Rural Church Planting

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Rural Church Planting

• Prepared and presented by
• Steve Nerger
• Manager, Strategic Places
• Church Planting Group
• North American Mission Board
• Portions taken from No Little Places by Klassen

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Big Church Service

• DREAM

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Little Church Service

• REALITY

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Big Office

• DREAM

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Office at Home

• REALITY

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We will talk about

• The need for church planting in rural North
  America
• The myths of church planting and how they affect
  rural church planting
• Answer the question, can small be significant?
• Current trends in rural America

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We will talk about

• Bridging and building upon the small town culture
• Leadership styles in rural America
• Methods and strategies to reach rural communities

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The BIG Dream

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The Crowd Gathers Each Week to Hear YOU

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The Lostness of Rural America

• A population of 2,500 to 50,000 will be labeled
  an urban cluster
• Any population that is basically 2,500 or less is
  considered rural
• Lets look at the definitions

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Urban Clusters

• U.S. Census definition of Urban Cluster
• Consists of a geographic core of block groups
  or blocks must have a population density of at
  least 1,000 people per square mile, and adjacent
  block groups and blocks with at least 500 people
  per square mile that together encompass a
  population of at least 2,500 people, but fewer
  than 50,000 people.

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Rural

• U.S. Census definition of Rural
• All Territory, population, and housing units
  located outside of urbanized areas and urban
  clusters.

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Rural Population

• In America today it is estimated that 53,000,000
  people live in rural communities
• In Canada today there are approximately
  20,000,000 people living in rural communities.
• The population growth in rural areas can be tied
  partially to recreation and tourism.
• Rural areas are also growing in ethnic diversity.

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Rural Population

• There are currently 436 counties in America where
  there is no Southern Baptist church
• There are thousands of places in North America
  without any evangelical work
• Lets look on the map

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Rural Counties in the U.S.
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Rural Population Growth
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Rural Populations
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Rural Populations
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Rural Populations
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Rural Populations
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Rural Populations
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Rural Populations
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Rural Populations
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Rural Populations
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Rural Populations
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Rural Populations
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Rural Populations
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Rural Populations
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Rural Populations
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Population by Area Canada
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Churches in the United States

• 8 churches close in the United States each day.
• 6 churches are started in the United States each
  day.
• 4.5 of those new church starts are Southern
  Baptist churches.
• There are churches of many denominations which
  close each day all across rural North America.
• Each closing leaves a group of people who are
  sensitive to God without a leader.

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• Who will rescue the perishing?

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LOSTNESS
United States Population 301,339,050 (Source
U.S. Census as of 930am on Friday, March 9, 2007)
Gods glory among all peoples.
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LOSTNESS
Canada Population 32,730,213 (Source Statistics
Canada as of 930am on Friday, March 9, 2007)
Gods glory among all peoples.
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LOSTNESS
Population of North America 334,069,263
What percentage are lost?
Gods glory among all peoples.
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LOSTNESS
Population of North America 334,069,263 50
167,034,632
The SBC reported371,850 baptisms in 2005
Gods glory among all peoples.
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LOSTNESS
In North America
371,850 SBC baptisms
estimated 167,034,632 lost people
If 50 are lost SBC baptisms represent 0.22
Gods glory among all peoples.
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LOSTNESS
In the United States there is One birth every 8
seconds One death every 13 seconds One
international immigrant (net) every 31
seconds Net gain of one person every 11
seconds(or 2,866,909 per year) Source U.S.
Census
Gods glory among all peoples.
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LOSTNESS
United States and Canada combined 303 people die
every hour 7,272 people die every day 2,656,098
people die every year
Gods glory among all peoples.
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LOSTNESS
United States and Canada combined 303 people die
every hour 7,272 people die every day 2,656,098
people die every year
Over 20,500 will die between nowand when you
return to school on Monday.
Gods glory among all peoples.
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Reaching Rural America

• Rural America represents 1/6 of our total
  population (about 53 million people).
• Approximately 2/3 of Canada is rural (or 21
  million people).
• The population growth in rural areas can be tied
  partially to recreation and tourism.
• Rural areas are also growing in ethnic diversity.

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Reaching Rural America

• Question How many people do you know that are
  willing to invest their lives in a small
  community where there is no recognition?
• How many would graduate from seminary and give
  their lives to a few who may never hear the
  gospel from a person?

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Rural Ministry

• Lets look at the reasons that very few will ever
  consider the rural ministry.
• Lets look at the wheels at work that deny
  consideration for rural ministry.

