Riding for Christ Ministries

Riding for Christ Ministries Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Riding for Christ Ministries, Nonprofit Organization, 3710 Warden Branch Lane, Gatlinburg, TN.

Riding for Christ Ministries IS Cowboys of the Cross www.cowboysofthecross.com The site provides Christian teaching resources and challenges Christian cowboys to grow in their faith.Please like and share our content.

08/28/2026

There can be dumb questions when they're used a certain way. Caleb Crouch tells us when we should ask them in this week's The Short Go.

Day's almost over but it's New Content Thursday at the Cowboys of the Cross web site. If you wonder how to get to Heave...
08/28/2026

Day's almost over but it's New Content Thursday at the Cowboys of the Cross web site. If you wonder how to get to Heaven, that's "all" we've got there for you this week. Jesus saves cowboys.

Rodeo friends, there's a reason "another" Dolly post in your feed is important. Everyone talks like they knew “Dolly” on...
08/26/2026

Rodeo friends, there's a reason "another" Dolly post in your feed is important. Everyone talks like they knew “Dolly” on a first name basis because in a sense, she belonged to everyone through her work, personal way of communicating and her giving.
Christians claim Dolly as theirs because of her expressions of faith.
Progressives claim her as theirs because of her support of loving others even if they're different from you.
Everyone claims her as their because she literally personifies the American Dream no matter what your politics. She came from nothing here in Sevier County where I get to live, and built herself an entertainment empire that will continue on likely until Jesus comes back.
Dolly's story gives everyone hope that with hard work and dedication, they can make it.
My reason for being on social media is primarily to be connected with the rodeo and ranching cowboy communities through Cowboys of the Cross. I'm writing this encouragement for you.
Whether you like country music, whether you were born 75 years ago or 15, you know who Dolly Parton is. Many of you have made the trek to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge and I've seen many of you post right from Dollywood.
Whether ranching or rodeoing, you guys know you can't make it without hard work and dedication. And we know we live in an imperfect and unfair world where not everyone makes it.
Being a Christian cowboy is the same thing. Where Dolly's success story gives us all hope in what we can achieve here, there's one more important hope we need to let her faith point us to and that's the hope that comes in Jesus Christ. It's an eternal hope where we know even if we don't make it here, there's something even greater waiting for us after this life if we put our hope in Jesus.
A saving faith in Jesus, one that guarantees us Heaven, comes from this understanding:
God, who we know is perfect, will not allow our imperfect sin into His presence. He will actually judge and condemn it. Jesus, as God's son, was sent to live in this world and eventually die on the cross as a sacrifice meant to take God's full wrath against all of our sins. When we believe in who Jesus was, and is, and what he did for us, we then need to repent of our sin with a sincere desire to be saved and forgiven from God's judgment. When we do this, God will no longer condemn us but see as us perfect regardless of who we are and we're given a perfect eternity with Him.
Dolly advocated kindness and to love everyone. This is how God does it—by giving every one the same chance to be saved and spend eternity with Him, not matter who we are and what mistakes we've made. He loves us all and wants us with Him for eternity.
That's a hope that transcends the American Dream and gives us everything we need, success or failure in our own eyes or the eyes of others who wrongly judge us, to make it through this life and to the perfect one waiting for us.
Ephesians 2:8-10 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
(Photo, the growing memorial at the Dolly Parton statue in front of the Sevier County Courthouse in Sevierville, TN, Parton's hometown. Cowboys of the Cross is "headquartered" in Sevier County at Gatlinburg.)

Twenty-two sermons/messages across 15 months, we finally finished teaching through The Book Of James tonight with the B...
08/25/2026

Twenty-two sermons/messages across 15 months, we finally finished teaching through The Book Of James tonight with the Bull Riders and Outlaws Association. That's not the only the time or place I've done cowboy church but I see this particular group of cowboys the most often and try to do different teaching series with them. Over that course of time, a handful of them have been at most of the events and for the rest, I encourage them to follow along as the Cowboys of the Cross homepage was updated with text versions of the messages as we went along. The whole series is there now under "James for Cowboys." For anyone taking it seriously, James challenges us and sets the bar high enough that we had to talk about grace every now and then for when we fail. Praise God tonight for the Holy Spirit's guidance because I was waaaaay off script but feel like this is one of the best times I taught. I'm sure if James was there, he'd have cringed but what a feeling to think how great it would be to some day be able to ask him if I actually handled it well as he encourages us to restore a brother from sin. The last two messages. Friday and tonight at the Appalachian Fair in Gray, TN, James gave us a chance to see how much we need each other from praying for each other, asking for help when we're struggling with our sin and being willing to both give and receive help from our brothers and sisters in Christ. I stressed that we're all in this together, but that includes everyone who might see this. Those connected to Cowboys of the Cross, even if it's just through our website or social media, we're here for you too. All of us, together, growing in our faith as we allow ourselves to be transformed into someone becoming more like Jesus.

