Neighbor says cowboy church raised too much of a ruckus

VIRGINIA BEACH

Sandra Russell doesn't live on the back 40, but her back door in Landstown Court is precisely 42 feet from a cowboy congregation.

Inside the Rugged Cross Cowboy Baptist Church on Sundays, the Rev. Jim Pugh goes by "Pastor Bubba," wears a cowboy hat and sidles up to the pulpit to exhort his faithful with the greeting, "Cowboy up!" Worship tunes come from a piano and a steel guitar, and the music director used to write songs for the country and western band Alabama.

But it's not the Sunday services that landed the cowboy church in a heap of trouble - and in need of a conditional use permit from the city. It was something that went on at the church for a few weeks back in the spring: Friday night hoedowns.

Russell lives in a home in Landstown Court, which backs up to the Countryside Shops next to the Virginia Beach Farmer s Market. She and her husband, Ray, have a tidy backyard with a manicured garden in one corner and a sitting area and above-ground swimming pool on the other side. The patio and pool are just over a picket fence from a raised deck attached to the side of the church.

She feels like her privacy as a homeowner has been intruded upon by people standing on the deck and by the music from the hoedowns.

"I am in no way in opposition of the church," Russell said. "It was the loud country and western music. I could hear all the lyrics when I was in my bathroom shower. People were two-stepping on the handrail of the deck."

Pastor Bubba said the hoedowns were not put on by the cowboy church, but were offered by another Bubba - Bubba's Deli, at the far corner of the Countryside Shops. After Russell complained several times and called the police, Pastor Bubba put an end to the hoedowns.

His main mission, he said, is like that of all cowboy churches, which were founded in the days of the Wild West when ranchers had thousands of acres but no sanctuaries nearby. Someone would put a cross in a field to mark the site for cowboys, hired hands and anyone else to worship. There are still hundreds of them in the country, according to www.cowboychurch.net.

Pastor Bubba is an ordained minister, and Rugged Cross is an independent Baptist church that accepts people for who they are, including a big percentage of disabled parishioners, and follows the teachings in the King James Bible, he said.

"You can wear cowboy boots, a cowboy hat, you're able to drink a cup of coffee and eat a doughnut while you hear the preaching," he said.

Still, Dam Neck Road is no open range. The Russells live in a densely built strip of homes. Look into the mirror in the Russells' dining room and the outside deck of the church fills the frame. The Russells' Weber backyard grill sits less than 25 feet from Rugged Cross.

"I'm reading the newspaper, I'm holding my cup of coffee and Charlie - I know the church members - Charlie's looking over the wall at me," Sandra Russell said. "Would they want that in their backyard?"

Because of the fuss over the hoedowns, Pastor Bubba feels like he's sat on his spurs. He needs the city to approve his request for a conditional use permit to run the church in a retail strip. To get it, he needs to build an 8 -foot fence, retrofit the church with sound-muffling materials and, generally, make sure noise from inside stays there.

He reckons that's a $10,000 to $15,000 job - too much for a church with about 30 weekly attendees, so he's pulling his request for the permit.

"All I can say to you," Pastor Bubba lamented, " is 'Partner, it's a mess.' "

By Friday, he'd saddled up. Next Sunday, Rugged Cross's services will be at a new sanctuary in Haygood.

The folks at Calvary Baptist Church rode to the cowboys' rescue and offered a new home.

Lon Wagner, (757) 446-2341, Lon.Wagner@pilotonline.com