EmergingRural

I think Mr. Duke is right. Nearly 90% of American churches are average less than 100 members each Sunday and many of those are in rural settings, especially here in North Carolina. And yet for as many as they are rural churches throughout America have this nagging suspicion that they are forgotten and inconsequential. They feel like they are the last one picked for dodge ball or the youngest child in a family of bigger, more successful siblings. They feel this way, perhaps, because for far too long they have been told that such was their identity. They have been led to believe that the real action is in the cultural centers, the cities and college towns, and that their pulpits were but brief pit stops for up-and-coming pastors who aspire to move on to bigger and supposedly better things. Yet, James Duke calls the rural church the “bone and sinew” of our country. Interesting.

I think it is time for rural churches to rediscover their identity. I am hopeful that this is happening even now as I type this. I am proud to be part of a Divinity School here at Duke that recognizes the importance of the rural church and has set up a very large endowment to train talented and visionary pastors who feel a call to equip rural churches. These pastors upon graduation from Duke will move into rural communities for a minimum of seven years to help them revision life for themselves as the bone and sinew of this country. James Duke would light another cigar in honor of this move, I think.

Many other happenings are occuring to help the rural church grow, but allow me to plug just one other that I feel is going to have a great impact. EmergingRural is a website that has been launced by Luke Geraty and some other pastors in rural settings who sense that rural churches, like urban churches, are becoming increasingly unsatisfied with the status-quo ways of “doing church” and long for authenticity and relevance. This website, which you can find HERE, is an attempt to begin the emerging conversation among rural pastors and rural church leaders so that we might all learn from one another and grow together. I am hopeful that through these conversations we might make some great strides in establishing an identity among rural churches that emphasizes their strengths and advantages as well as their unique position for transformative worship and spiritual growth. In short, I pray that rural churches rejoice together as the bone and sinew of this country adding flesh to the faith of us all.

Please drop by and visit emergingrural.com and tell your friends about it. And above all, please keep the thousands of rural churches and their pastors in your prayers.

grace and peace.