HENDERSON — Nearing the tail end of a sermon preached from horseback, Joe Leathers leaned forward and removed the bridle from his mount, a bay named Puff.

"The Bible says that we are set free," the preacher said, stretching his arms wide to further illustrate that Puff had no visible reason to remain submissive to him. He then told the congregation of about 75 gathered in the Henderson Youth Expo Center that Christians sometimes tell themselves that the freedom the Bible mentions means they can do what they want, much like it appeared Puff suddenly was able to do.

"But I want to tell you," he said as he began directing the horse with arm and leg commands, "we are free to serve Jesus Christ and to listen to the Holy Spirit in our life."

Leathers, manager of the 137-year-old Four Sixes Ranch in the Panhandle, was guest minister Sunday for the Circle C Cowboy Church, which formed about eight months ago in Rusk County and has been meeting in the Tommy McDaniel Ag Center at the expo center since September.

"We've been meeting down at the end of the arena (in the ag building)," church member Karen Bentley of Tatum said, shortly before Leathers and Puff took the dirt arena as their pulpit. "But we have a special guest today."

The Rev. Pat Alphin, pastor of the new congregation, said members are Christians who share an association with horses.

"We have ranch hands. We have rodeo people, people that just pleasure ride," he said. "We have some people that don't own a horse — they just like the culture. We have everything. We minister to all of them."

Before the sermon, cowboy singer Rick Brummley strummed an acoustic guitar as he put a twang to a few hymns, including, "Amazing Grace," and, "I'll Fly Away." His "Jesus Put a Yodel in My Soul" was clear witness that the traditional song style has more soul than it's sometimes given credit.

"You speaking in tongues?" Leathers asked from the side after Brummley's yodelling ended. The singer responded, "No. It's just loose at both ends."

During the horseback sermon that followed, Leathers drew a parallel between a rider's relationship with a horse and God's relationship with a Christian. The lifelong cowboy had put on a free horse clinic in the arena Saturday.

With barely perceptible commands given with his entire body, Leathers and Puff advanced, backed up and side-stepped from one end of the congregation to the other. The horse's still back kept the preacher's movements smooth as Leathers held a big brown Bible toward the audience seated in the stands.

"I've preached a little bit, and I've rode a lot, but I've never done both at the same time," he confessed at the sermon's outset.

He challenged his audience to walk the walk of a Christian.

"You can look like a Christian," he said. "You can act like a Christian, you can say all the churchy words. But if you don't have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, all of that is not going to save you."

No Christian is completely obedient any more than any horse, including Puff, Leathers said. The more the bridle comes off, the more mature the relationship with God is becoming, he said.

After removing that artificial control, Leathers leaned forward to prompt Puff into a lope around a small horse pen, the duo coming to a halt in the center of the dirt arena on Leathers' clean "Ho!"

As horse and rider continued their movements, Leathers explained, "I come down here, and (God) says, 'I want you to stop, and I want you to learn something for a while.' And when you're ready, he will send you off to another ministry. But it all comes when we become sensitive to the Holy Spirit."

If you go

- What: Circle C Cowboy Church

- When: 10:30 a.m. Sundays

- Where: Tommy McDaniel Ag Center, FM 13 (West Main Street) west of Henderson

- Contact: Call (903) 363-6092 or go to www.circleccowboychurch.org