This man in his late thirties looked at me so surprised. “Yeah. Fine. Just tired. We’re putting in a lot of hours at work.”

We chatted for a minute or so until the rest of his family was ready to go and he left.

He was back a minute later. He came up to me, put his hand on my shoulder and said. “Thank you for noticing.”

He couldn’t believe I had noticed the change in him. We talked about his work for five more minutes, before he thanked me again and left.

That is one of the great blessings of the rural congregation. We really do have the capability of noticing even small changes in people and we can touch base with them and find out what is going in their lives.

I remember when I left the seminary, one pastor told me to make sure to take notice of the cars or trucks people drive. When I asked him why, he related a story about getting a call from a concerned parishioner. She told him that she thought a husband and wife in the congregation were having some marital issues. After she shared the name of the couple, he immediately remembered that he had been seeing the husband’s truck down at the local bar more than usual. He told me that realization helped him a great deal when they began marriage counseling.

So, let’s celebrate our small gatherings on Sunday – it may not always meet our ego’s needs, but it just might meet God’s!

Blessings, Dan

A number of years ago, I contacted St. Benedict’s which is a monastery and religious center in Madison which is about 45 miles away. Once a month (usually the first Thursday of each month), I would rent a room for $12 a day. I’d get up at 5:15 a.m., take the drive in to Madison, armed with my Bible, a Christian book, and my computer to journal. Then I’d spend the day in prayer and reflection. At about 3:30 p.m., I’d head back home (and I’d make sure not to have any meetings that evening).

This one day felt to me a like a two or three day vacation. I felt so refreshed and back in tune with God. I found myself re-centered in His word and ways.

St. Benedict’s now (to stay open) is open to large business gatherings so they don’t rent out rooms nearly as often. Because it was getting tough to find a day, I now get up on my “St. Benedict’s” day, and lock myself in a room in the house (not the office), turn on the answering machine and spend the time the same way as at the monastery. Being at home isn’t quite as relaxing – it’s kind of nice to get away – but it is still a wonderful way to get refreshed.

So one day a month, I set aside one full “work” day to do nothing but pray and read, and getting back in touch with my boss.

Give it a try and God bless, Dan

Therefore we have decided that at each baptism, the family will not only choose their sponsors, but also choose one member of the congregation as a “church sponsor.” Following the baptism, the church sponsor will present a child and family with a prayer doll (really cute dolls for either boys or girls, that when you squeeze it, it says the “Now I lay me” prayer) and a copy of “Child’s first prayer book” (a little book of forty simple prayers).

We feel that having a church sponsor will help build a stronger safety net for the baptized child, especially if we know that the other sponsors are unable to help in this area.

We are really excited about starting this.  God bless, Dan

But I am tired and I know a lot of it is caused by being so busy in the parish and not taking enough time to spend alone with God and keeping an intimate relationship with the Lord.

As I was pondering my tiredness, I received an e-reflection from the Transformation Center. It began this way: “The issue of dangerous levels of depletion among pastors and clergy continues to be a very serious one. An article in the New York Times ( Taking a Break From the Lord’s Work) and a post on the Associated Baptist Press site (Study Says Clergy Neglecting Self-Care) describe what could be called an epidemic among Christian leaders. These findings are consistent with recent communications we have received from pastors and Christian leaders who are aware they are not rested enough to face the next ministry season.”

I encourage you to link to these two articles (I think I actually did it this time!). Then would you please post what you think about these article, and from there, maybe we can begin sharing ways that rural pastors can get the spiritual rest they need.

I hope to hear from you and God bless you all in your ministry. Dan

Sometimes, we need a hug more than we need a prayer. A hug can be a healing balm to the soul. Sometimes . . . a hug restores our hope.
Jean

What a great reminder that we are not only to be touched by Christ, but also to touch people as the body of Christ! So simple – so live changing! Thank you Jean.

P.S. If anyone would like to write a blog, please do and send it directly to me at adbohlman@hotmail.com or send it as a comment but title it “new blog.” I’d love to have more people blog on this site each week.

I am back from vacation. I have found over the years that usually I have some kind encounter with the Lord during that time that strikes me deeply and it happened again this year – in the form of a dream.

In the dream it was a Saturday and I was fishing (by the way the fishing was great!) and as I passed by other boats and people sitting on their docks, I was asking if they would like to have an informal worship service on Sunday morning at the cabin we were staying at. In each and every case I got one of two responses – either the people burst out laughing or they shook their heads as if I was asking them to swallow codfish oil.

When I got back to the cabin and docked the boat, I told Ann about what had happened. She looked at me with a look that I had never seen from her before. Usually Ann is so strong in faith and boosts my spirit when down, but in this dream she gave me the saddest, most desperate look I had ever seen. I was quiet for a time and then said, “Is it true? Is Christianity over? Is there no reason for me to work any more? Is it all for naught?” She answered, not with words, but with a hug that gave me my answer … it was over.

Next the dream took me to my parish on the first Sunday of returning to work. From the pulpit I announced that I was done. I told the congregation that I had come to find that our work wasn’t worth the labor and money and resources we were putting into this church because in the end it didn’t matter. Christianity was over. Belief in God was soon to be extinct.”

For some strange reason I finished up the worship service and then went into the back to change out of my alb. When I came back out, I found our church council sitting in the pew waiting for me. When I got to them, one of the members stood up and said, “We care and we think it is important. We want to continue to work and worship and share Christ.”

