December 18, 2000

TOGETHER:
Christmas is merry because of the One who came
___The welcome was warm as the crowd gathered for morning worship.
___"Oh, boy," our grandson said. "Look at all those cowboys!"
___We were at the Cowboy Church of Ellis County, where Ron Nolen from the Baptist General Convention of Texas' Church Starting Center is founding pastor.
___Over the last five years, Texas Baptists started 1,500 new churches, and the Cowboy

CHARLES WADE Executive Director BGCT Executive Board

Church is one of them. Less than a year old, meeting in a building without air conditioning, this church averages more than 300 in attendance each week. First Baptist Church in Waxahachie, Ellis Association and the BGCT have worked together to help get it going. And God receives all the glory!
___Recently the Cowboy Church raised the money to buy land and begin building its own facility. It will look like a county fair barn. There will be a first-class roping and riding arena on the property so cowboys and cowgirls can come hone their skills. The pastor will continue baptizing in a portable horse trough. And the church will be there for a group of people who need the Lord and want to serve him with their cowboy hats on!
___I was there with my wife, Rosemary, and Keegan Kelly, our 3-year-old grandson from Connecticut. Ron and the church had given me a pair of roper boots and a striking black Resistol hat. The only time the hats came off was while we prayed. I preached to that wonderful crowd in my boots and jeans, with my black hat firmly in place.
___And I felt at home.
___There were farmers, ranchers, rodeo folks, people in agricultural business and those who have memories that vibrate to cowboy life. After the service, a woman said to me: "Thank you for what you said about God loving us all and wanting us to come home. I'm not a member here. But this is where I belong. I suspect they'll have me in that baptistry before long."
___We live in a fast-paced world. Sometimes we feel it is spinning out of control. But with new technologies and distance-crunching transportation and communication abilities, we Texas Baptists can truly have the whole world on our hearts and at our fingertips.
___All that is needed is to make our vision and creative expertise available to God to minister his word and his love to the ends of the earth. Many of our churches are entering into partnerships with people in other parts of the world, as well as in their own county, to make the presence of Christ tangible and real everywhere.
___We stand on the edge of a great century of challenge and opportunity. Texas Baptists will be available, and we will be present wherever God calls us.
___We follow the One who was at home wherever he went. Starting out in a barn, working in a carpenter's shop, teaching by the lake, challenging power in the temple, staring down Satan, delivering the sick and the sinner, calling out the best from fishermen and dying outside Jerusalem on behalf of all the world.
___We also are called to be at home in the world, on behalf of the world, until God's kingdom comes and we are fully at home with him.
___And that is why we say, "Merry Christmas."
___We are loved.
___

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