Christian country music singer Susie Luchsinger isn’t sure exactly how long she’s been coming to the tiny Central Oregon village of Antelope for an annual summer concert, but she can make a guesstimate using a pretty good frame of reference.

“Our 18-year-old boy was pretty small and he was running through the church yard one of the first times I was there,” Luchsinger said in a telephone interview from her home outside Atoka, Okla. “He clothes-lined himself on the little rail that people use to walk up the walk, and he was probably 4, maybe, and now he’s 18. So I’d say 14 or 15 years.”

On Sunday, she’ll return to Antelope to perform at the Antelope Community Church (see “If You Go”).

The concert is a major outreach function for the church, usually drawing between 1,000 and 1,500 people. Folks come from all over to hear Luchsinger sing her gospel country tunes and share her Christian testimony.

It’s a show she’s been honing for years. Luchsinger grew up in Oklahoma singing with her brother Pake and her sister, who just happens to be country music superstar Reba McEntire. The kids started out singing at rodeos, which were a big deal in the McEntire family.

“My grand-pap was a rodeo cowboy. My daddy (was, too). And then we started singing as a family, and we just went from there,” Luchsinger said in her dulcet country accent. “That was the springboard for it.”

Today, the rodeo is still part of Luchsinger’s ministry field. Many of her gigs are so-called “cowboy church” services, where rodeo attendees can get their fill of Sunday-morning worship even though they’re away from their home church. For the Antelope concert, Luchsinger is bringing a crew from the Rural Free Delivery TV network — it’s a hit with farmers and ranchers — to film footage for a show called “Cowboy Church,” which will premiere in September, she said.

The Antelope event isn’t a cowboy church service, but more of a traditional show in which Luchsinger performs songs from her award-winning catalog of faith-focused country music. You can hear samples of her songs at www.susieluchsinger.com.

And, of course, Luchsinger talks about her Christian walk between songs.

“You can sing a song but unless it means something to you personally, it really doesn’t hit home with people,” she said. “It causes them to think about the meaning of the song and I think they’ll get more out of it if they can get a word picture of what it means with me.”

And lest you think this gig in little ol’ Antelope is just a stopover for Luchsinger on the way to more important dates, here’s a word picture of what it’s meant to her over the last however many years: “I love the people and the scenery and the miracle of people coming. I think it’s an awesome thing that they’ll come all that way … to listen to a concert like that.

“It’s probably the most awesome concert that I do every year — that I enjoy the most,” she said. “I look forward to it. I really do.”

IF YOU GO

What: Susie Luchsinger, with opening act The Mud Springs Gospel Band

When: 4 p.m. Sunday

Where: Antelope Community Church, Antelope. To get there, take U.S. Highway 97 about 17 miles north of Madras, then head east on state Highway 293 until you reach Antelope.

Cost: Free. Bring a lawn chair. Refreshments will be available from the Juniper Berry 4-H Club.

Contact: 395-2507