If you would like to purchase the book, you can do so at this website here.

The author also provided a discount code for 30% off for purchasing through that link, which is RLFANDF30

If you want to reach out to the author for encouragement or to connect about the book or your story, you can reach him at astanton@ozarks.edu

The post Rural Resource: Reclaiming Rural with Allen Stanton Part 1 appeared first on Rural Advancement.

As always, if you would like to reach out to the show for encouragement or feedback, reach out to Joe Epley at Joseph.g.epley@gmail.com.

The post Authenticity in Relationships with Tony Searles appeared first on Rural Advancement.

As always, if you want to reach the show with encouragement, feedback, or ideas contact our host Joe Epley at Joseph.g.epley@gmail.com

You can purchase Church Out Here at this link: Church Out Here

As well as check out all resources from the Rural Church Voices group at their website www.ruralchurchvoices.com

The post Rural Resource: Church Out Here Part 2 with Will Basham and Sam Byers appeared first on Rural Advancement.

If you ever want to contact pastor Jeff, he can be reached at Kapklan@gondtc.com.

If you want to reach out to the show for feedback, ideas, or encouragement, contact our host Joe Epley at joseph.g.epley@gmail.com

The post Small Town Resistance, the Power of a Funeral, and Successful Longevity with Jeff Kapelle appeared first on Rural Advancement.

If you have any questions about Rural Advancement, want to connect for an interview, or would like more info on a topic, please reach out to our host at joseph.g.epley@gmail.com

Here’s a link to the book referenced in today’s episode:

The Celtic Way of Evangelism: How Christianity Can Reach the West…Again by George G. Hunter III

The post The Rural Church in History: Celtic Christianity appeared first on Rural Advancement.

www.trinitybiblecollege.edu

The post Discipleship Part 3: Lessons on Community with Neil Oravsky appeared first on Rural Advancement.

The story of Gideon should not have ended in victory! History belongs to those who raise mighty armies and crush the enemy through superior strategy and overwhelming force. It belongs to Roman legions or Mongol hordes of countless seasoned veterans fighting for their glorious causes. The biblical retelling of Gideon’s story defied these realities. Instead, 32,000 troops became 300, and swords remained sheathed as ram’s horns, clay pots, and torches morphed into instruments of war that crushed the Midianites in a decisive blow. In the end, the only sword raised was that of each opposing soldier against his own neighbor. The hero of the story, emerging victorious from the battle was not Gideon, but the God who used such underwhelming force and unconventional strategy to win the day for his people.

I recently spoke with pastor Dwight Dozier, a 45-year veteran of pastoral ministry, who served for 20 years in Great Bend, Kansas. It took barely twenty seconds for his passion for making disciples and empowering local churches to bring fresh ministry inspiration. Over the course of his tenure in Great Bend and in the state of Kansas in general, his church has exhausted the definition of what it means to build the church. In the beginning, it resembled financial aid to struggling churches, or helping with building projects and material resources in neighboring churches and communities. As assistance progressed, the financial support continued, but scores of people acting as the hands and feet of Jesus in several counties in the heart of rural Kansas took center stage.

The wave of church planters and ministry teams began when a deacon turned vocational pastor, gave up a good-paying job and committed to a twelve-month internship designed to prepare him for pastoral ministry. Church leaders surrounded him and embraced the goal to equip him to minister effectively and love the community well. Fifteen have passed since the pastor’s initial installment, and the church he pastors continues to thrive. In a church where closure seemed imminent and lacking leadership, one disciple of Christ has now produced many.

Thirty miles away from Great Bend lies another small community of Ness City, with a story that continues the grace of the Lord. In this particular town, a church struggled with a retiring pastor, under ten active members, and a tired building. Simultaneously in Great Bend, a missionary couple returned from the foreign field and embraced a pastoral call from God to plant churches, starting with loving this neighboring community of Ness City. Through a replant and partnership with the church in Great Bend, the church in Ness City today defies the darker chapters of its history and has found growth and new life under the faithful leadership of ministers who chose to be disciples first and leaders second. Neighboring rural communities, La Crosse and Sterling, both follow similar trajectories as healthy disciples begin forming healthy communities of faith.

