As always, if you would like to reach out to the show for encouragement, or with feedback or ideas, you are welcome to email our host Joe Epley at joseph.g.epley@gmail.com

You can purchase a copy of Ordinary Faithfulness by Olivia Meade at this link here.

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Pastor Karl’s books, articles, and other resources can be accessed at his website here.

As always, if you would like to reach out to the podcast for encouragement, or to give ideas and feedback, you can contact the host Joe Epley at joseph.g.epley@gmail.com

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Pastor Karl’s books, articles, and other resources can be accessed at his website here.

As always, if you would like to reach out to the podcast for encouragement, or to give ideas and feedback, you can contact the host Joe Epley at joseph.g.epley@gmail.com

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If you would like to buy Flyover Church you can purchase it here. If you want to check out Brad’s first book God’s Country click here.

For more resources from Pastor Brad Roth, check out doxologyproject.com

As always, if you would like to reach out to the show for encouragement, or to give ideas and feedback, you can contact our host Joe Epley at joseph.g.epley@gmail.com

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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 2 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 out to the show with feedback, encouragement, or ideas, contact our host Joe Epley at joseph.g.epley@gmail.com.

The post Tall Tales of the Rural Church: The Great Turkey Massacre appeared first on Rural Advancement.

As always, feel free to reach out to the show with feedback or ideas, or if you just want some encouragement in rural ministry. You can connect with our host Joe Epley at joseph.g.epley@gmail.com

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As always, if you want to reach out to the show with feedback or ideas, or just to find encouragement, please email our host Joe Epley at joseph.g.epley@gmail.com

The post Coming into Rural from the Outside with Tom Burkholder appeared first on Rural Advancement.

As always, you can reach out to the show with feedback or ideas, or just to find conversation and encouragement, by connecting with our host at joseph.g.epley@gmail.com!

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Resources mentioned:

The post Embracing the Process with Paul Richardson appeared first on Rural Advancement.

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iwanttoplantachurch.com

The post Rural Mindsets: The Good, the Bad, and the Godly part 3 with Gerad Strong appeared first on Rural Advancement.

www.ruralcompassion.org

The post Discipleship Part 4: Miracles in the Marketplace with Steve Donaldson appeared first on Rural Advancement.

www.trinitybiblecollege.edu

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

www.ruraladvancement.com

https://acts2journey.com

The post Discipleship part 2: Holy Spirit Empowered Discipleship with Alton Garrison appeared first on Rural Advancement.

The post Discipleship Part 1: A Visit to Rural Kansas with Dwight Dozier 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.

The name Chi Alpha comes from the term “Christou Apostloi” found in 2 Corinthians 5:20, and reads “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” The goal of Chia Alpha ministries across America is to be ambassadors for Christ on secular college campuses by investing into students and individuals in hopes of making disciples who make disciples who therefore repeat this process in places both near and across the globe. 

One ambassador for Christ and for Chi Alpha, Nick Hester, has committed this season of his life to leading as a campus missionary at Texas Tech Chi Alpha. A product of Chi Alpha himself, Hester became a Christ-follower during his time in Chi Alpha after experiencing the genuine love from his peers and leaders in the ministry. As a young student, the consistent friendship and the overflow of love he experienced opened his eyes to the fierce pursuit God had on his life. Hester and his team at West Texas Chi Alpha strive to be the same hope and light to students in their college community. 

Anyone who has witnessed the work of Chi Alpha students in West Texas knows that God is moving powerfully through the students and leaders; and discipleship is at the heart of this movement. Nick and the West Texas Chi Alpha leadership team believe the Lord is preparing to reap a harvest in rural Texas by means of the young, passionate students in their Chi Alpha ministry that are being trained on how to make reproduce disciples. Nick introduced some of West Teas Chi Alpha students and they spoke to some of their current goals, “As Chi Alpha, we want to grow disciples who make disciples… And because the majority of our students are coming [to this college] to get a degree and move somewhere else, we want to instill in them a burden for the church and a desire to serve the church wherever they end up for their vocation.” A question arose amongst the leadership of Chi Alpha in TX: What if, after graduation, more of these students started finding jobs in small, unlikely places rather than the places where they might find the highest paying positions? 

Over the course of the last two years, Chi Alpha has formulated a God-driven, rural-centered vision based off this question. Nick Hester described this vision in detail, “We are now asking [the students we disciple] if they would pray and seek the Lord about where they should go after college, and then go find a job. Not just be led where the money takes them or where the job market is…” Instead of going to a large city with the goal of making money, they ask, “would you be willing to go to a town, population 1,000, in West Texas where you won’t make as much money, but you could really effect change in that community?” This is the first thing they ask students to pray about. 

