Alabama cowboy pastor turns hobby into ministry opportunity

By NCN News Staff | 14 June 2019

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David Farris, a church pastor in Alabama, was competing at a Cowboy Mounted Shooters Association event when he was asked to lead a church service. 

The CMSA brings together individuals and clubs in a competition of speed and accuracy as they navigate through a course of 10 balloon targets, firing at each target with a pair of handguns loaded with blanks. 

“These people are from all over the country,” Farris said. “Most of the competitors are gone almost every weekend to a different club or state, so they don’t have a home church but still want to be a part of God’s family.”

As time went on, Farris was invited to more competitions, and in turn, was asked to preach at more events.

“After a few years, we were being invited to more of these events, and it was taking us away from the church,” Farris said. “The congregation was very supportive, and they became a part of this ministry. We knew that God was placing us here for a reason, so we resigned from the church so they could have someone that was devoted to them totally.”

That is when Farris and his wife, Jill, transitioned from pastoring in a traditional setting to pastoring a mobile group of competing cowboys.

“From that point, the ministry began,” Farris said. “I compete on a regular basis and my wife is starting to again also. The people we get to meet and share time with are from all over the country. We don’t have a regular meeting time or building, and some people I see only a few times a year. Most of the time, our cowboy church service is in the arena — sometimes in the barn area or a side room. I have preached from the back of a truck, on a trailer, on the dirt, but mostly from the back of a horse.”

Traveling as frequently as CMSA competitors do can be lonely. Farris not only helps provide spiritual support for the competitors, but he aims to offer a church family for them too.

“Our ministry has been to make everyone feel welcome and share God’s grace and mercy with them,” Farris said. “To those that hunger for a church family while on the road, we have strived to make that happen. To those that don’t know the Lord, we have spent the past few years trying to just become friends with them and share the love and kindness of our Lord.”

Farris wants everyone to allow God to use their passions to reach the lost the way God used his. 

“I encourage those in the body of Christ to take their hobbies and interests and use them to share the wonderful grace of Our Lord,” Farris said. “God has taken what was a hobby and turned it into a ministry and has given us a unique church. We have been blessed with an amazing ministry that God has allowed us to be a part of.”

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”—Matthew 7:24-27

As a pastor, I get to meet a lot of interesting people. I have an Over-the-Road (OTR) trucker who is new to our church family. I wanted to spend some time getting to know him better, so I decided to join him on the job one day. Seven hours in the cab of a truck allows for some good conversations!

One of the topics we discussed was the driving abilities of other truckers on the road with us that day. The trucker I was with had been driving for 34 years and had never had an accident that was his fault (though recently a lady had over-corrected next to him on the interstate and caused a non-injury collision).

Suddenly, we were overtaken by a huge black wall cloud storming across the corn fields. The trucker handled it smoothly and talked about other drivers who had never studied or learned how to handle 60,000 or 70,000 pounds in suddenly bad conditions.

He talked about how being prepared before disaster was the only solution to getting safely through unexpected conditions like high winds, a load shift, a tire blowout, or the not-as-prepared drivers on the road ahead of you. Knowing what to do and preparing ahead of time is what makes the difference between OTR drivers and really good OTR drivers.

Preparing beforehand is like building a strong foundation so that when disaster comes your way, you are ready. Matthew 7:24-27 talks about not just knowing the right thing to do, but doing it ahead of time.

What spiritual truths do you know about but are not practicing? Are you preparing a strong spiritual foundation? It can make all the difference.

Prayer for the week:

Lord, I may not like them, but the storms in life are going to come my way. Help me to be ready for these storms, even when I don’t understand what You are doing to prepare me at the time. Thank you for Your Salvation and for guiding me in all the times of life. Amen.

Mark Eigsti is senior pastor of Freedom Church of the Nazarene in Lebanon, Missouri, USA.

Written for Coffee Break with Holiness Today. 

Fathers are extremely important to God.  The word father is used 145 times in the NASB version of the bible.  One hundred forty five times.  One of His first Commandments is to “honor your father…” (Deuteronomy 5:16).  In our culture, we have set aside a special day each year to do this. 

Again and again, our attention is directed toward fathers, their role in our lives, what is expected of them (read the story of Abraham and Isaac!) and how we are to treat them.  What may not be so obvious at first glance is that all these references point us to our Heavenly Father. 

In Deuteronomy 6:5, Moses tells us, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”  The only way to truly do this is to make every day of our lives Father’s Day.  We will reap the benefits of His love in amazing ways if we are willing to do this.  That’s His promise to us in the remainder of the verse I quoted above.  It says, “…that your days may be prolonged and that it may go well with you…” (Deuteronomy 5:16)  

This year, Father’s Day and Pentecost coincide.  We have a double celebration.  We celebrate our earthly fathers but we also celebrate the gift God sent us on that special day. 

Jesus told us that He would send us a helper after He ascended to the right hand of God.  The disciples waited 10 days.  On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was sent and poured into them. This single gift from the Father, added to the gift of salvation through Jesus, has changed everything for us. IF we follow His command through Moses.  Join us on Sunday morning at 10:55 to hear what Pastor Ann will share regarding these subjects.  We will be live-streaming on FB if you aren’t able to attend, but we would love to have you present as we honor our fathers and our Father.

If you feel overwhelmed by temptation, regardless of what it may be, there’s Good News!  All temptations can be overcome.  Jesus did it to teach us how, and then He sent the Holy Spirit to help us with our own struggles.

Temptations come from the devil.  He has three areas that he can attack: our flesh, our eyes and our pride of life.  He is diligent in his work.  Luke 4:6 tells us that he has control over all the earth.  For us, this means that temptations are everywhere, all the time.  In the same chapter of Luke, Jesus defeats him 3 times in all three areas. 

If you have the desire to overcome the temptations in your life, Pastor Ann will be offering a message of hope to all of us this Sunday, June 9^th at 10:55 a.m.  We would love to have you with us for this important lesson or watch our livestream on facebook.

In case you haven’t been with us before………. Or have forgotten……..

Breakfast is available beginning at 9:00 a.m. for a $2.00 donation per plate. (This is real food, not donuts)  Come eat and learn with us!