July 16th, 2010 | 
Author: In Scripture, sharing meals is a very important event. One thing I have noticed living in rural America for the last 25 years, is that sharing meals is still a very important and holy thing.
People in our community know Ann is going through Chemotherapy. This week on Tuesday and today, a member from our parish has stopped by with full meals for our family. “I’ve been praying for you,” they tell us and then their prayers lead to a meal. THAT IS HOLY. As we eat the meal we realize it is a meal filled with love and prayer. That is HOLY. Each bite is sacred.
Two weeks ago, a woman from the farm just outside of town, stopped by and gave us a huge meal of meatballs and potatoes. She a member of the Catholic church. A week later another member of that parish dropped off a meal.
Crossing “religious lines” through a meal. Letting us know they are praying for us. Their prayers leading to their making us a meal. HOLY MEALS.
Dan
When I came across this illustration it caused an ah-ha moment in my ministry.
The story is told about a man who bought a treadmill from a sporting goods store. After four weeks, he returned to the store with the treadmill and wanted his money back. “I haven’t lost any weight. My cardeo-vascular system hasn’t improved, and I don’t look any better than I did when I first got it.”
The clerk was surprised that the treadmill hadn’t helped the man and asked him what his daily regiment with the machine was.
The man answered, “I haven’t been on it”
Things are a bit slower for me this summer and so I have taken advantage of that and been planning things for fall. And you know what? If everything goes as planned, its going to be a great year for the church!
… yeah right.
Here is a true story from my childhood that I found very relevant in my parish as I spoke to people about using their gifts in the church. I hope you like it. Dan
“It’s your turn Danny,” my fourth grade teacher said, list in hand.
“Nah,” I said, “I’m not going. Not now.”
She frantic pace ceased as she gently placed her hand on my shoulder and slowly turned me around so I could see her sincerity. “They aren’t here to compare you to others; they want to hear what you can do.”
“Nah,” I said again. “Not now.”
“Maybe later?” she asked with hope in her eyes.
“Yea, maybe later,” I said, leaving her totally unconvinced.
That was how the conversation went behind the scenes at my fourth grade talent show.
My son Lee is one month into an intense three month experience at the Police Academy. He came home earlier this week a bit overwhelmed. On a video they had to watch a police officer pull over a car with a disturbed man in it. During the course of the encounter the man went back to his car, pulled out a gun and shot the police officer. He then walked closer to the deputy and shot him again and killed him. It shook up my son quite a bit.
Ann and I talked with him about how he was feeling and after he shared his thoughts, he said, “I’m not sure I can do this.”
We’ve had great discussion on what to do with vacancies in rural churches. I thank everyone for your input. There is a lot of food for thought in your comments. There seems to be consensus on balancing education and call.
On a different note I ran across this comment from Pastor Charles Hill in a magazine. His blog site is chazzdaddy.com:
“This past Easter weekend, when you had record crowds (I pray) would you be content if you did all of that “work,” prayer and ministry, and when you asked for people to trust Christ, only one person responded? I know the last Easter that we celebrated with New Hope in 2008, we had over 1,300 at our original campus alone. Had one hand gone up, I would have been devastated. But in heaven, there would have been a party. Do we really get that, and if so, what are we doing about it, one life at a time? In our bigger-is-better church world (and yes, 3,000 saved in one day is still a dream I have), we have lost the beauty of the ONE.”
When we talk about rural churches and low numbers causing issues to rise, his words are important to hear.
God bless, Dan
Pastor Dan wrote: “As we talk about filling vacancies in rural churches, I understand we have to be creative, but I also think we have to keep the standards for filling those vacancies high, because the rural church is not a second class church, nor its members second class Christians. They deserve the very best.”
I agree that they deserve the very best. I also agree with Tiny Town Pastor that being seminary trained and ordained doesn’t always make the best for a rural church. As he said, those who had been assigned at his particular church could not find employment elsewhere and had caused more harm than good.
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As we continue to look at the issue of how to fill vacancies in small rural parishes, another point that I think needs to be considered, especially when talking about letting non-ordained individuals fill the openings, is to ask whether or not we are looking at, or at least leaving the impression that small rural churches are second class people in the church.
The issue of getting people to pastor rural congregations that don’t have “degrees” is a very complex issue. Some comments have been coming in both to my personal email and also the blog. Let me throw out the education issue that has risen. Please comment on them:
How much education should a potential pastor have? In my case it was eight years. Now if I was a second career person at the age I am now (50) would I spend eight years of schooling to be ready to receive a call at 58? No.
Our denomination does have a fast track to ordination, so the time is shortened considerably. But what minimum requirements should there be.
BECAUSE – I do think there has to be some minimum. And here is an example. I was reading in “Outreach” Magazine about a large church in California who are “self-ordaining” members of their church to take over satellite churches, or go off and begin new churches. They were forgoing completely the college/seminary/Bible college route. In the article it said that their “ordination education process” contained three parts. One of the parts was called “Biblical Overview.” The book they used for that section of the process is the very same book I use in our 7th grade confirmation program! Are you kidding me! That frightens me a great deal because I sure as heck know my 7th graders aren’t armed with enough Biblical knowledge by going through that one book to lead a congregation. Now you might say, “But they are older, and they get more out of it, and they are mature.” Granted. But the fact remains that, at least in my opinion, is not nearly enough Biblical knowledge to lead a congregation.
So what do we do in the area of teaching/preparing people to fill rural vacancies if we can’t get people out here? Please comment.
God bless, Dan
I have received two messages from individuals in the last week concerning the blog “What have we done wrong …” Both of them mention the fact that the lack of pastors willing to go out to rural areas is not synonymous with not having people ready to lead a rural church. If you look at the comments from Pamela, (June 3rd blog) 2she speaks about the Episcopalian decision to let churches close rather than having unordained people lead these congregations. Another message I received was from a woman who does a lot of work in the area of rural ministry, but because she isn’t ordained, she can’t receive a call.