AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Over the last two decades, church attendance has greatly declined. But in some pockets of rural America, a different, more down-to-earth kind of church is on the rise. They're called cowboy churches, and nearly every state has one or more. From member station KBIA, Caspar Dowdy reports.
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CASPAR DOWDY, BYLINE: One of the biggest churches in Clark, Missouri, population 254, is a red-roofed barn. Inside, light from the barn windows reflects off a baptismal horse trough located just below the stage. It's nearly 11 a.m., and people are filing into wooden pews. In the center of the room, a few musicians are getting ready to play. This is the home of Gateway to the High Country Cowboy Church. Pastor Brook Kurth stands at the front, singing and playing a powder-blue electric guitar.
BROOK KURTH, BYLINE: (Singing) In the sweet by and by.
DOWDY: Kurth has been pastor here at the cowboy church for a little over three years. He says he's been to a number of cowboy churches, and every congregation is different. But they all have a few things in common - music and Western aesthetics. Some cowboy churches have horse arenas, and Gateway holds trail rides during church picnics. As service begins, attendees remove well-worn cowboy hats. Kurth says the important thing about his cowboy church isn't the decor. It's the informal services and the approachability.
KURTH: You don't have to get dressed up. It's real people who sometimes have got real problems, and it's individuals within the church helping each other through those problems.
DOWDY: The theology of cowboy churches is no different from their more traditional counterparts, says John Williford. The retired North Greenville University professor has a master's degree in divinity and studied the growth of cowboy churches for his doctoral thesis.
JOHN WILLIFORD: There was a sincere love of God and praising God, and just as sincere as I've ever seen. They were just doing it the cowboy way.
DOWDY: Williford says he recalls the cowboy television shows of his youth, where heroes always defeated the bad guys and ended each episode with a moral lesson. He says even as that imagery has grown less prominent in the media, those messages have continued to resonate.
WILLIFORD: Cowboy culture has not declined. I mean, it's just as popular now as it ever has been. And cowboy values - you know, good defeating evil, doing the right thing and so forth - those things have held steady, too.
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DOWDY: As Pastor Brook finishes his sermon, the band launches into an upbeat hymn - "Blessed Be Your Name."
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL GROUP: (Singing) Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be your name.
DOWDY: Gary Hood plays guitar in the band. His wife, Daffany, helps with Sunday school. The two have been coming to cowboy church for years.
DAFFANY HOOD: I've come a long way. He's come a real long way.
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DOWDY: They laugh and say the congregation feels like family. For their 50th wedding anniversary, the Hoods helped the church start a fund to help struggling families. Gary Hood says the church's small-town spirit means people look out for one another.
GARY HOOD: We're just a culture of people that if something needs to be done, somebody will step up and do it.
DOWDY: As service ends, people head towards the coffee and doughnuts. Families head out the door, hitching horse trailers, corralling dogs and kids and exchanging goodbyes - until next Sunday, when they'll meet again at Gateway to the High Country Cowboy Church.
For NPR News, I'm Caspar Dowdy in Columbia, Missouri.
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