Here are a few thoughts from the pastor. Hopefully this will answer a few of your questions.

Narrow Trail Cowboy Church is a mission church. We are reaching out to those within our culture who normally won't set foot in a church, except for weddings and funerals. In fact, we are reaching a hand out to folks that other churches don't. Work boots, cowboy hats, hangovers, divorcees, blue jeans - those are our kind of folks!

Narrow Trail Cowboy Church has a mission as big as Texas
We are reaching out to unchurched folks with the great news of a new life through Jesus Christ. Our ways may be unorthodox, but our gospel is not. The traditional church and seminaries are busy pursuing postmodern culture and urban yuppies with high tech, high dollar glitz. Meanwhile, many are left out in the cold by mass productions. Church should be about building up families and a church family. How does that happen when the kids are in the West Wing, the parents in the Sanctuary, and the Seniors in the North Annex?

Think small to think big
There are 2,000,000 folks living in the rural Cowboy Culture, in Texas alone. Many more live in the exurbs and suburbs. This "small" group is important. They elected George W. in 2004! If they are that important to politics, just think how important they are to God!

You can be part of accomplishing that mission
Are you reaching out to construction workers, carpenters, general contractors, backhoe operators, maintenance men, clerks, or the person in the next cubicle? How about people who think they are happy living worldly lives, apart from the experience of God's love?
YOU CAN! Become a Pardner with NTCC.

Why meet at Love and War?
The patrons at Love and War are like a big family. For some, the folks at Love and War are their family. Others just come by for food, drink and music from time to time. Love and War is one of the most popular restaurants, bars and live music venues around. The atmosphere is relaxed, Texan and authentic. It is a place you can just be yourself, just like Narrow Trail.

Musical influence!
Many come to Love and War just to hear great Texas Country music. This community of singer and songwriters and their fans typically listen to FM 95.3 "The Range". The artists perform and have fans nationwide. The potential influence of Narrow Trail Cowboy Church is incredible! Piggybacking on Love and War's ads on The Range helps us reach many that most churches don't.

Compromise - Never! Culturize - Absolutely!
Just because we reach the lost doesn't mean we have to compromise on the gospel. In fact, the gospel is the only thing that will clean up a person. Some just have further to go to get sanctified. That's alright, I did too at one time. How about you?
"You don't catch flies with vinegar, but you don't throw the beehive at them either." John Myers

This is the city. Are there really any cowboys around?
You bet your boots there are! There aren't many "working cowboys" in Collin County, but look around and see how many Wrangler jeans, western belts, cowboy hats, Wolverine work boots, pickups... anyway, cowboy is also an attitude, like Texas. Cowboys, and country folk generally, are genuine, straight shooting, no bull kind of folks. And they don't go for playing church.
Ya gotta be real. Just tell the Gospel Truth.

You don't have to be "cowboy" or even own boots to feel at home at Narrow Trail. Just be yourself.

12 Measurable Quality Factors of a Healthy Church

1. Bible knowledge - Church members are increasing in their grasp of the teachings of the Bible. They can integrate this with a theological system that enables them to apply the Bible’s teachings to their life situation.
2. Personal devotions - Members spend time daily in prayer, Bible reading, meditation, and other personal spiritual exercises.
3. Worship - Members regularly participate in the worship services scheduled by the church.
4. Witnessing - Members regularly attempt to share their faith in Jesus Christ with unbelievers.
5. Lay ministry - The lay people of the church are engaged in such ministries as teaching and discipling. In some cases this happens through consciously discovering, developing, and using their spiritual gifts.
6. Missions - The church actively supports missions, organizing and sustaining a strong program for recruiting, sending, and financing home and foreign missionaries.
7. Giving - Members give an appropriate portion of their income to the local church and/or to other Christian causes.
8. Fellowship - Members are growing in their personal relationships with each other through regular participation in church fellowship groups of one kind or another.
9. Distinctive life-style - Members generally manifest their faith in Christ by living a life-style clearly and noticeable distinct from that of non-Christians in the same community.
10. Attitude toward religion - Church members regard their involvement in the church primarily as a service to God rather than a means to fulfill personal needs.
11. Social service - Members are serving others outside the congregation. This includes direct personal involvement with the poor and needy, or in programs designed to help the needy.
12. Social justice - Either through the congregation as a whole or through specialized Christian agencies, members are striving to make changes in sociopolitical structures that will contribute to a more moral and just society.

Leading Your Church to Growth by C. Peter Wagner, Regal Books, pp. 25-27

A Significant Church is involved in bringing people into right relationship with God and one another and with helping believers develop godly character and ministry skills. A church focused on significance will be fulfilling its primary purpose: equipping believers for service. The components to becoming a significant church are:

• Vision — understanding where a church is and where it is going.
• Spiritual Maturity — the development of Christian character in the personal lives of individual church members.
• Outreach — how the church can fulfill its mission of reconciliation by serving, showing and telling.
• Ministry Leadership — How you equip individuals to help others follow Christ by acting as mentors, guides, teachers and parents.
• Small Groups — offer community and meeting needs, allowing more people to become actively involved in the life of the church.
• Life-on-Life Mentoring — encouraging personal change and application of scriptural truth through one-on-one ministry.