As we spoke of the work the Lord accomplished through Dozer’s church, we discussed keys that helped accomplish all of this growth. In the next 20 minutes, Dozer expounded on the subject of discipleship in his church. The most impressive point in the conversation, Dozer never addressed the commonly held points of trendy discipleship literature. His discipleship methods held no secret recipe, or five step formula, or even a particularly innovative model that could revolutionize the Gospel as we know it. Instead, I heard an honest heart for discipleship. Not discipleship with good intentions, or a great slogan, or a theologically complex vision statement, but instead, the kind of discipleship that honed belief, fostered community, and inspired action.

Replace the ram’s horns, clay pots, and torches of Gideon with nine months of weekly meetings, accountability partners, and biblical devotions. Imagine a group of people trained to believe in Jesus, develop that belief, and serve their church and community. Picture coffee and conversation as the means that the mundane areas of life become imbued with God’s grace and redeeming power. Now replace Israel’s 32,000 troops with just over 300 men and women who have experienced intentional discipleship over the course of the last decade, and suddenly the victory makes sense. Rural communities touched by Jesus in real and long-lasting ways, and just as in the story of Gideon, God receives all the glory.

Throughout the interview, lessons from Great Bend, Kansas emerged that can serve as guideposts for ministers looking to build the kingdom of God in their rural communities. 

1) Disciple Intentionally, not Organically

Small towns tend to function as informal places, to the extent where it can seem natural to believe that proximity and good intentions provide enough relational growth to create mature disciples. However, Dozer spoke of spending the majority of his ministry missing out on the fruits of true discipleship because he expected it to occur naturally. Instead, he encourages leaders to assume that without intentional directed effort on the part of the leader, discipleship will not take root in a meaningful and consistent way.

2) Raise the Bar

Investments count, as simple as it sounds the old saying rings true in discipleship, “You get what you pay for.” People tend to rise to the level of expectations of discipleship. Whatever the discipleship method, it should require real investment from those discipled, whether in the form of monetary or time commitments. Pastors should expect things like daily devotions, scripture memorization, and the practice of serving inside and outside the church as normal discipleship expressions. In raising the bar, discipleship achieves the normative expectation of transforming the human heart to resemble Jesus.

3) Quit Quitting on Accountability

If someone recorded the launch of every meaningful discipleship program, they would possibly fill a library’s worth of books available for the church; however, stories written for those who followed through with discipleship programs would hardly fill a bookshelf. Whether the pastor needs accountability to follow through with discipleship commitments, or the people need accountability on their discipleship journey, if no one “checks in,” discipleship will eventually cease.

Given the opportunity to charge into battle, one would not pick ram’s horns, clay pots, or torches. They seem like tools that would certainly not accomplish the task. Most would also take all the help available instead of turning away 31,700 people. However, God tends to use common and even ordinary items and people to great effect. Discipleship reflects many similarities as the steady march of Christian people walking with their God, increase in Christlikeness, and affect the world around them. Discipleship occurs during coffee and meals, Bible studies and a devotional life reflecting authentic and accountable communities. Ultimately, it demonstrates a call to recapture the methods and rekindle the passions of the master teacher, Jesus of Nazareth, for the sake of reaching the world with His message.

Discipleship at Encounter Church in Great Bend, Kansas brings a community closer to the Savior that stretches to surrounding communities. Like Gideon, the church of Jesus tends to win great spiritual victories as it follows simple but profound practices that impact far beyond the boundaries of the local church and community.

The post Discipleship, Gideon, and a Rural Kansas Church appeared first on Rural Advancement.

Read the full Academic Article here

Abstract

Varying church models exist throughout the Christian church context. A multisite church model is one that has garnered attention over the past several years. There have been multiple pieces of literature written from both positive and negative perspectives. Within the framework of this thesis I examine multisite literature with particular attention given to the rural context.

