What is centershot?
In a nutshell, the ministry we would like to start in Montezuma County is an archery club with a ministry purpose, pulling together families for family time and rallying the youth towards Christ, all through the modern bow. The video below demonstrates this through the message Centershot’s “Lifebow” can send.
Announcement: Will be looking into starting Fall 2023
What would be the Mission?
As with all athletics, the objective is discipline, fair play, focus, fun, and the fellowship of being a team, but the ultimate mission it to bring as many as we can to Christ and to have fun doing it. As with all of Longhaul Christian’s ministries, fellowship is as much key to the body of Christ as all of Jesus Christ’s teachings.
Philosophy & Style of Play
The philosophy is to bring together families and friends, fellowships, to shoot and to have fun while also coming together to study God’s Word. Nobody is required to compete. Nobody is even required to own their own bow.
At first, this will be outdoor shooting since Longhaul Christian does not yet have a building to support an indoor shooting range. The required gear for a proper shooting range, however, is transportable. Either way, everyone takes turns at different distance marks, getting in their shots at each event, followed by a rest period and Bible study and then more practice. NO BOW IS REQUIRED. Centershot’s program comes with bows that would be shared during sessions. Their suggested yearly fee for participants is $50 per person. Donations could offset this for those families that cannot afford the $50. IRS regulations prohibit a sliding scale model.
We would hold sessions of no more than 12 students (children and adults) at a time until such time as it is necessary to grow, estimated to be above 50 participants total or more than 4 teams of 12. After that, we would be able to expand the range and increase the number of bows available to shoot with.
“Couldn’t we just do this ourselves?”
Absolutely. But why spend on doing this alone when we could all support each other? Monte is willing to do all of the administrative work and teaching work to make this ministry happen. It is all down to whether or not the community would support it. How about you?
How did we come up with this?
Monte Pescador, the founder of Dirt ‘N’ Nails Farms Inc., spent a semester working at Dolores Elementary School when a 5th grade archery team, for the first time in their four year existence, placed and won in the state competition and were sent to nationals in the NASP (National Archery in Schools Program), a sister program to Centershot. When Monte went to look up bows for his family to use as a family hobby, he found Centershot. Being one who does not back down when God shows him something that is needed, Monte immediately jumped from archery being a family hobby to archery being a ministry needed in Montezuma County to bring families and fellowships together.
The property at 6835 Road 25 in Cortez has long been known to first be a construction company shop and then a preschool. The large outside space is big enough to set up a shooting range to start off this ministry, but the “shop” is being divided up into office space and living space without enough room to add an indoor shooting range. He hopes to eventually be able to find and afford land more central in the county to set up shop, and at that point will consider building an indoor shooting range for this ministry.