Well-Being Australia chairman Mark Tronson, a Baptist minister, was introduced to the rodeo circuit 25 years ago, after pioneering the Sports and Leisure Ministry in association with Heads of Churches. Mark's role was to appoint chaplains into Australian professional sports as a support network for athletes.
Through his observations, Mark discovered that professional rodeo was a major cultural and social activity, well suited to the chaplaincy ministry. He felt that as a rough and dangerous sport, the professional rodeo circuit would benefit from the spiritual support his chaplaincy offered.
In 1984 Mark was ready to start negotiations with Rodeo Australia and he contacted John Skinner, CEO of the Australian Rough Riders Association (ARRA). The task was easier than he had anticipated, John Skinner, a committed evangelical Christian, welcomed the opportunity to explore the concept of a formal ministry in the rodeo arena.
At the time that Mark was organising a chaplaincy for the ARRA, it was in the throes of restructuring from a semi-professional sport which had attempted to cater for both amateur and professional events, to a fully professional, sponsored organisation.
John Skinner invited Mark Tronson to his home to brief him on the history of the Christian movement in rodeo Australia. A few years earlier a group of professional rodeo contestants from the United States made a pilgrimage to Australia to compete on the professional circuit and hold revivalist meetings between events. Their goal was to bring Christianity onto the rodeo scene. They held bible studies, sang songs and organised gatherings.
The American's succeeded in their quests and within 3 years one-third of the people on the ARRA professional rodeo circuit had become active followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. The American frontier model of revivalism had struck a chord, especially as these evangelists were talented and respected 'rodeo contenders', the classic 'worker pastor'.
Mark was privileged to attend several of these meetings, which sometimes included full immersion baptisms in motel swimming pools. Having been brought up as a country kid, he was even comfortable with the rodeo jargon.
John Skinner then invited Mark Tronson to an ARRA national board meeting and he was given a short time to detail to the rodeo family the practical and positive aspects of the type of chaplaincy ministry these rodeo evangelists provided.
He saw no reason to change the system that was obviously already working and he invited many Christian rodeo members to the Sports and Leisure Ministry's annual conferences. They were provided with numerous opportunities to present seminars and workshops on their ministry.
The Christian frontier of ministry in the professional rodeo scene continues to this day with its wonderful spirit of adventurism. These evangelist pastors 'tell it like it is', spelling out the disastrous course of following a life of sin and debauchery and providing an alternative; the challenging and disciplined life as a follower of Jesus Christ.