This work highlights rural church practice within the community. This thesis evaluates the possibilities of a multisite church model and the possible solutions it may provide to a rural church community and those who minister within them. This work considers the declining health of some of the rural churches and their communities. A multisite church model may provide solutions for a rural church and pastor. The literature review of a multisite church model and a rural ministry context provide insights into the consideration of a multisite church within a rural community that could be helpful to rural ministers.

The genre of literature is reflected in the bibliography and footnotes. The total word count of 15,668 (excluding footnotes and bibliography), does reflect the engagement of literature in both a multisite and rural ministry context.

Read the Academic Article here

The post A Multisite Church Model in the Rural Context appeared first on Rural Advancement.

I love rural churches and the calling of rural pastors. The redemptive communities they lead often set standards of faith and provide numerous elements of encouragement and hope for the community. The rural and smaller churches often times face challenges of available resources, trained leadership, or even the availability for attending various training opportunities in light of the necessity of bi-vocational career requirements, family necessities, and church budgets.

For fifteen years, I have preached weekly in different ministry settings ranging from small rural churches, to multicultural urban churches, to services abroad with multiple translations. Over the course of the journey I gained a few insights into how churches function—both in flourishing settings and overlooked aspects of ministry. These experiences and perspectives reveal a few key points that may benefit local churches and fill voids. This motivated me to write a book to address these and other areas dealing with the first impressions a first-time guest receives when visiting your church. This book, Setting the Atmosphere for the Day of Worship, encourages excellence in everything, so all who are open to the Lord’s work in their lives can sense His magnificent, tangible presence. Few resources address practical matters for rural ministry, especially pertaining to the practical elements so the following paragraphs will highlight a sampling of areas where churches should work for effective engagement.

Making Guests Feel Welcome

Welcoming and convenient facilities should mark the guest’s first impression of the outside and inside atmosphere. Searching for a spiritually fitting home, potential members consider details such as parking, signage, physical accommodations, and the flow of services. After serving in multiple churches, I noticed churches seem to struggle with key details. Remember, a church is always communicating a message, thought, or idea with or without the church’s knowledge. When the church communicates a message founded in love and excellence, guests see the love and care of Christ more than the accommodations and great signage; visitors notice practical things.

“Finding a way to reach your audience and knowing your audience is imperative to growing a healthy church, mentoring, and discipling God’s people.”

– Girdler, Setting the Atmosphere for the Day of Worship 

First time guests interpret church differently than the local church family. Usually, the church guest, the first-time attender, or the well-meaning searcher looking for a church home finds the weaknesses and observes “the little things” that are not so little. These areas become deciding factors for guests return visits or further consider of the church as a viable and spiritually fitting home for their family. Guests determine within the first 2 to 8 minutes whether they will return. That indicates that the church has less than 10 minutes to show them warm hospitality.  If guests arrive 15 minutes prior to the service, they likely decided about returning prior to the first song and prior to the first word of the message.

Communicate Clearly

Be prepared to explain everything you do and the reason(s) you do it (the what and the why) each week. Expect guests and prepare for them, which includes preparing the regular congregation for the weekly explanations that many find redundant or unnecessary. Keep in mind what the first-time guests need to hear this explained. Have the congregation become accustomed to repeated explanations so guest have the privilege of comfortable assimilation.

“I made a conscious effort that anytime one of our services included anything [anyone] would be curious about I comfortably went to the pulpit and read God’s Word on the subject matter.”

– Girdler, Setting the Atmosphere for the Day of Worship

Guest often having questions about the accepted forms in the practice of communion. Some guests grew up in denominational settings that served “closed communion,” which required membership in that particular understanding of church to participate in their communion service. (Closed communion is not my theological stance nor my personal preference. I want to welcome all of Christ’s family.) However, leaders need to keep in mind that guests come from varying ecclesiastical backgrounds and they need to know and understand your process: “Am I allowed to participate?” “When should I eat the bread and drink the juice?” “How will communion be served?” “What are acceptable standards?” As respectful guest, they do not want to do anything out of order or embarrassing. So, help them know acceptable practices.

