The New York Times reports :
Steve Gilbertson, 52, has been a preacher for about 30 years. Four months ago, he started a church of his own. At his last job, he had led an informal Sunday morning service over coffee and doughnuts at a local megachurch. Now he preaches under a mesquite tree, in the shadow of a saloon best known for the quality of its country-western bands and the fervor of its regulars’ allegiance to the Green Bay Packers.
The saloon is called the Buffalo Chip, and the church it houses, officially named Ecclesia, is informally known as Church at the Chip, or cowboy church. Mr. Gilbertson and the saloon’s owner, Larry Wendt, met several years ago at the church where Mr. Gilbertson worked and that Mr. Wendt sometimes attended. . . . When he heard Mr. Gilbertson needed a place for his church, he offered him space at the saloon.
“I spend all week making sinners out of our good cowboys and cowgirls, selling them drinks and a lot of food,” Mr. Wendt said. “The least I can do is try to straighten them out a little on Sundays.”
Read more about Steve Gilbertson and Ecclesia here .
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…
