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A New Spin on Missions: Reviving Rural Churches

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A massive population shift from the country to cities continues across the U.S.  Along with it, membership in rural churches is declining and their pastors are leaving for what they consider are greener pastures. 

According to the USDA, the country's non-metro areas have lost an average of 43,000 residents every year since 2010.  Jobs are going away in these areas and proverty is on the rise. Deaths are now reported to be outpacing births in hundreds of rural areas. 

A recent National Congregations Study found that the percentage of rural church congregants has plummeted from 43 percent in 1998 to 32 percent in 2012.  

Many of these churches have difficult choices to make.  Do you keep the air conditioning and/or the heat on for the flock or do you hire a pastor if you can find one?  For these churches, the choice is easy.  You go without a pastor or try the old circuit rider way. With the advance of technology, some have even tried multi-site options where several congregations watch and/or listen to one pastor. 

However, one innovative ministry, Village Missions, is attempting to help small town churches. Founded in 1948 by an Irish Presbyterian pastor named Walter Duff, Jr., the ministry has dispatched hundreds of what it calls "missionary pastors" to America's rural areas. 

Besides providing the pastor, the ministry pays the missionary's salary and supports his work. But the congregation has to supply the housing and pay utilties. They also have to pay 10 percent of their general fund offering to Village Missions, which then covers a base salary of $1,800 a month and health insurance.   

As the church grows, it is expected to assume more of the financial responsibility, first paying for the health insurance and then the salary.  And most of them succeed.  In 2016, 62 percent of Village Missions churches were self-sufficient.   For those churches that can't, the ministry relies on funding from other churches and individuals who have an interest in rural missions. 

Jeremy Sarver is a missionary pastor for Village Missions.  A graduate of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, he was sent by the ministry to Volga, Iowa -- population 200 with four churches -- to revitalize the Calvary Bible Church which had 12 members when Sarver got there. None of the other three churches had a single full-time pastor at all.

Ministry in the country allows pastors to really get to know their church members. Village Missions requires its missionary pastors to invest about 20 hours a week getting to know their members and in essence become a part of a tight knit community. 

"I could put up office hours all day long in rural America, and nobody's coming," Sarver told The Gospel Coalition. "But if I sit in the combine with them, or go to the coffee shop, or watch a volleyball game with them—they don't want me to use the word 'counseling,' but we talk through things."

This relationship building has worked for Sarver. The church has more than doubled in size to 30 members. 

When Village Missions later asked him to move to Ohio to pastor a church of 90, he was turned off by the size. "I'm not a megachurch pastor," he said, laughing. "I'm not comfortable with that."

In 2016, Village Missions nationally reported 459 salvation decisions, 179 adult baptisms, and 127 child baptisms. 


 

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About The Author

Steve Warren is a senior multimedia producer for CBN News. Warren has worked in the news departments of television stations and cable networks across the country. In addition, he also worked as a producer-director in television production and on-air promotion. A Civil War historian, he authored the book The Second Battle of Cabin Creek: Brilliant Victory. It was the companion book to the television documentary titled Last Raid at Cabin Creek currently streaming on Amazon Prime. He holds an M.A. in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma and a B.A. in Communication from the University of