Love the Whole Community

The church can use many ways to demonstrate Christ’s love to the community. Special needs ministries often remain one of the least developed and yet most remarkable ministry opportunities churches that desire to make a difference in their community. Many within traveling distance of your church face the unique challenges of special needs, and few churches offer any ministry, welcome, or lend a hand for their needs. It may take training and a high level of commitment, but recognize what you can and should provide care for this beautiful segment of society who cannot attend church, do not attend church, or do not feel welcomed in church. Adjust the width of the church hallways, doorways, bathrooms, and sidewalks for handicap accessibility, which makes a difference and says, “We care.”

Jesus came to earth for three reasons. One reason, Jesus demonstrated the nature of the Father and debunked misconceptions of God. A second reason, Jesus taught how to love people. A third reason, Jesus became our substitute for sin, so that all who come to Him can receive His gift of salvation. His ministry showed truth and grace and met people in their circumstances. He challenged them to change from the inside out, to draw closer to Him, while learning how to love people! Is your church atmosphere sending that message? Remember, the local church lives to glorify God and to touch the community. So, every church must evaluate their vision, mission, cultural intelligence, demographic, and community love language. Your church can begin to set the tone on Sundays, which leads the church to correct the atmosphere for the desired message you send to guests.

“Too many churches and leaders depend on talent and forget the power of prayer.”

– Girdler, Setting the Atmosphere for the Day of Worship

Nothing can work up, sing up, and shout up, or raise up the presence of God. Scripture teaches He is powerful, sovereign, and, genuinely interested in the eternal and the everyday aspects of every individual on earth. The Bible says He inhabits the praises of His people (Ps. 22:3). This essential matter, His presence, becomes evident to all who worship, seek, or even casually observe as first-time guests. The importance of the Church is not derived from what we do as leaders, our projects, or our strategies. We discover the importance of the Church in God doing His work in our lives and in the lives and hearts of all who attend for worship. Understanding that primary principle should cause leaders to offer our best for the Lord. The goal of excellence should glorify the Lord and His magnificent presence tangibly sensed and received by all open to His work.

I encourage every pastor to set the atmosphere for day of worship. You, the church family, and all the guests will be glad you did.

Purchase Joseph Girdler’s full book here, “Setting the Atmosphere for the Day of Worship” on Amazon.

The post Setting the Atmosphere for the Day of Worship appeared first on Rural Advancement.

Small towns are a lot like cars. When maintained properly, they can last for years. The trick with cars is to give proper attention to each moving part at the right time. It is to see the needs of the vehicle and be proactive in meeting those needs. It is also important to make sure too much attention is not given to one area over another. To give you a mental picture, imagine pouring engine oil into the car until it overflows into a puddle on the floor, ignoring a flat tire while oil cascades down the driveway, wasted.

Like cars, small towns are made up of dozens of moving parts. Local businesses, non-profits, community recreational entities, and school systems all operate and overlap simultaneously. In the midst of this complex web of community elements, we find rural churches and rural youth ministries, which can often feel overwhelmed or unsure of how to best impact students. In this part of our rural youth ministry series, I want to address how to properly care for our small towns, how to look at the whole picture of our various rural communities and find which spot needs attention. In doing so, I hope our youth ministries can succeed in reaching students by meeting real needs in their communities.

If you fit the profile of most rural volunteers or paid youth staff I have met, you frequently juggle several obligations, family needs, jobs, titles, roles, and functions within your small town. You may find yourself having limited nights to spend doing youth ministry while you are busy working with the PTA, or sitting on local boards, or doing half a dozen other tasks that are integral to small town life. Upon moving to my small community of 1,700 people, I distinctly remember wondering how I was going to handle having so much extra time on my hands. Not long after that, I unintentionally found myself with more to do than I could have imagined and had little time to spare.