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Mythbusters

• Who Says?
• That BIGGER is BETTER andBIGGEST is BEST
• Answer
• We do!

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The Numbers Myth

• To be significant a ministry must
• be BIG!
• Or as we often see it
• With a large church, I will feel successful!
• If a church is small, Ill feel like Im
  failing.

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The Big Place Myth

• To be significant a ministry must
• be in a BIG PLACE!
• Or as we often see it
• No matter where I go, if I choose rural
  ministry I will still have to eventually say to
  people that I have 30 people in a town of 1,000
  somewhere out in the boondocks.

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The Recognition Myth

• To be significant in a ministry I must be
• recognized for my service in a BIG WAY!
• Or as we often see it
• When was the last time you saw someone from a
  small church speak at a great gathering of the
  saints.

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The Career Myth

• Career advancements are a sign of significance.
• Or as we often see it
• I hear there is a professional ladder to climb
  and I will climb it one rung at a time for the
  sake of my family.
• We should really discuss this for a while!

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The Cure for Inferiority Myth

• If I can succeed professionally,
• I will no longer feel inferior!
• Or as we often see it
• I will show all those who said that I would
  amount to nothing that I am a winner by having a
  large church!
• P.S. This could be your parents as many pastors
  come from dysfunctional homes.

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Embracing the Truth

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Why Build in a Rural Area?
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The Quality Principle

• God judges my ministry not by its size,but by
  its quality.
• Acts 247, 1 Corinthians 36, 13

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Growth is Attributed to God

• Acts 247 (NIV)
• praising God and enjoying the favor of all the
  people. And the Lord added to their number daily
  those who were being saved
• I Corinthians 36 (NIV)
• I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God
  made it grow
• 1 Corinthians 313 (NIV)
• his work will be shown for what it is, because
  the Day will bring it to light. It will be
  revealed with fire, and the fire will test the
  quality of each man's work

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Jesus Example

• Attracted multitudes for many reasons (John 626)
• Multitudes left (John 666)
• At His death there were the 12 (maybe), 1
  traitor, and 500 others

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God calls us to

• Servanthood
• Humility
• Faithfulness
• Right motives
• Leaving the results to Him (what if the only
  person you led to Christ in a community would
  become the next Paul or Billy Graham.

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Mans Thinking

• Growth numbers
• Failure low numbers

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Healthy Look at Growth

• Quality over Quantity
• Are members growing spiritually?
• Are members working in unity using their
  spiritual gifts?

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Principle 1

• Other things to measure besides numbers
• Survey the church to see if people are satisfied
  with their current usage in church.
• Measure evangelism by the number of times people
  share their faith, not the number of people
  saved.
• Has everyone in your town heard a gospel
  presentation? ( Discuss this.)

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Principle 1 (continued)

1. Measure missions not by given but by the
   number of times people prayed for missions, or
   encouraged missionaries, or went on mission
   trips.
2. Test spirituality by a real life situation see
   how your people respond. For instance, invite a
   seemingly homeless person who just walks in your
   church to help serve the Lords Supper.

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Principle 2

• Wherever God calls me to ministeris an
  important place.
• Jesus came to Bethlehem not Jerusalem
• John the Baptist preached in the wilderness, not
  the city. (What kind of church growth strategy is
  this?)
• John Bunyan wrote Pilgrims Progress while in
  prison.
• Jim Elliott failure killed by natives.

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• Conventional wisdom says
• Go to larger cities, where people are
• Gods wisdom says
• "from major city to towns and villages toremote
  places (Mark 135)
• WHY?
• Lets discuss this!

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Impact

• City more people less impact
• Even though there are more people theaverage
  pastor will not relate to any more people than he
  would in a small town.
• Town Pastor has more influence
• - knows city officials
• - known in community (relational)
• Lets discuss this!

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• In the eyes of God there are nosmall churches,
  nor are there big pastors. Warren Wiersbe
• Your bigness to God depends onyour faithfulness
  and His sovereignty,
• not the place you are sent.

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• No where more than in America are Christians
  caught up in the twentieth-century syndrome of
  size. Size will show success. If I am
  consecrated, there will necessarily be large
  quantities of people, dollars, etc. This is not
  so. Not only does God not say that size and
  spiritual power go together, but he even reverses
  this (especially in the teaching of Jesus) and
  tells us to be deliberately careful not to choose
  a place too big for us.
• We all tend to emphasize big works and big
  places, but all such emphasis is of the flesh. To
  think in such terms is simply to hearken back to
  the old, unconverted, egoist, self-centered me.
• Francis Shaeffer

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Principle 3

• The Glory of God
• God calls me to seek His glory, not mine!
• Do you want to be a star, or a servant?

