FOLLOWER OF CHRIST FROM THE RANCH TO THE PULPIT BY JULIE CARTER
~ His quiet demeanor and soft-spoken words relay the heart of a man who has found his identity not in what he does, but what he is divinely called to do.
Owen Young, 51, is a ranch manager and has been a cowboy all his life. He grew up on a multi-generation ranch about 30 miles south of Hachita, New Mexico. If you check your map, that’s close to the Mexican border down in the boot heel part of the state. From there he worked on ranches all over the state until finally settling in as manager on the Ruby Ranch just north of Las Vegas. Along that route he met and married Kamee Wolf Young, and together they raised a son Kade and daughter Kayla. Kade did a four-year stint in the Marine Corps and is now married and a Santa Fe County firefighter. Kayla just earned her Bachelor’s Degree in graphic design and while finding work in that field, she seeks adventures in a bigger world where she’s traveled often through ministry trips. Owen’s story is that God “back-doored” him into preaching and the ministry. “When I was in high school, if there was an assignment that required getting up and talking in front of people, I’d just take a zero,” he said. There was nothing whatsoever in him at that time that suggested he would one day be the spiritual leader and voice for a 50-60 member church.
The road was slow. As a child, it was his mother’s influence that brought Christ to life. Later, as a church member and deacon, his involvement in his church opened other doors. When they moved to Las Vegas in 1992, Owen and Kamee began attending Calvary Baptist church and he became a deacon. He was asked to fill in at the pulpit from time to time and led to more sermons in other churches in the district as a “supply preacher.” Seeing a need among the ranch families that he worked with and around, Owen started a Thursday night Bible study and worship service at the ranch. That quickly grew to 20 or so weekly participants and through prayer God worked mightily among them. He was ordained by the Calvary Baptist Church in 2004. Owen saw God moving him forward in spite of himself. “I said then, I don’t mind preaching, but I’ll never pastor a church.” And of course, that is exactly what happened. He had served as an interim pastor in Mora for a year, but he went in knowing and declaring that to be temporary, even putting a one-year deadline on the position. When Owen was asked to sit in on a business 32
