January 1, 2001

Stockyards church rounds up all types in Fort Worth
___By Roy Hayhurst
___Southwestern Seminary
___FORT WORTH--While tourists flock to Fort Worth's historic Stockyards every year, most churches have abandoned the area and its Old West-style buildings and wooden sidewalks.
___For more than a decade, Carl and Joann Hinton and E.C. Burnett, merchants in the

DAN HABY stands in the middle of the historic Fort Worth Stockyards area, where he is leading a new Baptist church appealing to a wide variety of people. (SWBTS photos by Bryan Murley)

Stockyards, have prayed for a church in the area, which is well-known for its bars and rabble-rousing.
___Those prayers were answered this year, when Dan Haby, a graduate of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, came to the mall along North Main Street where the Hintons' and Burnetts' shops are located and announced he was planning to start a church. On Easter Sunday, 65 people met inside the mall for the church's inaugural worship service.
___"We've been here for years praying for something like this to come," Burnett said as he stood in front of his gift shop in the mall. "I'd ask, 'Lord, why?' And he'd say, 'Shut up and keep working.' On Easter Sunday, when we sat in there, it was just such a blessing."
___Not everyone has been so glad to see the church get started, though. On the church's first Sunday, Pastor Haby hung a large banner outside the mall to promote the church. After worship, the banner was found cut down and sliced into little pieces. Empty beer bottles littered the ground.
___At first glance, the Fort Worth Stockyards might seem a terrible place to start a church. Bars abound, including the world-famous Billy Bob's Texas, literally a stone's throw from the church's meeting space. Down-and-out people populate the surrounding community, which is among the poorest economically in Fort Worth, with average household incomes below $15,000 annually. The average age of residents is 28.
___Haby found those all to be good reasons to start the church, though.
___"We're not a typical church," he said, standing in the mall, wearing a white cowboy hat, starched blue shirt, blue jeans and cowboy boots as he does most Sundays. "We're dealing with people who need to know Jesus."
___Sometimes called a cowboy church, the church reaches more than cowboys, Haby stressed. In addition to addressing the large Hispanic population nearby, the church also seeks to reach out to tourists from around the world.
___To demonstrate that the church wants to serve more than cowboys, the church changed its name in November from Western Worship Center to Stockyards Community Church.

A COWBOY HAT holding offerings sits atop a stack of Bibles during a Sunday gathering of the Western Worship Center. The church rents the space at the Stockyards by the hour for morning services.

___"We are now a multi-ethnic church," Haby said. "We have Hispanics, blacks, Vietnamese, Chinese, Sudanese, the very poor, homeless, down-and-outs, along with people who own businesses, walking arm-in-arm to worship God."
___On Sunday mornings, church members greet those coming into the mall, offering coffee, breakfast burritos and doughnuts. Some of those coming into the mall are recovering from heavy drinking the night before, and some may not have eaten anything else in days.
___The 10-member church staff, all either current or former Southwestern students, agreed to go unpaid for the first year. That includes Haby, who moves furniture when he's not ministering.
___As he talks with church members on a weekday morning, he greets many of the merchants and visitors who walk through the mall. Most are friendly. But not all.
___In addition to the banner that was torn to shreds, the church's sign outside the mall has been knocked down, spat upon, driven over and kicked numerous times. Some merchants have been openly hostile to the church, but that has not discouraged Haby or his flock.
___"We're getting close to doing something good, or else Satan wouldn't be trying so hard to stop us," Burnett said.
___

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