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Two Warnings

1. Woe unto you when all men speak well of you, for
   that is how their fathers treated the false
   prophets. (Luke 626)
2. Jesus said, I have brought you glory on earth
   by doing the work you gave me to do. (John 174)
   Will we be able to say this?

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We Look at Numbers / God Looks At

• Faithfulness to God through obedience and hard
  work
• Service to God and others
• Love for God
• Genuine faith
• A vital prayer life
• The practice of holiness
• A positive attitude
• (From Liberating Ministry from the Success
  Syndromeby Kent and Barbara Hughes.)

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• BREAK !

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Bridging The Culture Gap

• ACTIVITY (pp. 43-50)
• Divide into two groups. Read pp. 43-50.
• Group 1 list all the things Ron did wrong.
• Group 2 list all the things he did to correct
  his mistakes.
• Each group come up with mistakes that pastors
  make when they first come to your church field.
  Maybe you made them

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Characteristics of Smaller Communities

• Safe
• Friendly
• Relaxed
• Gossipy
• Conformist

• Boring
• Remote
• Married
• Religious
• Clean and Quiet

From Tom Nebel Big Dreams in Small Places
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Current Trends in Rural Areas

• TREND 1
• The number of people working in agriculture
  fields is declining rapidly.
• 30 of all Americans were farmers in 1920
• Today that number is 1.9
• SO WHAT!
• Many farmers who have lost the family farm feel
  they are failures. They have not survived the
  survival of the fittest! These are the people
  to whom you will minister.
• Does this trend affect any other areas(i.e.,
  fishing, oil, mining, etc.) in a similar manner?

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Pastoral Help in These Times of Need (such as a
declining economy).

• Be prepared to offer great encouragement.
• Preach a series of messages on hope.
• Starting over as a Christian salvation message
• Starting over after failure
• Starting over with a new vocation
• Starting over in the church
• Be sure you do not fall into the same faulty
  thinking about your church and ministry.
• Encourage people to take risks and not be held to
  the status quo by fear of eventual failure.

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Current Trends in Rural Areas

• TREND 2
• Non-farm town population is increasing.
• Most small towns are growing.
• Towns of 2,500 or less grew by 4.9 in the 1980s.
• There is actually a larger population movement to
  the small towns than to the cities (i.e. Alaska
  Gustavus, Talketna, air bases the Northeast
  Georgia Florida, etc.)

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Current Trends in Rural Areas

• TREND 3
• Small towns are experiencing great demographic
  changes.
• Industry is moving to small towns for a
  cost-effective work force.
• White-collar people are moving to the small towns
  causing suburban sprawl.
• Retirees are turning to small towns for quality
  of life.
• Re-urbanization of America bringing great
  conflict to a town or village near you.

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Current Trends in Rural Areas

• TREND 4
• The new generation of small-town residents
  exhibits a marked decline in spiritual and moral
  values.

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• The National Rural Development Institute says
• Rural children fared worse than their non-rural
  counterparts in 34 of 39 statistical categories
  including
• Immorality
• Substance Abuse
• Crime
• QUESTION Could this be correlated to the death
  of small-town churches who failed to change with
  their community? How about in your community?

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Adjusting to a New Culture

• Adjusting to a new culture usually follows these
  steps.
• The how quaint phase (lasts about 1-2 weeks)
• The this isnt just like home phase (longing
  for what we are used to)
• The it's starting to make sense phase (i.e.
  people do not care about your education or for
  things to be perfect)
• The I like it phase (you can laugh about your
  cross-cultural snafus!)

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How Do We Successfully Learn The Culture?

• THE BATTLE PLAN!
• Get out with the people. (Get out of the office,
  socialize, go to football game, etc.)
• Become a student of the culture. (What is
  important to the people what rituals do they
  hold dearly what are the power structures?)
• Withhold judgment.
• REMEMBER THE REASON. I Cor. 922

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Building on Small-Town Strengths

• Use what you have and
• do not try to copy what you
• know of large churches and
• their programs!

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Use The Two Is

• First I is Intimacy
• Second I is Involvement
• Interactive Preaching
• Use object lessons
• Ask a question and invite responses.
• Allow time for the congregation to ask questions.
• Ask some members to look at your text and give
  feedback as to the passages application before
  you preach it.
• Invite spontaneous comments after you preach.
• Creatively involve others during your service.

