Cowboy Church resonates in QC's horse culture

Dec. 25—Typically, the only time you might have to clean up livestock manure at church is if there have been live animals in a manger scene. Not so in Queen Creek.

"Cowboy Church is a little different," said 58-year-old pastor Billy Van Camp. "Wear your hat. Bring your horse, bring your mule, bring your dog, bring your pig, bring your goat. Wear whatever you want to wear. Just show up.

"We're real Western culture. Real cut to the chase. No B.S. You know what I mean?" said Van Camp, who leads church services once a month in the arena at Horseshoe Park and Equestrian Centre in Queen Creek, where about 500 congregants attend.

"Last year I brought out a wild mustang that had never been ridden, put it in a round pen while I preached about how God can take even the wildest person in the world," Van Camp said.

"I got on that Mustang and rode him. And it shows people that no matter how wild you are, if you will, if you get right and get under the right mentor and have somebody help you, you know what? You can be used."

There is a method to Van Camp's unorthodox approach.

"I'm trying to reach the people who would never pull into the parking lot

of an organized church," Van Camp said. "I just want to reach the people who aren't churchy. I hate religion. I love relationship.

"And what's cool is pretty soon they'll show up at church. It's almost like my little farm team for my church."

That's a reference to Cry Church, the brick-and-mortar building where Van Camp pastors on 17 acres at the corner of Sossamon Road and Hunt Highway in Queen Creek, and attracts about 1,200 parishioners each week. It's home to a K-7 school now, too.

Van Camp is not a minister by trade. He is a career business owner and still owns building and concrete companies as well as a cattle herd.

But he decided to completely change the direction of his life 18 years ago.

"I felt the call of God at 40 sitting in church one day," Van Camp said. "Never in a million years would I have dreamt to be a pastor. I'm reaching people that I grew up with. It's a lot of fun."

The Queen Creek native uses Cowboy Church to attract the type of people with similar interests to his, joining the desire he said people have to find purpose, meaning and connection to something greater than themselves ,

"I roped and I rodeo'ed and I rode hard stock and rough stock and I wanted to reach those people. Riding a mule and talking about Jesus and it just kinda took off," he said.

"We'll even show them how to rope. It takes practice and consistency — like reading The Word. You can't just get it one time a month and go out and win money, you got to develop a strategy to rodeo. You gotta develop a strategy to walk a spiritual life," Van Camp added.

Part of that strategy has been playing up the town's history.

Van Camp has built on Queen Creek's western past and focused not only on keeping it alive, but playing to it and meeting people where they are.

"A lot of people in this area and this culture have been hurt by a church," Van Camp said. "Or let down by a church. Or they just don't understand what church is.

"You got hard working people who have made a living with their hands. Rodeo people are tough people. Up early and go to bed late people. Cowboy Church helps them to be comfortable at a place called church."

Van Camp's approach to building a following seems to have paid off, although there is no formal offering plate passed at cowboy services.

"We don't push givin,'" he said. "We put a little trough out front but we don't even ask for money."

He started Cowboy Church when the pro rodeo riders who came to Queen Creek a decade ago needed a place to worship.

It has been going ever since.

Van Camp held services in the arena every Sunday night after preaching three services on Sunday morning at Cry Church. He now decided to hold Cowboy Church once a month.

"I'm getting older and it's getting hotter," he explained. "The park is getting harder to schedule, too."

People who attend Cowboy Church say Van Camp has been successful precisely because of his authenticity both in the traditional church and from the back of his mule in the equestrian arena.

"He's just so down to earth and real," said congregant Marie Leigh. "He brings the Bible to life and makes it relevant."

Borrowing from the more modern, traditional church services, there are a few big screen TVs in place to help the congregation follow the service's order.

But the similarities stop there. Even the music is reminiscent of more historical gospel music.

"It's outdoors. It's different. There is no acoustics whatsoever, you know," chuckled Leigh. "It's a lot of old-fashioned hymns rather than modern day worship, which is truly that Western culture, traditional music."

Dan Moskalik oversees the music at Cowboy Church, plays guitar himself and wants to reach the community with a different brand of worship than people might find in a traditional setting.

"You don't have to be a cowboy to go to Cowboy Church," Moskalik said. "But we highly suggest that if you don't like John Wayne movies or you don't like Johnny Cash, you probably should go someplace else to church."

If Cowboy Church has one shortcoming by Van Camp's own admission, it is the lack of what he calls a discipleship program. He said that while the gatherings in the arena are popular, well-attended and well-intended, he worried aloud about a follow-up effort for the people who attend a service at Horseshoe Park.

He believes discipleship should be the ultimate focus of any church, be it in a traditional building or an equestrian arena.

"I don't have the next step at Cowboy Church to build your knowledge and wisdom of God," he said. "That's why I call it a farm church. I don't believe a church is really a church unless it's discipling people.

"It is a place to gather and it is a place to receive salvation, but I pray that they wind up at a big church somewhere where they get the discipleship. That worries me about Cowboy Church."