CARTHAGE – Steve Stafford, pastor of Risen Ranch Cowboy Church in Carthage, said the biblical stewardship of creation permeates the lives of men and women involved in agriculture.
“We’re more than a cowboy church,” Stafford said. “We’re an ag church. We’re blue collar, redneck. calloused, tanned, dirt-under-your-fingernails, good ol’ American people. And I love that about our church.” Members include “farmers, ranchers, livestock producers and gardeners.”
Steve Stafford
The stewardship of God’s creation “is an everyday way of life” for Stafford and the members of his church. “It’s the way we were brought up. It’s the way we live, and we know what we have to do to protect it, to nurture it.”
Creation is a gift, and people involved in agriculture have an opportunity to praise God for this gift and its beauty and usefulness, Stafford added. Also, they have an opportunity to meditate on the Creator and on His Word as they do their daily work. After all, many of Jesus’ own parables came from agriculture – for example, the parable of the lost sheep in Luke 15 or the parable of the sower in Mark 4.
“I can’t make the rain. I can’t make the sunshine. I sure didn’t make the dirt,” Stafford said. “We understand. We get it. These are all gifts of God, for our benefit. The key is understanding where all these things come from, being thankful, being good stewards of it, and then sharing it. … Don’t hoard it, share it, invest in other people’s lives.
“Again, our people get that. They understand that stuff. It’s a joy to see that in our church and in our people.”