In the midst of this rural hustle and bustle, one question then becomes paramount: How do we best reach the students of our community? There are often not enough resources to spare to allow the task to be done inefficiently, and not enough energy to justify trying every new strategy or doing endless events in an attempt to reach people. In addition to this strain on resources, it can be incredibly overwhelming to contemplate doing more, leading to a bit of resignation as we wrestle with our limitations or abilities to minister to students. Another common temptation is to settle for “good enough”, and while we may be accomplishing something, we can often miss out on greater impact.

In the interest of keeping things practical, I want to focus on a few principles of car maintenance that will also keep our ministries running well, and will help us be a working and contributing part of our greater community.

1) Do some scheduled maintenance.

We know that cars require scheduled maintenance (regular oil checks, tire checks, and certain parts that need replaced every 50,000 miles or so), and sudden maintenance, which arises when something breaks. While both are important, for the sake of planning, it is easier to focus on scheduled maintenance than it is to predict problems.

That said, I think many of us need to analyze our small town. Let’s look at the whole picture, and figure out which part needs more attention. Often, small towns are doing many things exceptionally well, and as “part of the team”, we have the opportunity to find areas people are not already taking care of. You may find that sports programs and local scout troops are handling after school activities pretty well. You may discover that your town’s businesses have partnered to handle homecoming week at the high school. You may notice that the schools and a few non-profits are working quietly in the background to produce scholarships for students.

In the course of your analysis, you may also find that no one is partnering with the school on an after-prom party for students, or that no one is helping teens and families with basic needs. You might discover that many students need tutoring and there is no one around to provide a consistent service. You may learn that there is a shortage of substitute teachers that are able to personally step in and help address this need. Getting the whole picture of our town helps us see gaps. These gaps become tangible ways we can meet needs in our communities, which then become opportunities to reach students with the gospel.

2) Figure out what needs the most attention.

We hope this is never the case, but sometimes cars have multiple needs, with multiple lights flashing on the dash highlighting areas of need. Sometimes, it is best to figure out what needs the most attention and do that first. In the same way, after we have identified needs in our community, we begin the process of figuring out which one is the most important for us and our youth ministry to tackle. Jesus had a knack for this. He lived His life with an awareness of the big picture of humanity’s greatest needs, but frequently moved from town to town and person to person by listening to the Father’s specific leading. Mark 1:35-39 describes one such moment where Jesus withdrew, prayed, and followed God’s leading in how to best meet the needs around Him and fulfill God’s will for His life. In the same way, we must become intimately acquainted with prayer in order to clearly see how to proceed.

3) Get the job done!

Once we have a clear understanding of an issue, and a specific direction on what area to tackle first, our next job is to get it done! When working on cars, there are definite moments where a “one-hour job” turns into a whole afternoon of frustrated trips to an auto parts store or many false starts that create a sense of frustration. However, getting the car running and keeping it running is a big enough motivator to navigate the frustration. The main questions are: What do we need to do to get the job done? What resources do we need to gather? Whose wisdom do we need to lean on? How willing are we to keep trying even with a couple setbacks? Is the need big enough to demand your time and effort? The answers to these questions are key in determining how we will do youth ministry successfully in our communities.

Small towns are a lot like cars. They have a lot of moving parts that demand attention. Instead of covering an area that is already being maintained or spending our energy on areas where needs are being met, we can better utilize our limited time and resources by finding an unmet need and filling it. Meeting one community need effectively opens the door for new relationships with students. These relationships then provide open doors for the gospel. It is my hope that by taking care of one overlooked area in our communities, we can have a greater impact on students in the long run.

To read part one of Joe Epley’s series, “Principles for Rural Youth Ministry” click here: “Principles for Rural Youth Ministry: Making Blind Eyes See.” For part three, “Principles for Rural Youth Ministry: Crab Claws and Candy Ships.”

The post Principles for Rural Youth Ministry Part 2: See a Need, Meet a Need appeared first on Rural Advancement.

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