Cowboy Church: saving souls, one cowboy at a time

By Tyson Hudson
Navajo Times

WINDOW ROCK – On Sunday morning at the Navajo Nation Fair, near the artisan tent and rodeo corrals, a band checks their music equipment on stage. A guitar player in blue jeans and a pressed cowboy shirt plays chords from Pink Floyd, but their sound is anything but classic rock.

As the band One Accord starts the service with the song “My Jesus,” some cowboys and cowgirls trickle onto the seats in front of the stage and on the other side of the tent.

The band will play “Rock of Ages,” and it is not the Def Leppard song. Rather, it’s a popular Christian hymn sung in Navajo with a country music twist.

While the band performs, church members share breakfast burritos and snacks with cowboys and fair workers. The workers watch the band sing gospel songs before returning to their duties. Even curious spectators stop in to watch the service.

The band plays several gospel songs. Then Pastor John Boyd Jr., of Greasewood, Arizona, takes the stage with a Bible and starts his discourse.

What is Cowboy Church?

After services, Boyd said, “Cowboy Church is just talking about Jesus and just having fellowship with other cowboys.”

Boyd said Cowboy Church started 20 years ago at the Navajo Nation Fair rodeo contestant parking lot.

Boyd has been a competing rodeo cowboy since he was 18. He said he led a life as “a sinner,” but he had to change his wayward lifestyle.

“The Lord changed my life, and He says, ‘I’ll make you a cowboy pastor,’” Boyd said. “So that’s what I’m doing now.”

Thomas Cody, the executive director of the Navajo Division for Children and Family Services, said Cowboy Church was brought to the fair to bring cowboys and attendees together for worship. He also said the church could provide music to people waiting in line for the rodeo.
Cody invited the band One Accord several weeks ago to play at Cowboy Church, according to One Accord band member Hazel Wilson.

Spreading the gospel with music

Dale Tsosie, a One Accord band member, said the band has been playing gospel music “seriously” for almost two years.

This is the band’s first time playing at Cowboy Church, and it made some adjustments for the event.

They bought cowboy hats and modified their contemporary Christian sound to country to “catch the cowboys that are here,” Tsosie said. The band also sang gospel hymns in Navajo.

Tsosie, who lives in Mesa, Arizona, heard about Cowboy Church and was excited to be part of the church services.

“To see … some cowboys coming in, it just made me feel so good,” he said.

Wilson said spreading the word of Jesus with music at a large event like the Navajo Nation Fair is very touching. She and her family traveled from Maricopa, Arizona, for the event.

They all agreed they were willing to come back to Cowboy Church if they were invited back.

Tsosie added that people should “love each other.”

“We need to come together in unity and be brother and sisters again and just help each other,” Tsosie said.

Tsosie’s wife and fellow band member, Charlotte, said that whatever faith fairgoers worship as Christians, Native American Church members, or traditional Navajos, they at least heard gospel music at the fair.

“I’m praying that somebody was touched by music,” she said.

Nora Shirley, of Glendale, Arizona, said she was at the song and dance event with her mom. She said she took a break from the heat under the tent of Cowboy Church, and she found Cowboy Church to be “good.”

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