Charts of Christian Theology and Doctrine, H. Wayne House, p. 117

“Suppose a great doctor discovers a cure for cancer. Once that cure is found, it is there. But before it can become available for everyone, it must be taken out to the world. Doctors and surgeons must know about it and be trained to use it. The cure is there, but one person cannot take it out to all the world; a corps of doctors must be the agents whereby it arrives at all the world’s sufferers.

“That precisely is what the church is to Jesus Christ. It is in Jesus that all people and all nations can be reconciled to God. But before that can happen, they must know about Jesus Christ, and it is the task of the church to bring that about. Christ is the head; the church is the body. The head must have a body through which it can work. The church is quite literally hands to do Christ’s work, feet to run upon His errands, and a voice to speak His words.”

Morning Glory, Sept.-Oct. 1997, p. 19

Narrow Trail Cowboy Church Mission: Narrow Trail Cowboy Church reaches the folks of North Texas, and the world, with the life transforming Good News of new life through Jesus Christ using Texas Country Music and the Texas Heritage.

Beliefs
As has been said, "In fundamental beliefs, unity, in all else charity." Within any local assembly there are varied opinions on many things, but there must be agreement in the most basic beliefs, for belief is the hallmark of Christianity. It was Peter's confession of Jesus as the Christ that Jesus said would form the foundation of His church. See Matthew 16:15-20

A statement we can stand by:
Orthodox Christian belief is essential to the church. But sometimes over-detailed doctrinal statements would be too complex and needlessly divisive instead of uniting. NTCC is an independent church that is formally connected to the Baptists General Convention of Texas, but is fully committed to what is sometimes called today "Classical Christianity," that is, the core teachings of the Church that Christians have confessed throughout the ages.

With the saints of old we believe that we enter into relationship with God by His initiative, and that by his grace we find eternal life through faith in Christ Jesus. We believe that each believer is to live in community in the Church, and that we are to share the good news of the gospel in word and action. We believe that God's Word, the Bible, remains the final authority for all issues of faith, doctrine, and life.

Our desire as a community is to focus on these core doctrines of the faith while allowing diversity of interpretation on the secondary doctrinal issues which have been debated for centuries. For example, Christians since the time of the Apostles have believed in Christ's promise of his return; yet many have disagreed on how his return is related to the events at the end of time. Thus we do confess and teach the personal return of Christ but do not dogmatize on the order of end time events.

Often one will hear at NT the refrain, "The main thing is that the main thing remains the main thing". The main thing is that we maintain our focus on the central issues of our faith, i.e., our relationship with the Triune God through his Son Jesus, and not allow ourselves to be sidetracked by doctrinal squabbling over secondary issues which so easily distract us from our primary focus. We do believe what God has revealed to his people is true and accurate. Yet we realize that what He has revealed is only a small part of what He is. Because we do "see through a glass darkly" we need to show humility in our attempts to understand God and His sovereign ways.

Narrow Trail Cowboy Church uses the Baptist Faith and Message 1963 as a detailed statement of faith. Narrow Trail is voluntarily affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, and the Texas Fellowship of Cowboy Churches. These organizations have been there every step of the way to help Narrow Trail get started, even before there was a Narrow Trail.

A Statement of Belief

We believe that the central truths of the Christian faith are faithfully expressed by the Nicene Creed as confessed by all true Christians throughout history.

Nicene Creed
(Nicene-Constantinople, ELLC Trans., 381 AD, also known as the Constantinopolitan Creed or The Creed of 150 Fathers)

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father; through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became truly human. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come.
Amen.

We acknowledge that the NAE statement represents the contemporary perspective from which our ministry is conducted; with a strong confidence in the inspired and infallible word of God, and a dependence upon the empowering work of the Spirit.

NAE Statement of Faith

1. We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God.
2. We believe that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
3. We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in His personal return in power and glory.
4. We believe that for the salvation of lost and sinful people, regeneration by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential.
5. We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life.
6. We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost; they that are saved unto the resurrection of life and they that are lost unto the resurrection of damnation.
7. We believe in the spiritual unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Baptism
Since the earliest days of the Church believers have understood the significance of baptism and the Lord's Supper in the life of the community. In baptism we not only fulfill the Lord's command (Mt. 28:18-20) but we outwardly demonstrate the inner reality of God's grace in our lives as we come to Christ in repentance and faith. At Trinity Fellowship we practice believer's baptism, believing the New Testament teaches by both precept and example baptism following conversion. Baptism is by immersion except in cases where immersion is not possible.

Eucharist
While baptism publicly marks our connection and commitment to the Church, the body of Christ, the Eucharist - that is the Lord's Supper - is the weekly remembrance of Christ's death and resurrection which encourages, nourishes, and sustains the community. The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 spoke against idolatry by comparing the unity and communion between Christ and His people in the Lord's Supper. Paul writes: "Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation (Greek koinonia, a "sharing," "fellowship") in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?" Paul taught that there was a true connectedness to Christ and to his grace when we come to the Lord's Supper. We believe the Lord's Supper is not only a remembrance of Christ's work but that He is present with us as we come by faith to Him. Through the Lord's Supper we experience his forgiveness, his love, and his presence in our midst.