That was all that was said, but I felt my heart move just a little bit and then I replied, “Okay,” and left to return to the parsonage and on Monday to the office.

I know that the dream was a way of processing some of my feelings. Often as pastors we find that people are less than enthusiastic about our call to them and visions we try to impart. Too often it can overcome us and we feel like giving up. And in rural areas, too often the pastor has no one that they can really talk to about the situation.

What the dream helped me to see was that each Sunday those people in church and the five or ten that show up for Bible study and the member who walks over to a grieving neighbor with a casserole and a prayer, are reminding us pastors that it isn’t over. That it will never be over. Together we have a call to fulfill and Jesus is Lord and it will never be done. God will not die.

God bless, Dan

“They were visitors in our worship service and, like all visitors in a small church, they were not hard to spot. I could see from the looks on their faces that whatever they were looking for in a church, we didn’t have it. When we all stood to sing the hymns, they just looked straight ahead, never making an effort to sing and not even picking up a hymnbook.

“I greeted them in the hallway after the service and said something like, “I couldn’t help noticing that you seemed uncomfortable in our service. Is there something I could help you with?”

“They looked at one another and then one of them blurted out, ‘Well, we noticed you use hymnbooks. We’ve never been in a church that sill uses hymnbooks. We’ve always had the words on overhead screens.’

“We had just been megachurched: hit with expectations and agendas determined by megachurches. We still used hymnbooks instead of overhead video screens. Obviously, we were both small and antiquated.

“There is a long history of small churches being ‘big churched’ – of people coming to small churches with expectations determined by larger churches. It is common to hear that our choir and our building are too small. We are used to people being disappointed that we don’t have a ‘family-life center’ (gym). I am used to getting the question: ‘You mean, you’re the only full-time minister?’

‘The big criticism, the one that sticks the knife in and twists it, is: “You don’t have a youth (or children’s) program?! Well, what do you do with your young people?’ The fact that a teenage girl just led the liturgy seems to have been missed.’”

Later Childress had another visitor and he shares this experience: “I remember a young family that visited one Sunday morning. Several people in our church knew them and had invited them. I was excited. They were new to town, looking for a church, had two small children, and both adults were active with environmental issues, something our congregation is heavily involved in. But when I went to see them in a follow-up visit, they said, ‘You have a good church, but a person has to work too hard to be a member of your church. We don’t have time to work that hard.’ They ended up joining a large church.

“Their criticism was valid. It does take a lot of work to be in a small congregation. Many people visit a small church thinking that it will be simple and quaint, when the truth is that life in small churches is complex. Members of a small church have multiple roles and responsibilities. Many activities and ministries are multigenerational both because the church is too shorthanded to do otherwise and because it is endemic to being a small community.’”

I think Childress wonderfully points out the fact that small churches are churches that work just as hard as any mega-church and in fact has just as many ways to include people in the ministry even though they are not labeled with program titles. From the teenage girl doing the liturgy, to the everyone who isn’t horse that is called up to help the choir, to the one who calls out the name during the prayer time telling us that she just found out that this persons mother passed away. One minute after the amen is said, I hear someone saying they will take a dinner over to the family later that day.

Not as big – just as busy. Just as involved in the kingdom of God. Just as much the body of Christ – is the small church.

God bless, Dan.

P.S. I’ll be leaving Sunday right after church for a two week vacation, with no internet access. So, they’ll be no blogs. Talk to you mid August.

I can’t tell you how much that hurt. I know she was just having a really bad day and she was sharing her deep frustration over the events, but those words came from the person I love with all my heart, soul and mind.

Ironically I read this morning an article where a bishop while talking about the many struggling rural churches in his synod say, “It’s just not cost effective to keep them open.” Translated: “It would be cheaper if they just died.” Immediately my mind flew back to Monday when Ann said those same words. Knowing how much those words hurt me, it made me wonder how Jesus feels when he hears people say that about his beloved churches? Jesus loves the church with all His heart, soul and mind and to have someone say that it would be cheaper just to let them die, must hurt Him deeply.

Now I know that there are going to be rural churches closing in the future. Due to population and employment changes and the reduction in financial resources, yes, some churches are not going to make it. By the same token, I sure as heck hope that we as part of the larger church body will not be too flippant in throwing out the phrase “It would be cheaper if they just died,” knowing how much pain that causes our Savior.

God bless, Dan

During one of the lectures our speaker was telling about the 1.5 million dollar shortfall, per month, that the Crystal Cathedral is facing. As she finished explaining the situation, a pastor from among us, whispered out loudly, “Yes!”

Everyone burst out laughing and the speaker’s attention immediately shot over to this pastor and said, “What?”

“It’s just nice to know that they’re struggling too,” this pastor explained.

Yes, misery loves company.

I know that at times I get myopic in my seeing and begin to believe that the crisis in the rural church is worse than the struggles in any other church. Knowing Mr. Schuller’s problems and talking to the pastor of the church where the event took place as he described how due to the current economy, people have not been moving into the area as anticipated and because of that they are suffering both in numbers and finances.

This continuing education experience was a good one for me, not only because the speakers were good, but it gave me a shot of reality – rural churches are not the only churches struggling right now. Many churches in far different settings than mine are. And rather than finding comfort in knowing that others are suffering, maybe I need to expand my prayer life to cover “those” other churches as well.

May God’s kingdom grow, and may he bless the rural parish and all parishes in all places.

God bless, Dan