Pastor Participates in Inaugural Events

After Texas voters elected Dan Patrick as their lieutenant governor, Patrick asked his Assemblies of God cowboy pastor friend to help with inaugural events.  

The morning of the state leaders’ swearing-in on Jan. 20, Randy Weaver, pastor of Lone Star Cowboy Church in Montgomery, Texas, emceed and read Scripture at the leaders’ prayer at First Baptist Church in downtown Austin. After the inaugural on the Texas Capitol steps, Weaver and his wife, Darla, the church’s co-pastor, attended a private lunch with Patrick and other guests in the building’s lieutenant governor's wing.  

In Texas, the lieutenant governor presides over the state senate. The next day, before Patrick’s first senate session as president, he asked Weaver to open with prayer.

Weaver ended his approximately two-minute invocation: “May Your wisdom always rule over our reason. Today as we declare that Texas is open for business, may we always understand that the most important business is the Father’s business.”

The recent inauguration marked the third time that Weaver, 60, has offered an invocation at the Texas Capitol. In addition, he performed Patrick’s daughter’s wedding there.

Patrick’s and Gov. Greg Abbott both quoted Scripture in their acceptance speeches, Weaver noted. “You could tell their relationship with God was very real to them,” Weaver said. “The very first words out of Dan’s mouth (at the event) were, ‘I'm a Christian first.’ ”

A former professional calf roper and steer wrestler, Weaver became an Assemblies of God missionary to rodeo cowboys in 1988. In 2000, the Weavers envisioned planting a cowboy church in Montgomery, 50 miles north of Houston. To fund the down payment on the acreage for a church site in the community of 450 people, Randy Weaver sold his calf-roping horse, Ringo, and Darla sold her horse, Matlock.   

Today, Lone Star holds rodeo events in the church’s arena and holds baptisms in a stock tank. Attendance at Lone Star’s services, which are live streamed, sometimes reach 2,500. Patrick has attended occasionally.  

“We need more Christians to stand up in political areas and bring God’s Word back into our nation,” Weaver says. “That's happening here in Texas. I'm thankful for that.”