The second thing they ask students to pray about is going together, because it is crucial to building up the church in the local town. Once students move to the area and begin working, they can join their local church, build community and serve. Some students may be passionate about leading the church or even planting a church. In whatever they do, Nick Hester wants their mission to be discipleship focused; replicating the model and mission of Chi Alpha. Nick stated, “Their goal is to live missionally and say, we are going to work and honor Jesus in our work, but were also here to make disciples.” For many students, it is not an easy vision to say yes to. But with every yes there is a greater opportunity for more rural communities in Texas to be served and won for Jesus.

One local pastor of an Assembly of God church in the area, Pastor John Murdoch, makes it part of his mission to invest in the lives of these students. He has also made it a part of his passion to assist these ambassadors for Christ in taking their vocations from the urban to the rural settings. 

Pastor John and Nick Hester have joined together to pray for this vision to take hold in their ministries in hope of seeing the heart of Jesus spread throughout every community in West Texas. They have already seen some incredible testimonies come from the heart of the West Texas Chi Alpha program. Nick Hester and Pastor John testify to some of these students’ stories below. 

Chasmin’s Story:

Chasmin came to Texas Technical University looking for a place to spend her years of college drinking and partying. The very first night she arrived on campus, the Lubbock Chi Alpha team helped students move into their dorms. After meeting and befriending a young lady from Chi Alpha, her heart became open to attending the young adult’s small group at Christian Life’s church. Soon, Chasmin accepted Jesus as Lord of her life and was filled with the Holy Spirit. After graduating from Texas Tech with her fiancée in December of 2019, they began preparing for their next step; becoming missionaries to the Netherlands.

To see fruit borne from the discipleship process takes time. It took almost four years of discipleship for Chasmin to reach her current position. However, the time and dedication that Chi Alpha and Pastor Murdoch put into this one student’s life will bear fruit for decades to come.

A second example of Chi Alpha’s impact is told through the testimony of one couple. 

Another recently married couple did not to come to Texas Tech University intending to find a relationship with Jesus. However, through the opportunities Chi Alpha presented the couple made the choice to accept Jesus as their Savior and grow in Christ. They left school intending on following in Pastor John Murdoch’s steps and becoming one of the first rural church planters in their community. 

Andrew’s Story:

Andrew was raised in a nominal Christian family that did not attend regularly. He went about life with just a basic knowledge of God. After being pulled into the party life, he and a group of his friends got connected to Chi Alpha and one of their small groups. It was not long after hearing the gospel that Andrew surrendered his life to Jesus and was all in to leading a life for Christ. However, as for Andrew’s friends, once they started to realize that walking with Jesus comes with a cost, they walked away because they thought the cost was too high. Andrew stuck around and is now is considering a life dedicated to intercultural missions.

These stories would not have been possible if not for the willing leadership and initiative of West Texas Chi Alpha. And the future is getting brighter… Within the next few years, and with the help of Pastor John Murdoch, Chi Alpha plans to open a new branch of their ministry focused around church planting in rural areas. With this new emphasis on sending out young, Spirit-filled, vocational workers, there is much excitement for the future of rural places around West Texas. 

Chi Alpha is doing incredible things to advance the kingdom of God. While the future Church can be excited that Bible Colleges are training up students in God-centered realms, Chi Alpha shows that there is something so powerful about students being discipled and discipling in a secular space. In places like West Texas, students are challenged to be bold, counter-cultural ambassadors for Christ. As a result of this growth in Texas, students are writing the prologue to many testimonies told by “forgotten towns” all around the America and the entire globe. 

If you are interested in reaching out to or being a part of a West Texas Chi Alpha Ministry team, you can email Nick Hester linked below.  

Email Nick Hester at nickhester90@gmail.com

The post Chi Alpha Students Launching Ministry in Rural West Texas Communities appeared first on Rural Advancement.

Defining success in youth ministry can be like trying to nail Jell-O to the wall. At times, success is who can unwrap a Christmas gift the fastest while wearing crab claws. Other times, success is seeing how far someone can throw a marshmallow and still land it in someone’s mouth. Taking miscellaneous candy bars and shaping them into a replica of the Titanic or the Golden Gate Bridge is sometimes a measure of success in youth ministry. The way I see it, success all depends on how and what you measure, and the tragedy of rural youth ministry is that our metrics are usually wrong.

