City Pastor, Country Church
October 1, 1994
Susan waited anxiously for John to come home from the church board meeting. As his car pulled up to the house, she could tell by the way John stopped the car and slammed the door that things had not gone well. "I have had it with this church and this town," John growled. "All they want is a hired man to do their work so they can play church! They can have their dead church and small-town ways. The sooner we get out of here the better." John had accepted the call to pastor Smallville Community Church two years before. He and his family came expecting a comfortable life in Mayberry with Andy, Opie, and Aunt Bea. But their excitement soon turned to frustration. I spent ten years of ministry in rural Nebraska. Although born and raised in the city, I've enjoyed ministry in the country. Like John and Susan, however, I've felt moments of intense frustration as my urban way of thinking conflicted with the rural mindset. Now I know why. WHY LEADING IS TOUGH
Here are some of the dynamics making rural churches hard to lead. Fierce independence. In the old John Wayne movies, the people of the West were fiercely independent. While much in the movies is purely fictional, the tenacity of rural people is not. Rural life is in a fight for survival. In our country, politics, the media, and education revolve around the urban centers. People in rural towns know if they are to survive, they must be strong. No one is fighting for small-town America except small-town Americans. This mentality works its way into the church. For the rural church to survive, its members must be strong. Denominational officers and seminaries may offer their services, but rural churches often choose to go it alone. High turnover. In rural churches, pastors come and go like New ...
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