part of the job that explains why this whole ministry exists. Fair warning: it starts with something that looks cruel.

One simple solution to four of life's fanciest problems. Does a cow have a UTI and she's starting to prolapse? The simple solution is to rope her and doctor her. Does a bull have foot rot? Rope him and doctor him. Does a yearling have a snotty nose? Rope her and doctor her. Does a calf have scours? Rope it and doctor it. There's nothing fancy about it. It's just taking care of what you're responsible for.

But you ever tried to doctor anything that was hurt? It would be awesome if a 2,000 pound bull, when he's hurt, would walk up to you and say, "Will you help me?" and just lay down. I love being a cowboy, but that is not the way it goes. When you go try to help something, it tries to kill you. It tries to kick you. It tries to maul you. When things hurt, they attack. And the sick ones don't come to you. The healthy ones will walk right up to where you can rope them without hardly trying. The sick ones are way out in the back of the pasture, and you've got to chase them four miles. Jesus himself said the healthy don't need a doctor. The sick do.

So we go anyway. And here's the thing. When we rope and doctor one, they think we're hurting it. But sometimes they have to be roped and doctored so they can get better, not worse. And that is exactly how God works on us. Some of the hardest things he's ever done in my life were him doctoring something in me that would have killed me if he'd left it alone.

Watch a cowboy pull a calf. Sometimes you have to get out the chains, and I mean you have to use a lot of might, but it's done with gentleness, trying to keep something alive and nurture it. It's not the amount of force or the lack of it. It's the effort with which it is given. And sometimes that gentleness is rough. You just use the amount it takes to get the job done. Everybody is hurting, and we need to administer love using only the amount of force necessary.

On a cattle drive, there are cowboys whose whole job is to keep an eye out for hoof rot and injury, or pink eye, or whatever the case may be. They're the ones watching for the sick, and then they go in and they rope it and they doctor it. That is their job. And there are people built just like that. They love to love. They can see when somebody's hurting when nobody else can. They'll walk up to you and ask if you're okay, and they mean it. They consider others more important than themselves.

Now hear where all this comes from, because I didn't invent it. Jesus is the good shepherd, the good cowboy. He gives a hand to those who are close to him. And I promise you, his hand is exactly what we need. He said it himself, plainer than I ever could.

Three days in, you've seen the job: the tending, the owning of nothing, the doctoring. Today is about the thing that holds all of it together when there's no boss checking the work. Cowboys call it the code.

The cowboy is about the last living, breathing person on earth still holding to the code where your handshake is as good as a signature or a contract. Where you will speak the truth, whether it's in love or even if it hurts somebody for a little while.

And you have to be a man of your word. Now, most people think this just means keeping your promises, but I think that's the smallest part. Keeping your word means being the person you make yourself out to be. If you claim to be caring, you better be caring. If you portray yourself as a cowboy, you better act like it. You don't have to be able to rope and doctor a yearling by yourself, but don't act like you can if you can't. Your word isn't just what you say you'll do. Your word is what you say you are.

I have seen the grumpiest, orneriest, surliest cowboys in the world do some of the most extraordinarily kind things when they thought no one was watching. I have seen the smoothest talkers, that take their hat off to kiss a baby, show their true colors when things go sideways. Words can be tricky. Shoot, even individual actions can mislead. But the one thing you can always count on is behavior. Not a day or two of a good mood, or even a bad mood. Look at a man's behavior and you will see the truth.

Let me tell you about the day the code cost a man a roping. I filled in one time to announce a team roping fundraiser because they were short handed and I was stupid. Near the end of the roping, the lady keeping time with the electronic eye and a backup stopwatch had to leave. That left me to announce, run an electronic eye that was supposedly "automatic," and run a stopwatch. I have a hard time using two feet to walk, much less multitasking at expert level. We were down to the last few ropers and a team came out and they really had a nice run. It was so nice that I forgot to hit stop on the watch because I was so busy telling the crowd what an awesome run they had just witnessed. I looked down real fast to see if the eye had worked, and as I looked up, the next header entered the box and the time on the eye reset. My heart sank. I didn't know what their time was, but I knew with their fast run that they had a great shot at winning the whole roping. Several things ran through my head. Do I make up a fast time or do I confess my mistake? Everyone was waiting on me to announce the time. With my knees shaking, I asked the team to come over to the announcer's stand and told the header what had happened, along with the event organizer. I waited on the ropers to rip me a new one, but they didn't. The cowboy, a roper named Jim from Marathon, Texas, just said, "Mistakes happen. How about we rope again?" I told the crowd what had happened and admitted fully to my mistake. They came out and he missed. Instead of winning the roping, he went home with nothing. But I'll always gauge every winner by the actions of that man that day. Because real winners ain't whiners, no matter what.

