Steven Schenewerk is pastor of Winston’s Community Baptist Church in Winston, Oregon. He blogs at WCBCpastor’s Blog.
I have seen countless articles encouraging young adults to consider serving urban poor populations. That is wonderful. But what I haven’t seen are many articles or encouragements for young adults to consider serving rural poor. Serving in a rural, poor community certainly is not glamorous and it is certainly not economically advantageous. However, there are several reasons I believe we need to encourage young college and seminary students to consider serving in rural communities.
First, opportunities abound. In the small Southern Baptist association that my church participates in there are fewer than a dozen churches. Currently only three of the churches have full-time pastors. The other churches are limping along with weekend warrior pastors (those who live in another community but spend the weekend in the community of the church they are serving), or closing their doors, or drifting without any true sense of leadership and purpose. Pastors are needed!
Second, serving churches in smaller communities immediately enriches cross-denominational fellowship. Some of my closest friends are pastors serving in different denominations. A group of us meet every week for support, discussion, prayer and the best $3.50 breakfast in town! These friendships have challenged me theologically and spiritually enriched me.
Third, rural communities are ripe with leadership opportunities. One of the factors impacting my particular community is the rapidly increasing number of young adults moving away. While many urban centers are experiencing economic growth, southern Oregon is lagging behind in economic growth. The absence of these younger families has created a vacuum of leadership that is begging to be filled. There are some younger families stepping up, but many opportunities are still available. (Even an older pastor such as I has more opportunities than I can manage possibly fill).
Fourth, there are people dying without having heard the gospel. 30 years ago when I started pastoring most families owned at least one Bible. Today, in my community, I find fewer families that own Bibles and fewer individuals that have ever read one! While our church is not ‘setting the world on fire’ by baptizing hundreds, we do see meaningful adult conversions every year that result in transformed lives and we see children impacted by the gospel!
May God raise up a generation of pastors and leaders who see the need not just in the city but in the country as well!
Beautiful. Thank you.
Randal, it is great to hear from you. Dean
Thanks, Dean. Blessings to you.
People look down on the urban poor, but there is one group of people in the States that are looked down upon more: the rural poor. This is true especially in the South. My redneck, mobile home brethren are the butt of all manner of derisive jokes. It’s a good thing they have a good sense of humor about themselves lest they be offended because even the poorest ones are still armed. My dad worked for years as a orthopedic PA. He and the doctor he worked with had a weekly free clinic in a nearby rural area. Many of… Read more »
Jim, You are so right. Our church serves the Urban poor in Nashville out of a couple of locations, and you need only drive 30 miles to get to the rural poor from there. It doesn’t take long to hit both in our area.
Being from West Texas,…the rural communities are completely different. More farming, etc., but have the same need for effective and timely discipleship to all ages. I thank God for the men and women that make it their ministry to actively seek and supply loving assistance to those very small and spread out communities.
I had a conversation with someone I met from VA (I’m in OK), a pastor, who told me they were from a small town. “How small?” I asked. “Oh, real small, like 20,000” I just laughed and said “Brother I have some places to take you!” I too weary of the way the rural poor are spoken of, and forgotten about. They are much harder to reach in some ways, and there is fewer of them than in cities so the return is as spectacular. But I wish people, our own denominational entities included, would put more effort towards promoting… Read more »
I bet you can give me a run for my money in small towns…
But this is dead on, overall. And there’s no flash-in-the-pan or fireworks for the rural places. These folks have often been doing the same job for a couple of generations, so the latest and greatest stunts don’t impress them. Neither do pastors who are in and out in 3 years or less.
Best thing I’ve read in a long time.
Being totally honest, this is my favorite blog on this site.
(Besides those written by Dave Miller–I know you meant to say that!!)
Thanks Steven. As a Gideon, I sometimes give presentations in very small churches in rural counties east of Cincinnati. (Two churches had no indoor plumbing! There is a thing out back if you need it… badly.) These small churches are often more supportive of the ministry (per attendee) than some (not all) big city churches, who are very protective of everything that occurs “on the stage” Sunday mornings. Very few of these lay-pastors/elders could be “accused of being in it for the money.” It is refreshing to visit these folks who are running their races in obscure places. They will… Read more »
Another one of those times that I say “Gee I wish I had said that”. You have identified one of the greatest failings of modern Christendom.