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• Have participatory worship
• Develop and use choirs or ensembles
• Special music (only requirement is they do their
  best!)
• Special music by children.
• Special music by families.
• Congregational singing. Sing familiar songs. Have
  variety as in your congregation.
• Have instrumental music.
• Have a worship team that might include young
  people, and develop them. (Note 80 of all
  missionaries come from small churches.)
• Have sharing times.
• Change the order of service.
• Plan your services in advance. Dont just say
  that you are spontaneous.

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Finding Your Churchs Niche

• Most successful churches intentionally limit
  their ministries.
• Do a few things well.
• Do one thing excellently better than anyone
  else (i.e. a church that loves children.)

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Finding the Niche

• Identify the gifts and ministry passion
• find where spiritual gifts meet ministry
  passion
• Identify the communities needs. Ask three
  questions
• Who are the people who are overlooked by
  churches?
• What are their needs?
• To which of these needs could we respond if we
  put forth the effort?

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Beating the Wal-Mart Church in Your Area(if
there is one)

1. Dont come at the Wal-Mart church head on.
2. Do your own thing better than they do theirs
   (i.e. intimacy.)
3. Offer a specialized line of products.
4. Conditions change survivors adapt to changing
   conditions.
5. Involve the people.
6. Be enthusiastic.
7. Monitor what you are doing.

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Either Adjust to the New Culture or Bust!

• Mission Specialist Paul Hiebert says
• In relating to another people we needto deal
  with our feelings that distinguish between us
  and our kind of People, and them, and their
  kind of people. Identification only takes place
  when they become part of the circle of people
  we think as our kind of people.

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Adapting to Culture

• 1 Corinthians 922 (NIV)
• To the weak I became weak, to win the weak.
• I have become all things to all men so that by
  all possible means I might save some.

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Thought for the Hour

• If you pastor an existing church in a rural or
  small town area
• You may have to choose between the past and the
  future, between clinging to your old ways and
  having a vital church for your children and
  grandchildren.

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Replay of How To Bridge The Culture Gap

• Learn your communitys culture before you make
  changes.
• Shape your ministry to the culture of the
  community.
• Pace change to the congregations readiness for
  change.
• Take your cookie cutter pastor and throw him
  away. Live adventurously where God has placed
  you.

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• BREAK?

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Small Town Leadership

• CEO Model
• More authoritarian
• More directive
• More distant
• More organizational
• More formal

• PARENT Model
• More on their level
• More input from everyone
• More personal / relational
• More spontaneous
• More informal

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Management by Relationship

• Build relationships
• Authority does NOT come with the position of
  being pastor.
• You earn it through earning peoples trust.
• Build it by strong, warm, family-like
  relationships.
• If they like you / if they trust you, they will
  like your ideas.
• Relationship is the pre-condition to change.
• Remember intimacy and involvement are the keys to
  change in small church life.

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Management by Relationship

• 2. Find the right way to initiate change.
• Most small churches DO NOT like the top down
  management style.
• So DONT do it!
• Figure out a way to bring your idea from the
  bottom up. i.e. out of the congregation.
• You will not get credit, but the idea will have a
  better chance of becoming a reality.
• (Place your idea out to a few members and see if
  it ever comes up again. If it does, for instance
  at a business meeting, then it will fly.)

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Small Church Organizational Types

• The fellowship of less than 35 or 40 uses an
  informal decision-making process much like that
  of the small group. The individual members voice
  usually carries as much weight as the pastors.
• The small congregation of 35 to 90 has standing
  committees and follows a congregational pattern
  in its decision making. This church expects the
  pastor to be more of an initiator, but most of
  the power is still vested in the congregation.
• The government of the mid-size congregation of 85
  to 150 is representative rather than a pure
  democracy. This church expects the pastor to be
  an initiating leader and administrator.
  Schaller

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Management by Relationship

• 3. Be Patient
• Rural ministry does not happen overnight.
• Rural people do not respond overnight.

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Methods and Strategies

• Silo Churches
• In many farming areas most people relate to the
  location of the silo that collects the grain.
• This is the central place in the region.
• A ministry field is designated by those who use
  that silo.
• A preaching point is located in the vicinity of
  the silo town.

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Field of Church Plants

• Missionary moves into an area.
• Spends one day in each small community.
• Attempts to develop a Bible Study.
• OR
• Attempts to restart a closed church. A building
  may exist already.
• Do this in each town within one days journey.

