Menifee minister finds his calling with Cowboy Church

By: CATHY REDFERN - Staff Writer
Former wrangler takes church to area rodeos | Thursday, January 17, 2008 2:43 AM PST ∞

MENIFEE -- Cowboy Church minister Bob Harris tells a good tale, ma'am, and a colorful one, his words blending Old West style colloquialisms and biblical quotes, as he explains the road that led to his true calling -- ministering to rodeo cowboys.

Harris, a Menifee resident, has been a minister of Cowboy Church since 1991. He calls the church an organization of loosely affiliated, nondenominational ministers who follow the rodeo circuit, preaching to cowboys at rodeos.

Before that, the 59-year-old Texas native said, he once wanted to be a football player and earned a scholarship to Louisiana State University before injuring his knee as a sophomore. He said he has earned four college degrees since -- in journalism, theater technology, liberal arts and theology.

Then, he hit the rodeo circuit, riding broncs and wrestling steers and working for livestock companies on and off for decades. He said he also has worked as a stagehand in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand and as a stuntman, double and actor, working for Jan-Michael Vincent, Robert Urich and others.

He has authored two books and hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles, he said, including columns for The Californian in the 1990s.

In 1989, while working as a reporter for the Sun-Tribune in Lake Elsinore, he was assigned to cover a rodeo and found an angle that changed his life. He found the man who started Cowboy Church decades ago in Oklahoma -- cowboy minister and rodeo announcer Coy Huffman.

"He had such a tremendous vision of the salvation of cowboys and their families," Harris said. "I just thought, 'Wow, what a wonderful thing.'

"... I had heard of missions to serve the poor in Third World countries, but had never thought of cowboys as a mission field."

But cowboys are not home on weekends to attend a traditional church, so cowboy ministers lead services at rodeos, and pray with cowboys before they go into the arena. It has not been all milk and honey for Harris, he said. He can handle the hung-over cowboys, he said, but he has also been spit upon, roped and dragged by cowboys wanting to give him a hard time.

He shrugs as if to acknowledge that it just goes with the territory. But he knows he has made a difference by being a person of God to whom cowboys can relate.

"Cowboys can spot fakes pretty quickly," he said. "You have to be a cowboy to really minister to a cowboy, and you have to be a straight shooter. "It's like working with horses; you don't force things. You work with their personality, get in their psyche.

"You can use that same approach with people. And people don't care what you have to say until they know you care about them. A horse is the same way. So are cowboys. It's caring; it's people. That's how cowboy ministry works, and it doesn't matter if the cowboy is a Christian or otherwise, you are one of the first in the ring if someone is hurt."

Harris was raised Episcopalian, but says his 32 years as a nondenominational Christian have taught him that one must have a day-to-day personal faith in God. He said he remembers the difficulty of living that life when he was in his 20s and living in Las Vegas, working as a cowboy, stunt actor and stagehand.

"The temptations were very high," he said. "I had a spiritual bent, but if you put a little Irish whiskey on that spiritual bent, it goes right down the tubes. I think it's tragic, but it's exactly what happens to people."

He said a pastor once told him that a walk with God was like a three-legged table. The legs are a faith-filled conversion, reading the Bible and praying, and spending time with others of similar beliefs.

"You can't have the first part without the other two," he said. "You have to put your faith into practice. You have to do the things that will make you a better person."

Revival Christian Fellowship of Menifee supports Harris' work, and the church's business manager, Kathy Rees, said Harris is well-respected among his peers. Her husband, Mike Rees, has ridden with Harris and gone to rodeos with him, playing music to accompany the services.

"He's filling a unique venue as far as ministry is concerned and is absolutely well-received," she said. "He seems to relate really well to cowboys, seeing as he is a horseman himself."

Harris has scaled back his rodeo work, traveling only to the rodeos in Southern California, which have decreased in number over the years. They include Indio, Lakeside, Ramona, Palmdale, Santa Barbara, Norco, San Juan Capistrano, Poway, San Bernardino and Barstow. He said he chose not to move to a more rural area, even though it would be more lucrative, because he wanted to stay close to his two children and three grandchildren.

He said he owes that to his wife of 32 years, Kristi, whom he calls his sweetheart and partner. The couple met at the MGM Grand, where she was a performer and he was a stagehand. He said he sold that story and it was made into a bad TV movie called "The Cowboy and the Stage Girl."

Money is a bit tight, he said, as Cowboy Church does not provide financial support. Rather, it comes directly from the cowboys or others who wish to support his ministry.

He said he works about 65 hours each week doing various ministry and volunteer work. Last year, he began serving as a part-time minister for Quail Valley Bible Church. He also performs weddings, baptisms and funerals and volunteers as a chaplain for the Civil Air Patrol and an Air Force auxiliary group. He said he loves baby christenings and weddings, and counsels couples that they must "stop being about themselves" when they get married.

His other volunteer work includes announcing for rodeos in Norco that allow disabled children to compete in modified events.

At times, Harris' own injuries have guided his life decisions, and the injured spots include his knee, his neck, his back, both wrists, one shoulder, an ankle. As a cowboy that is expected, he said.

"It's only a matter of where and when and how bad it will be," he said.

But his main work is as a cowboy minister, a calling he said he is grateful to have found.

"I knew God had a call in my life, I just didn't know how to implement it," he said.

As for retirement, he has a quick response.

"Ministers never retire," he said.

He also said he probably won't ever give up his horses, Dollar and Hobie, either.

-- Contact staff writer Cathy Redfern at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2621, or credfern@californian.com.

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