I couldn't have been more encouraged than I was at cowboy church last night and I hope you'll take the time to read abou...
08/22/2026

I couldn't have been more encouraged than I was at cowboy church last night and I hope you'll take the time to read about the few reasons why. at the Bull Riders and Outlaws event at Newport, TN. Last night at the Bull Riders and Outlaws event in Newport, TN, we continued working through the book of James together. Last night, James showed us the need to have someone to confess our sins and struggles to and ask them to pray. We talked about how rodeo and the cowboy life often teach us to be independent and rely on ourselves but to look around and how much we still need others before we nod our head at either end of the arena. I encouraged everyone to see the importance of being willing to ask for someone to pray for us but also to be the kind of people someone can feel they can approach for prayer. Often people are uncomfortable sharing in front of the whole group before we pray but last night's requests started with one of the most serious and hardest ones we've ever had and while it was shared openly, this isn't the platform to share it again despite the urgency of it. Another asked for prayer for his little girl struggling with rsv at the moment. I always encourage everyone to come to me privately if they aren't comfortable sharing in front of everyone and someone else brought an urgent and difficult need once they could speak to me alone. I hope we can see what a privilege it is to pray for each other. The encouragement for me last night was found in the seriousness we were taking James's message.
The encouragement continued when a young cowboy came to ask some hard questions about relationships and putting God first. This is a young man I've been getting to know who has a genuine saving faith in Jesus and is giving me these moments to disciple him as God works out what we understand as sanctification, a process that starts in us when our salvation is real that gradually helps us become more like Jesus.
Next came another young man with an even harder question about what's the right thing to do as he considered another cowboy's situation from one of the prayer requests. Again, there was a real desire to look at how God would have us act, recognizing how that can be different from how we want to handle our situations but wanting to understand what God wants of us in Scripture.
And this may seem like a little thing, but the announcer, Ed Rehmus freestyled during the opening to mention how important our Christian faith is in this industry and that while the crowd might not have seen, that most of us had gathered behind the chutes for cowboy church. For anyone listening, this helps normalize what we do in ministry and sends a positive message to non-believes while reminding the rest of us that this is a good, normal and acceptable activity. That helps encourage others to live their faith out openly and was a real encouragement to me.
I appreciate everyone who takes cowboy church seriously at the events I'm able to get to and to the rodeo cowboys and bull riders who are genuinely trying to learn from the teaching at events and the content we put out weekly on social media and our website. I'm grateful to the many producers who accommodate or even ask to have cowboy church at their events and the announcers who encourage attendance. When we're about to do church, Brian Turnmire, one of our newest announcers has found a way to word it that he usually gets us a handful of spectators from the crowd by making them feel comfortable and encouraged to come back behind the chutes to join us that can otherwise feel off-limits.
I've been blessed with three churches, my home church in Maryville, TN, River Oaks Community Church, Bean Blossom Community Church near Nashville, Indiana and Castine Church in Arcanum, Ohio who have prayer and missions teams who take community prayer seriously like we talked about at church last night. They receive some of your prayer requests from me and take the time to pray together through them.
I'm especially grateful to all the churches and people who pray for and support me in this ministry financially. Cowboys of the Cross is a non-profit organization now and while I've ministered to our ranch and rodeo industries for much longer, I've worked as a full time missionary for more than 20 years. I can only do this through the generous giving of others.
For many living the cowboy and rodeo lifestyle, I'm the only pastoral or church connection they have and I hope those who do support the mission, or have at any time along the way, can understand how important they are to me. The cowboy culture is a challenging one and God has given me a genuine heart to share the gospel, make disciples and try to be there for these guys in any way I can. Thank you for those He's led to be a part of this ministry in all the ways that are needed to make it possible. We're living out parts of the Book of Acts together and I hope you can share some of my excitement in that. Praise God for every single bit of this, including the work He will do in the difficult situations that came up last night.
(Photo: Bull rider Dylan Smith prays before the Triple T Bull Riding, Bull Riders and Outlaws Association event August 22 at the Cocke County, A and I Fair in Newport, TN. This is the closest to home I ever get to work an event.)