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Use larger church in larger town as a staging area

1. Take a church position in a larger population
   area.
2. Intentionally target smaller pockets of people
   within one days journey.
3. These can be small towns or different people
   groups.
4. Begin a Bible study in each place with the
   intention of finding a person of peace and an
   indigenous leader and developing a church.

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One Apostolic Pastor

• One main pastor has a vision for a field of
  smaller churches.
• He pastors a church.
• He finds people either from his church or
  indigenous people to pastor in smaller
  communities in the chosen region.
• This network can expand exponentially.

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Finding Persons of Peace

• Send people (2-3) into a target community for a
  few weeks to seek persons of peace.
• Hold Bible studies to find persons of peace.
• Bring in mission group to reach children and
  discover houses of peace to begin Bible study.
• Bring a group to do a community project (paint
  community center, school fix up playground
  etc.)

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Finding Persons of Peace

• Teach a relevant course in a community place.
• Survey the community to find out its needs, then
  meet them.
• Use any other creative way to enter a community
  to find people of peace.

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Remote Church Planting

• Remotes are pockets of people who can live in
  areas where there are no roads in or out.
• Access is by four-wheelers, snowmobiles,
  dogsleds, frozen rivers/vehicles, plane.
• Often pockets of 100-300 people.
• Example Alaska Kotzebue, outlying area
• Pastor is indigenous or Mission Service Corps

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Challenges to Rural Church Planting

1. Finding and training indigenous leaders.
2. Rethinking small ministry.
3. Finding suitable outreach material.
4. Finding leaders who care for rural people.
5. Recognizing differences in rural church planting.
6. A willingness to think outside the box.

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Reaching Rural North America

• Steve's Top Ten List
• to effectively reach rural North America
• Change our thinking about numbers
• Design ways to reach the "Cornelius'" whom God
  already has on the scene
• Develop training to turn early disciples into
  indigenous leaders for a new congregation that
  probably will never have enough people to have a
  fully-funded pastor.
• Develop bivocational strategies that will address
  rural church planting (i.e. develop a database
  with available jobs)
• Challenge people who can work remotely with the
  internet to consider rural church planting

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Reaching Rural North America

• Steve's Top Ten List
• to effectively reach rural North America
• Look for indigenous leaders that may be youth,
  female, etc. Open the box top a little wider.
• Begin a prayer strategy that includes Luke 102b
  "pray for laborers
• Elevate rural church planting to a higher mark on
  the radar in churches, colleges and seminaries.
• Prepare those called to the ministry early in
  life to gain a secular degree that can let them
  live in a small town or village.
• Get this message to "Baby Boomers" who are the
  largest mission force that will probably ever
  exist. They are retiring young, wealthy, healthy,
  and educated. 

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Conclusion

• Imagine if we grasped all
• that we talked about!
• LETS LOOK AND IMAGINE

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Imagine!

• A small-town church that does not question its
  significance because statistics are not its
  focus.
• Rather, it emphasizes strengthening and building
  the lives of people, leaving the statistics to
  God.

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Imagine!

• A small-town church whose pastor has overcome the
  temptation to use the small church as a stepping
  stone to bigger and better things. A church
  that claims to have a pastor who embraces rural
  ministry.

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Imagine!

• A small-town church that celebrates its intimacy
  while enthusiastically welcoming newcomers into
  that intimacy.

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Imagine!

• A small-town church that responds to the
  challenge of limited resources by becoming
  radically creative. Instead of despairing about
  the obstacles it faces, it steps out in bold
  faith, expecting God to do something entirely new.

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Imagine!

• A small-town church that, in fresh and creative
  ways, builds its ministries around the people it
  has.

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Imagine!

• A small-town church that does not try to imitate
  larger churches, but studies itself and its
  community, then prayerfully designs ministries
  uniquely suited for its place and time.

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Imagine!

• A small-town church whose members actively share
  their faith in their own community.

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Imagine!

• A small-town church that continually sends its
  people to various places around the globe in
  obedience to the Great Commission.

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Imagine!

• A small-town church whose pastor is filled with
  compassion for people in the church and
  community, a pastor who appreciates the churchs
  strengths and is patient with its weaknesses, a
  pastor who feels, This is truly home, and these
  people are my family.

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• Imagine a churchof great significance
• and YOU are the pastor!

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• God sees it as a reality
• How about YOU?
• TO GOD BE THE GLORY!