Nobody likes to feel like a failure. While no one likely calls youth pastors and volunteers failures openly, I am willing to guess that the struggle of feeling like a failure is there. It can be seen by how and what we measure. Many youth groups are measured in weekly attendance, with some churches reaching 10, 20, 50, or 100 students on average. Some are measured in number of leaders, with large churches frequently leading the pack in recruiting college students, event chaperones, and small group leaders. A look at the numbers can give an unfair tilt toward urban centers, because rural churches simply cannot measure up to a megachurch whose weekly attendance is more than the population of their entire county.

I stepped into a rural youth ministry context where my first youth group meeting consisted of two students. I was brand new to the role and naturally apprehensive about such a low showing. The next week there were four and a few weeks later we managed 8. I lamented the slow progress to a more seasoned rural youth pastor, who jokingly said I should write a book on how to double a youth ministry every week. It may have been wrapped in humor, but what stuck with me was the drastic change in perspective. In comparing myself unfairly to large churches or youth ministries, I was failing to value the growth happening in front of me. In this third part of our look at rural youth ministry, I want to challenge us to see youth ministry with a new measure of success, one that is instantly achievable regardless of context, youth group size, or community population:

Love the student in front of you.

It is simple, short, and easy to remember. Additionally, this statement speaks of infinite possibilities because it is inherently easy to start doing. One does not always need the perceived pastoral gifting of growing something to staggering numerical heights or preaching sermons full of witty and relevant exposition. Instead, the metric can be as simple and sustainable as loving the student in front of you. The best part is, this metric is perfectly suited for rural contexts.

In a brief breakdown of this principle, I hope we can come away with tangible ways that volunteers and youth pastors in rural settings can love the student in front of them. I hope this becomes a rallying cry for a new perspective on rural ministry. And I sincerely hope this helps pastors and volunteers value their experience in a rural setting and the immense potential it has for kingdom impact. The first perspective shift we need to see is this:

1) Rural youth ministry has fewer blind spots.

Small towns are perfect for loving the student in front of you, simply because students are always in front of you. When I lived in a larger town, I could subconsciously avoid difficult students. We lived in different parts of town, or had different social circles, or they went to a different high school than the one at which I frequently ministered. In a small town, it is considered lucky to have more than one grocery store, or even to have a grocery store at all. In this setting difficult students, parents, families, and situations are never far away. What an extraordinary opportunity God has given rural youth pastors and volunteers to lead the way in loving students. If love can be defined as continually choosing to act in kindness, grace, and good will towards another, small towns offer endless opportunities to do just that.

2) Every small-town student has an advocate, except the ones who don’t.

Small towns are full of students who are lifted up and propelled into a successful future by school administrators, teachers, coaches, civil service workers, and other key community members. Whether they are academically gifted or the star quarterback, these students do not lack for people to support them. However, small towns also have dozens and dozens of students who lack that support. I believe rural pastors and volunteers are uniquely called and equipped to fill that role of advocate, loving students that would otherwise succumb to a system of resignation and failure to thrive as they enter adulthood. Again, these situations exist not as a challenge, but as an extraordinary opportunity waiting to be seized by rural youth pastors and volunteers.

3) Each small-town leader can join in calling David in from the field.

A dear friend of mine made it her mission in youth ministry to find students from obscure places and disciple them into achieving God’s calling on their life. She believed that small towns were full of David-like students waiting for volunteers and youth pastors who refuse to overlook those from humble origins. This model rings true over and over again. Rural youth ministry cannot be about getting a youth group of hundreds or thousands because the population denies this possibility. However, it can be about committing to loving and discipling individuals living in overlooked corners of the world.

One thing I am confident of is that other youth pastors will always ask about how many students attend your youth group weekly. Inevitably, some rural youth pastors and leaders will sheepishly respond with small numbers and quickly excuse themselves from the conversation or change the subject. However, as 1 Corinthians 12:31 puts it, God wants to show us “a still more excellent way” (ESV). Success can be many things, but I would hope that rural youth pastors decide that loving one student is enough. History will display in vivid detail the contributions of rural students to the advancement of God’s kingdom for the cause of His glory. I am confident of this because it has already taken place. Our Christian history is filled with revivalists and reformers who were the product of dedicated disciplers who lived in obscure places.

To put it practically, take a student out to lunch. Show up at the one activity they are a part of, even if they ride the bench. Meet with one student for a Bible study every week simply because they really want to be there. Talk about how glad you are to see them instead of how sad you are that more did not come. Invest creatively, continually, and consistently. Commit to the one, and give of yourself to see them succeed. This model makes small town students into disciples, and disciples of Jesus can change the world.

To read more of Joseph Epley’s series, “Principles for Rural Youth Ministry” click the links below:

Part One: “Principles for Rural Youth Ministry: Making Blind Eyes See”

Part Two: “Principles of Rural Ministry: See a Need Meet a Need”

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