The Cowboy Church as a Man’s Church

Chapter 5 examines issues of gender dynamics in the cowboy church movement. Church leaders use simplistic notions of gender, in combination with assumptions about the cowboy culture, and conclude that cowboy church needs to be a “masculine” environment to succeed. This chapter explores how these concepts are perpetuated and what “masculine church” means in practical terms. It also considers some of the more complicated and contradictory views held by pastors on the subject of women in ministry and women’s participation in church more generally. It contrasts the prevailing beliefs held by men about gender relations in the cowboy church with those of women, suggesting that the discrepancy between the two groups’ views may be problematic in the long term.