Teveldal State Farm

96 people out of about 175 in attendance gave their lives to Christ that day. Carol asked Larry, “What are you going to do about it? God just opened a door for you.” Larry said, “I started praying about it and, sure enough, cowboys need to hear about Jesus, too. We started a ministry called ‘The Cowboy Way.’ I’d go to rodeos and conduct church services if I was asked.”

After a few years of his traveling rodeo ministry, Larry decided it was time to conduct services at home. When his 86-year-old parents died in 2006, he put his small inheritance to work. “They didn’t have much, but they had a little bit of money left. I wasn’t going to take the money that came from my parents and do something stupid with it, like buy a car. I wanted to do something I could look back at and say ‘That was because of my mom and dad.’” He used the inheritance as seed money, re-financed the mortgage on the acreage, and borrowed enough money to build a barn in which to hold services. It just so happened that their friend Jack Garr of Texas was a contractor. Jack came to South Dakota and helped them put up the basic structure and then gave Larry and his family lessons in how to put the steel on the roof and the steel on the sides and how to put in windows – so they could finish the building’s construction. Another friend, Terry Buttemeier, helped gather the materials and do design and construction work on the interior which has an Old West feel to it. Farmingisyourlivelihood,andit'sour businesstoprotectthat.

For100years,we'vemadeitourmissiontorestorelives,helprebuild neighborhoods,investincommunities,andsupporteducation andsafetyinitiativeswhereweliveandwork. It'swhatbeingagoodneighborisallabout.

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TyTeveldal, StateFarmAgent

3928 S Western Ave., Sioux Falls, SD

(49th St. and Western Ave.)

A worship service at The Cowboy Way. Note the interior walls modeled on an Old West town.

The altar area at The Cowboy Way. Senior Citizens Center. There were times when keeping their Wednesday night services going felt like they were swimming against the tide. However, at a funeral service led by Larry, there were so many people touched and crying – moved by his approach to the Gospel – it proved to be a tipping point for them to add Sunday services. The couple stays connected to Sioux Falls First Assembly of God Church and both were ordained by River of Life Revival Ministries, a national organization. But “Preacher Larry” isn’t a universitytrained theologian. “My feeling is everyone is supposed to be able to tell about the good Lord,” he said, perhaps reflecting his Lutheran upbringing on a farm near Canton. Martin Luther and John Calvin elaborated the “priesthood of all believers” concept based on 1 Peter 2:9 (“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”). This scripture is a prominent tenet in most Protestant Christian churches.

The parallel message that all believers are exhorted to be fishers of men (Mark 1:16-20 and Luke 5:1-11) is also reflected at The Cowboy Way where the opening song is always “Keep Your Lure in the Water” by Randy Travis. The chorus of the song reads:

Keep your lure in the water, don't just sit by the shore There are souls to be caught everywhere in this old world Go where hearts are plenty, don't just drift with the tide Keep your lure in the water, in the waters of life