Integrity is the pen used to make your mark. Integrity is the code that governs your life, and it consists of three primary elements: courage, discipline, and purpose. Courage, because integrity by its very nature must be tested. Standing for something means something else will try to knock it down. Discipline, because discipline is motivation after the fun has worn off. It's doing what you know you should when you least feel like doing it. And purpose. Integrity is the strength between what you claim to be and who you are. The code we choose to follow is the same code Jesus of Nazareth talked about. It's all saints and no sissies. They're saints, not because they're perfect, but because they strive to follow the One who is. They rush forward when others rush away.

Here we are, last day. You've seen the job, the steward, the rope and the doctor, and the code. One question left, and it's the one all four days have been riding toward: who's it all for?

See, when Jesus said no one can serve two masters, he was saying you are going to serve a master. You just can't serve two of them. Everybody alive is riding for somebody's outfit, whether they ever say it out loud or not. The only question that matters is whose.

Let me tell you what the brand actually means, because folks get this wrong. A lot of people smell pain when they're branding. We don't look at pain, we look at purpose. We look at it as bringing that calf into the fold. You belong to us now, and we're going to care for you. You are one of us. And isn't that what God does for us? There's some pain involved, but that pain leads to an adoption. We become sons and daughters of God. The ones that answer the Father's call get handed to Jesus himself. God looks around and says, "That one just believed. Here, Jesus, this one is yours now, because I just branded him with our brand." And Jesus has never lost a single one the Father gave him.

Maybe you've felt like an outcast your whole life. Like you just don't fit in anywhere. Hear me on this. The church isn't a place. The church is not an event. The church is what Jesus calls his outfit, his crew on earth. It's not a place we go to on Sunday. It's who we are. We need to quit going to church and start being the church. And Jesus' church, from the very beginning, starting with the man himself, has been made up of outcasts. That feeling like you can't find your place in this world? It doesn't mean you're doing something wrong. It means you're doing something right. You don't fit in because you weren't made to.

And here's what you get when you sign on. You get to cowboy on God's outfit. You get to work for him. You get to have the perfect boss. A boss that will die for you. A boss that will provide for you. A boss that will heal you. A boss that will protect you. The best job in the world.

I want you to meet a man who rides for that brand. My friend Darrell Dye is near the top of his class in mounted shooting, and not just in shooting, but in horsemanship and integrity. At the finals in Amarillo, Texas, going into the very last run, Darrell was sitting a fraction of a second behind first place. With a good run, he had a chance to win it all. There were three balloons at the end of the pattern. He went a little wide on the turn, but he side-passed his horse as she picked up speed and shot the first balloon. He shot the second. One balloon between him and a very real shot at a championship. All the hard work, all the time, all the money, all the travel, about to pay off. And he missed. That little red balloon put him at the bottom of his class instead of the championship. Darrell knew he had lost, but that was not as important to him as what happened next. He lifted his gun in the air and gave thanks to God for giving him the chance to compete and do what he loves, wearing the Save the Cowboy logo on the front of his shirt. They asked him how he could have such a great attitude after losing so much. He said, "The man that I ride for won everything for me on the cross. This is us just having fun." I told him those people would remember his actions after losing far more than they'd ever have remembered a win.

That's a top hand. And how do you spot a top hand? They don't bestow the title on themselves. Quite frankly, they may even argue against it. They are humble. They are slow, or at least it looks that way. Smooth looks slow to others, but top hands get it done quicker and easier than everyone else. They are gentle on the stock and don't waste energy on bad shots or bad attitudes. They are quiet. Real top hands are always looking for others to teach, and they're looking for those that have the right stuff, not in the saddle, but in the heart. You won't see it, but they're watching you. They are rooting for you. A top hand will always give a leg up, but not a hand out. And the things that make a top hand show up in every part of his life, not just from the back of a horse. You can learn from the greatest top hand there ever was starting today. He never missed a loop and never came off.

I preached everything this page has been trying to say in one message. It's about what a cowboy actually is, what a Christian actually is, and why they're the same animal. Because the Boss says, "I own the cattle on a thousand hills. Go take care of them." And the ones you try to take care of are going to fight you sometimes. That's alright. That's the job. If you only ever watch one message of mine, make it this one. It's called Cowboy Theology.