08/20/2026

God is never going to give us someone else's wife or lead us into any kind of sin. Scott Hilgendorff brings us this week's, The Short Go.

I've never identified myself as a cowboy but I've always had cowboy tendencies. They've just been kept hidden and badly...
08/18/2026

I've never identified myself as a cowboy but I've always had cowboy tendencies. They've just been kept hidden and badly undeveloped by the most uncowboy of career paths. God used them to lead me into full time ministry more than 20 years ago from journalism to pastoring. Not my first time on a horse but wealthy extended family members took me to Aspen, Colorado when I was 10 and where I got to take daily riding lessons at T Lazy 7 Ranch. You can chuckle but I made "cowboy of the day" when a bee or something got my horse to buck a little and I managed to hang on. The family-run operation is still going strong. Less than 20 years later, I made "Top Hand" at a rodeo school for saddle bronc in Georgia with the Lowrey's. When I went into missions full time, I had to purge most of what I owned but managed to tuck away this worn out t-shirt in a drawer at my dad's house. I had opportunity here and there to ride a little but always on borrowed horses with friends riding through corn fields and even galloping through a trail in the Chickamauga Battlefield in North Georgia, trying not to get my head taken off by low-hanging branches and giving my horse my trust than I should have. How I'm not crippled or dead from the times these situations went wonky, is only God's hand guiding me into the safer, behind-the-scenes work of photography and marketing in the rodeo industry and eventually into cowboy church and teaching or preaching at rodeos. Bringing in cattle from a friend's pasture on horse back or facing what was, for me, the terror of a steep drop off the side of a narrow mountain trail in the Rockies, my cowboying skills never had a chance to develop. Don't ask me to help load bulls but I'll give you a hand fixing fence. What I hope people see now is someone who answered a genuine call into ministry with a desire to serve and minister to those people who have found themselves in the ranching and rodeo industries. A rodeo judge and I were talking last week about the times ministry gets frustrating enough to want to quit. We talked about how that discouragement comes out of a very real, God- given desire to see people find a genuine saving faith in Jesus that changes their lives through the new hope of a perfect eternity they've found. Scripture tells us the gate to heaven is narrow and few with pass through. I make it harder on myself by fighting with that truth and wanting every one of these guys, that God puts in my path, to make it to Heaven. There was no understanding as a ten-year-old on the back of a grey horse named Dolly, that God would never let me be a cowboy. Instead, he would keep putting people and circumstances in my life that would keep me alongside and behind the scenes in the cowboy lifestyle and rodeo industry so that I could eventually be a part of His work in this part of our culture. God's light is welcomed in the ranching and rodeo communities, but if we're honest, there can be an exceptional amount of darkness found in those places with the easy access to sinful opportunities they also create. More light is needed so others hear more than an announcer saying an opening prayer but instead, hear the Holy Spirit and answer his call into a saving faith in a very real Jesus. Thank you to all who work alongside me, who take the mission and cowboy church seriously, and who pray for and support this ministry financially so God's work can continue. Jesus loves cowboys. Jesus saves cowboys.

08/16/2026

Let's live like we know we're going to Heaven and why.

Matthew 9:37-38. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earn...
08/16/2026

Matthew 9:37-38. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Ranch cowboys and most rodeo cowboys aren't afraid of hard work. Those who are believers, we're ready to help you in the "fields" whenever you're ready to go.

We're all called to share the gospel and teach others. All. Everyone who has a saving faith in Jesus.

Wearing crosses, praying or saying you have faith isn't the work of the gospel. It isn't bad, but it's still pretty lazy. Actively telling people about Jesus and what his death on the cross means and helping new believers grow while more mature believers do the same for you, that's the labor Jesus is talking about and calling us to do.

We will help you and even carry some of the load, you just have to let us know when you're ready.

There's a difference between having a saving faith in Jesus and making sinful mistakes versus claiming faith in Jesus bu...
08/14/2026

There's a difference between having a saving faith in Jesus and making sinful mistakes versus claiming faith in Jesus but living with one foot in the fire, choosing to sin. Where are your feet planted?
Matthew 7:24-29 “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. 25 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. 26 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. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.

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3710 Warden Branch Lane
Gatlinburg, TN
37738

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