Ashley, a young student, shares a view many Americans are taking on spiritual and religious matters.
“She pulls her ideas from all sorts of things,” said Doug Briney, a pastor and church planter.
An intriguing commercial on the country radio station caught Ashley’s attention. The local DJ’s voice encouraged listeners to come as they are to the “new church in town.” She was compelled, and decided to visit The Cowboy Church of Anchorage, Alaska.
“If there’s a church that will accept who I am and I don’t have to get all dolled up, I’d like to be a part of that,” she thought, according to Doug.
Doug met Ashley, a 19-year-old college student, at a country music competition before she heard the advertisement and attended his church’s services. After her first visit, she shared with him what she believes about spirituality.
Ashley told Doug she thinks while God is in us, we cannot know Him. Heaven exists and hell does not, but we will be judged. This judgment will involve seeing truth and then living a better life pointed toward heaven. All religions lead to the same thing.
She said Jesus is not the Son of God, nor is the Bible the Word of God, but it is a good book. God created everything, but He does not hold dominion over anything, and instead leaves creation alone.
“She kept making up her own things as we talked,” Doug said.
Ashley is one example of countless others living in Alaska who need to hear the Gospel. According to Doug, Alaska’s greatest strength involves the independence it inspires in people. However, often the attitudes of, “I can do it, it doesn’t matter what the odds are, I can get it done, I’ll find a way to make it work,” can also be Alaska’s biggest weakness.
“When you talk about God and a relationship with Him, the response is, ‘I don’t need that, I can do it on my own,’” Doug said.
Alaska’s vast frontier can compel a free spirit, such as Ashley’s. The state holds a population of approximately 640,000 in an area that is 20 percent of the size of the combined lower 48 states. It has one million acres of land for every day of the year, making it 2.3 times the size of Texas.
A majority of communities are small and lack roads leading to them, therefore transportation in and out of these residential areas is by airplane, boat, train, snow machine or all-terrain vehicle. Many communities do not yet have electricity, indoor plumbing or running water.
Mike Procter, director of Missions and Church Planting for the Alaska Baptist Convention (ABC), has been in the state for 24 years and said the “spiritual status is one of indifference to Biblical Christianity or truth.
“There is a spiritual culture in our state but it gravitates toward ‘new age,’ ‘animisim’ and creation worship.”
Mike said 97 percent of Alaskans are unchurched, and out of that number, 97 percent do not know Jesus Christ as Lord.
According to ABC statistics, the state is home to 21 pastorless congregations, five vacant missionary positions and 100 communities (out of 300) without an evangelical congregation. There you can also find about 120 different ethnic groups.
A couple of years ago Doug felt God leading him to reach out to a specific audio culture in the state. He loves country songs, as do many others–according to Doug, country is the most popular music demographic in Alaska, and yet he is unaware of any other churches reaching out to this population.
Doug said as he and others sought support in starting their church, many people seemed surprised and held disbelief at a cowboy community in Alaska.
“We have a lot of transplants from Wyoming, Montana, Colorado and Texas, people who grew up on ranches and for whom ‘cowboy’ is still a big part of their heritage and who they are,” he said. “Cowboys historically weren’t always educated, but could survive in climates where no one else could. The spirit and who a cowboy is, is definitely alive, and there are a lot of them here.”
Since its beginning about a year ago, The Cowboy Church of Anchorage draws not only those who fit the cowboy definition, but country music fans, equestrian lovers and bikers. Worship leaders play style-appropriate instruments like a mandolin, banjo and stand-up bass. Jeans and cowboy hats are welcome.
The group meets Sundays at a local university building, and Doug and his wife host weekly Bible studies in their home after Doug gets off of work from his job as a service adviser for a car dealership.
Since meeting Ashley, Doug and his family have been able to get to know her a little more with the desire to break down barriers and build trust in order to point her to the Gospel. Doug is taking steps toward connecting her with a female campus minister and prays she ultimately will look past the world’s ideas of religion to the truth.
Regarding reaching the cowboy culture in Alaska, Doug believes the work is only beginning.
“I think we’re just scratching the surface,” Doug said. “I don’t think we’re finished scratching the surface.”
Written by Natalie Kaspar. Natalie is a freelance writer for The Upstream Collective and lives in Texas. She served as a missionary writer based out of Prague, Czech Republic, from 2007-2009, and plans to return to full-time international mission work in a few years.
