PLEASANT HILL – As a pastor, evangelist, and full-time cowboy, Sam Anderson has spent the last fifteen years of his life in ministry working to bring the gospel to other cowboys around the globe.
From a young age, Anderson knew he wanted to serve God through evangelism: “I’ve always been interested in evangelism. It’s been one of my basic strengths for as long as I can remember. In college, I was even the chairman of the Baptist Student Union’s evangelism team. Sharing the gospel has been a priority my whole life.”
Anderson’s love of evangelism, coupled with his lifelong passion for all things horses and cowboys, led him to pursue full-time cowboy ministry. “I’ve always had horses for most of my life, but when I found out that other horse people can’t go to church because of horse shows or training, I knew I had to do something about it.”
Since his realization over 15 years ago, Anderson has been focused on providing a place and time for cowboys to come together and worship Christ. From partnering with Open Range Fellowship in Lone Jack, Mo., to preaching the good news in nearly 60 revivals, and even traveling to Guatemala to help establish local churches, Anderson has been working tirelessly to reach cowboys for Christ.
“I want to expand the opportunity to share the gospel amongst the cowboy community. Since I’ve been involved with horse people, I knew wanted to partner with other cowboy-focused churches and evangelists in the region. If there’s one thing I know about cowboys, it’s that they want to be with other cowboys. That’s why I think it’s so important to have a place for them to come together and connect.”
Since 2020, Anderson has even been pastoring Forest Grove Baptist Church in Pleasant Hill, Mo. While there, he’s helped reestablish the congregation from less than ten members to now almost fifty. Since taking this position, Anderson has slowed down his revival efforts, but his passion for reaching cowboys is as strong as ever. “We have a horse presence here at Forest Grove!” said Anderson. “Not only are there a lot of cowboys here at the church, but we have even started partnering with Open Range Fellowship and other cowboy groups in the area.”
When asked what his most memorable cowboy evangelist experience has been, Anderson noted one of his trips to Guatemala: “We wanted to reach the cowboys of Guatemala with the hopes of establishing a church in the area. When I got to the revival, the locals assumed I knew everything there is to know about horse training, so they asked me to do some training while I preached.
Over the course of the night, they brought out four different horses, each being more trained and friendly then than the one before. I started by comparing the untrained horse to us before Christ and finished by comparing the friendly, and well-trained horse to us after Christ takes a hold of our lives. That night, God really moved and by the end of the event, 42 people professed Christ as Lord.”