Joshua Benton

Posting twice for some reason...

When I did evangelism in more urban areas, I noticed that many didn't always fill out the welcome cards. At one place, we doubled them as a prayer request card and had them place them in the offering plate. We had our congregational praye after the offering and prayed for those who gave permission to pray. This raised the number of those submitting but they were more members than visitors.

Another place had the cards to be filled out but had no one really set aside to follow up on them. I too noticed that people were more apt at filling out the card when asked personally by me.

One other item of note, being an experinced church shopper (while in college and seminary I tried finding a church to regularly attend) I hated filling out the forms because I'd sometimes be bombarded with mail, phone calls, and people visiting me after one or two visits. And when I didn't come then next time, they would call or visit and want to know why I didnt show up on Sunday. It drove me away more than it made me want to come. After a while, I stopped filling out anything.

Ken, Jeff Thank you

I've learned that when I go longer than 5 weeks I not only run out of material but I also lose people's attention. I've tried hard to keep them at a certain spacing and giving where I'm going. I did a three part series on Habakkuk last year and did a 5 part series on the book of Acts. I even try to break up the Catechism in the evening to 5 or so weeks. This Sumer I did do a series called favorite stories of Jesus and had the congregation give their favorite stories and then I picked the top 5 and did a series from those. That was fun. They also enjoyed the Favorite Stories of the Old Testament I did back in Janurary.

That brings another question: How often do you let the congregation pick sermons/sermon topics. I was a bit amazed at some of the suggestions people gave. It really showed their interst and pastoral needs.

Mark...

What I liked about doing sermons based upon the congregations suggestions is that I had a grade school boy suggest the beheading of John the Baptist. I jumped on that one and not only made a young kid happy but was told later that no one really had heard a sermon on that one before. It went really well.

Mike...

I'd like to clairify a bit about YFC method I've been using. The only method from them is merley the passing through and saying hi to everyone and remebering names. The rest of the YFC, I agree, doesn't fully work in rural areas. But the act of being very present and and visible in the community has been quite effective.

Some of the factors that are also in play are that of families, sports, and farming. Time and responsibilities are not placed around that of church or one's faith but seems to be based upon those three. Where in many urban and suburban areas, the problem with many is being disconected. I believe an area that is hard for many, as you so aptly pointed out, is the over connectedness of people. Dutch Bingo is in overdrive. We even found a connection between my wife and a member of our congregation.

Another issue that you pointed out is that change is seen with suspicion and is slow. That is change forward. Yet negative change has been fast and ignored. Business shrink, main street loses more shops, the church itself has grayer hair and fewer children in youth group, yet that isn't seen as bad yet changes made to move forward can be.

I too have to set aside my own "city slicker" idols but also must discern which are idols and which aren't.

Right now, I'm in the middle of a series called Welcome Back. Using the traditional passage from John where Jesus reinstates Peter. I'm using the idea that no matter how far away we go, God always welcomes us back. This Sunday I'm looking at how we can welcome back others in our lives, giving forgiveness and asking for forgiveness.

Come this Summer, I'll be switching gears and looking at the Parables in June and July and then in August I'll actually preach on Jonah, after seminary I don't think I ever would preach on Jonah since I took that class. But I'm looking forward to it now.

How're the sermons/sermon series coming along for you since the Lenten season ended?

Jeff..

I picked up a book just recently called Transforming church in Rural America by Shannon O'Dell.. haven't had a chance to read it just yet but I'm looking forward to it. I've added Pappas' book on my wishlist on Amazon.com. It sounds interesting. I'll try to repost here later after I read O'Dell's book. Thanks for the suggestion and adding to the conversation. I hope more people post discussions here on rural church ministry.

Kind of quick book review on Transforming Church in Rural America by Shannon O'Dell

The reason why I wanted to find a good book on rural ministry is that much of the advice I recieved from people was very unencouraging. Many people told me to just love them, get to know them, and visit the shut ins. That was it. Some even went so far as saying that I should just go there, wait a few years and then take a real church as my next charge. This did not satisfy me at all. To be honest, if I told someone that the best way to do ministry in urban chicago was to just love them, get to know them and visit the shutins, I'd be laughed at.

This is what the appeal was for O'Dell's Transforming Church in Rural America.

In his first chapter, he lays out the unwritten rules of rural ministry. These are that if you want a thriving ministry, go to major cities and suburban areas. If you want to be successful go to the city, rural churches get leadeship left overs, rural churches are where people go when they can't go anywhere else. He expresses the thought that many see rural areas as bakcwards, behind the times and not up to speed with the rest of the world.

He uses the illustration that when he accepted the call to a rural church at the exact same time a member of his large congregation had decided to go to rural Africa to do missoins work at an established mission. People raised a large sum of money for the missionary, put him on the prayer list and even had cards made out with his picture on it and where he was going. When O'Dell said he was going to rural america, to an established church in a town smaller than the one in rural Africa, he was laughed at.

O'Dell states that there is a vast untapped mission field in rural America

O'Dell lists a way to succeed in rural ministry using the acronym VALUE--Vission, Attitude, Leadership, Undestanding and Enduring Excellence. Much of what he suggests is very good and helpful. If we come into rural ministry with the idea to just love them, get to know them then the people will not grow in their faith and the lost will not be reached. He points out the fact that a church of 1,000 in a city of a million isn't being effective in ministry but a church of 300 in a town of 250 is reaching more percentage wise than a church in the city. O'Dell points out the fact that many people in rural communities have bought into the unwritten rules of rural ministry and only go after the leftovers not thinking they can do better. Instead, he encoruages rural ministry to show how they can be effective in their towns. There are many nonchurched, dechurched and nominal Christians in rural areas that are ignored because it is assumed there is no mission field in rural America.

Pros--O'Dell gives some good solid advice on how to do rural ministry effectively. He is very encoruaging in seeing the positive in the people and using people's business smarts towards church ministry. He also gives good suggestions in reaching out to those in rural areas.

Cons--He instructs the reader to get rid of all "sacred cows" of the church--pews dedicated to people dead over 50 years ago, programs that dont' work, etc. This can do more harm that good if it isn't done pastorally. He has the idea that you need to break a few eggs to make an omlette. He also has a top down leadership diagram where he chooses the leadership and not the church. This goes against Reformed church polity. The last two chapters read more like a brochure to join his satalite church minsitry rather than inspiring final words.

This was the only book I could find on Amazon.com that was about rural ministry in a serious way. Why is that?

Ken...

I appreciate your comment on my post. I think it is very important to understand the dire need for good solid ministry in rural churches. Though there are some failings with the book (as there will be with all books on ministry) I feel the pros out weigh the cons.

I think there needs to be more books about good quality rural ministry. Rural churches are in need of great financial support, great encouragement from other churches and should be treated as a missoin field. There is a great mission field out in rural America that is being passed over.

This, I think, is to all who might read this: How can you support rural ministry with the same fervor you support missoinaries both home and abroad?