I don’t know how rural the writer is talking about in this post. There are the rural folks that somewhat live fairly close to one another and there are the folks that think rural is a result of over population and the rural areas are too crowded for them. These are the folks that live in the remote areas. Folks that go to the river and catch their Sunday dinner before church. Even the pastors that have a church in the more populated areas shy away from these folks. In a lot of churches where I’m from a pastor better… Read more »
I would like to add one more thing. A coon hunting buddy of mine got into trouble back in the mountains. He got his first computer at age 70. The FBI came and knocked down his door, my buddy got arrested. He said he don’t know why they treated him so badly, all he done was joined some club called is is. The only clubs he knew that existed were coon hunting clubs.
So, as I said before, it depends on how rural you want to go.
Jess, your comment made me think of the following story. I may not remember it exactly, but this is pretty close. A local humorist and lawyer Bob Murphey observed that rural is a relative thing. He told a story of being called upon to repossess a piece of furniture. He drove out of town into the country. He pulled up in an opening on the side of the road and then followed a small trail into the woods to get to the house. After several hundred yards, he found a rope to swing across the creek that ran in front… Read more »
Robert, That is funny! More truth in it than you might think.
Good and interesting thoughts, Bro. Schenewerk.
I am curious about this part, though: “serving churches in smaller communities immediately enriches cross-denominational fellowship.” Apart from any discussion of cross-denominational fellowship itself, I would say that the rural areas I’ve served would not facilitate such. We were so rural that the church I served was the only church in the community. There were no churches of other denominations.
I come to this conversation a bit late, I’m afraid. Steve, my friend, you hit on some great points here! We hear much about ministry in the cities, and rightly so. The great population centers of our world must be reached. Something I have seen, though, is a tendency to ignore the rural areas. Those are the places I have found my sense of purpose and my “fit” for ministry. I love serving in a rural community. I enjoy the bi-vocational approach to ministry. A pastor of a large church told me recently, “I envy you. I’m living out a… Read more »
Dale
You are right. We must evangelize the cities, but not at the expense of the rural areas. The Great Commission doe not give us the option of choosing one or the other. Every man has the right to hear the Gospel. We have the responsibility to reach every man urban and rural.
Might I add this is why the CP is so important. Smaller rural churches need the State Conventions and Associations. They need the revitalization efforts that the bigger urban churches may not. Rural churches also need to be able to cooperate to give to missions. A small country church may not be able to afford to support an international missionary by themselves but together with the CP they can be a part of sending missionaries all over the world. This is why I would plead with pastors and churches looking to bypass the CP to not do it. Your larger… Read more »
I agree in principle with all that; however, I would ask what the CP does for rural churches aside from providing an avenue for international missions participation and support. Most of my pastoral ministry was with average sized, rural churches. The CP was an invaluable help in a few specific areas on infrequent occasions but most of the direct contact was through the association which receives no CP money. Some states have centralized revitalization programs but the most effective I see come through the association. The record of successful state conv revitalization programs is not good, best I can see.… Read more »
My perspective is not of the legacy states. I do know that the GCR was a one size fits all solution that has about destroyed the cooperative work in our state. Another issue is that many churches do not know what the state conventions do. However, if you will check the state conventions can be extremely invaluable to a small or even midsize church.
William T
You make some very salient points here with which i agree.
I would add however, if all that the CP did for rural churches was to provide an avenue for missions involvement, I would say that that is well worth the existence of the CP.
I agree with D. L. The CP does provide a way for my small church to participate in something much larger than itself. The same goes for our participation in the mission offerings. Our church is one of those that is recognized in the top percentage for per capita giving to the LMCO. I’m glad for that, and our people are encouraged to know it. Our gifts to the CP may not be huge, and they may do nothing of “material” value for us, but our giving to the CP makes a difference to us.
Just out of curiosity, what options does a small, rural church have for obtaining CP assistance for projects, or for helping members be involved in projects? Maybe this could be an article of itself. Not being in a small rural church, I don’t know. I know my church gives to the CP, but we don’t take anything from the CP as a church. Nevertheless, I know people who attend small, rural SBC churches in the area. I’m sure they probably know how it works and see the benefit of it, but maybe they don’t. Can someone take my understanding from… Read more »
If they will contact the state convention, most convention leaders will be happy to help in any way they can. The state conventions can help the churches with discipleship training, sunday school teacher training, student ministry training, ministry outreach events, and a host of other things. The state convention can be a small church’s best friend. This is the CP dollars being put to direct use in the community. For example, maybe your church wants to have a wild game dinner for men’s ministry. Many state conventions have plans in place to help this in a great way. They can… Read more »
Thanks. That info could come in handy in the future.