Church
Revitalization
Realities in Rural
America!
By Tom Cheyney
Founder & Directional Leader
Renovate National
Church Revitalization
Conference
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Church Revitalization Realities in Rural
America!
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2 Timothy 1:7
“For God has not given
us a spirit of
fearfulness, but one of
power, love, and sound
judgment.”
Rural America: The
Challenge of Renewal
“Rural America" – The words alone conjure
an image of a place unchanged, small towns,
simple life, and a dedication to the values that
made our country strong: faith, family,
community. The attachment to tradition, the
valuing of what is old over what is new, and a
conviction that the rural way of life is far more
preferable than the urban or suburban way of
living.
Church Revitalization
Realities in Rural America!
 It is estimated that there are more than 200,000
congregations serving rural America today!
 These churches have 7,153,937 congregants.
 For instance within my denomination of Southern
Baptist there are 20,227 rural churches as reported
during the last Church Membership Survey (CMS).
 If you count all protestant denominations the total
adherents is 31.5 million members which attend a
rural church.
Church Revitalization Realities in
Rural America!
 The rural church in America in the twenty-first
century must develop new relationships and new
ways of doing things to ensure prosperous and
socially healthy future. Tapping into the
resourcefulness and creativity of the new rural (nurural) people will be essential in addressing this
challenge. However, those returning to the rural
landscape cannot do it alone. Those who have
remained in the rural communities all of their lives
must be open to ideas and opportunities to be a
receptor of the new people coming to rural
America.
Rural Descriptors
Canadian R. Ale Sims utilizes a typology for identifying the shape and form of
rural communities when he utilizes four descriptions to clarify the types of rural
which exists:
 Ribbonville – These surround a city and often referred to as collar counties.
 Agravilles – These are the farm service towns where agriculture, forestry,
or mining is the predominant industry.
 Mighthavebeenvilles – These are the small town hamlets just outside of the
agravilles. These are often pastored by ministers just out of seminaries as a
first place to serve and develop experience. Usually they are supported by
another line of work and bivocational.
 Fairviews - These are the recreational amenities driven towns supported
by the blessing of some sort of amenities' such as: Skiing, fishing, water
sports, beaches, lakes, and retirement communities. Some are institutional
towns where a college, prison, or military base is located and is the primary
supporter of the economy.
Church Revitalization Realities
in Rural America!
 Rural towns also conjure an image of
intolerant communities, a lack of innovation
and a dying way of life. These are the
contradictions of rural America. Much of
what rural America holds dear is widely
accepted to be responsible for its decline.
Making the Hard Call to Go
Rural!
 Perhaps the most difficult hard call a minister can make is to consider
becoming a rural pastor. (The issues in play here are obvious: lower
financial support, little resources available, and a passivity in existence
within most rural churches.)
 Practicing personal evangelism in an area where there is great need yet
the present church may be unwelcoming on the new potential
members of the church. (Change will take place within these churches
and it is often a threat to long time stakeholder members.)
 Growth comes through intentional action in rural churches and it
requires the pastor to be the chief initiator of the effort. Lack of
participation by present members is often the churches initial response.
Making the Hard Call to Go
Rural!
 Perhaps another challenge is to make the necessary changes in
structure for the church to have the best chance of survival.
(For more on this see Five Things Which Must Be Relinquished in
a Revitalized Church by Tom Cheyney at:
renovateconference.org/resources.)
 To engage new leadership while retiring those who are a
hindrance to the churches future growth and mission.
 Making the shifts in the facilities which allow a new look and
a new form while avoiding people showing you their deed to
their favorite pew or hymnbook.
 Dealing with the lack of willingness to do something, anything
really, to minster to ones community.
Making the Hard Call to Go
Rural!
 Conflict resolution will be one of your greatest assets so get
prepared for the journey. Change will give you the opportunity
to practice this skillset often. Without change nothing is going
to happen.
 Remember that you were CALLED to this ministry not hired!
 It will take time to become the churches real leader so watch
out for the self-appointed one who is already in place.
 Will you operate more as the attending nurse meeting their
wants or will you become the communities pastor?
 You just cannot settle if you are going to revitalize a rural
church. Stay on the edge forget the recliner!
Rural America in the TwentyFirst Century
The overlapping forces shaping rural America with
challenges and opportunities are:
 demographic transitions,
 economic changes,
 the legacy of chronic underinvestment in
community institutions, and
 environmental factors
Church Revitalization Realities
in Rural America!
 The rural church, while distinct in its mission and
character, is not separate from the social and
economic life of rural America.
 A synopsis of the trends and conditions in the
countryside may prove helpful in understanding the
current situation of rural churches.
Church Revitalization Realities
in Rural America!
 The simplest truth about rural America is this: the
more rural a place is, the harder its circumstances
are. The most remote and sparsely populated areas
are more likely to be persistently poor, to be losing
population, and to have an unskilled labor force on
the losing end of the global economy.
Church Revitalization Realities
in Rural America!
 Beyond this simple truth, however, generalizations
are deceptive. For every rural county that has lost
population since 2000, there is another that has
gained new residents. For every rural place that
depends on an agricultural economy, there are six
more in which manufacturing is the economic
mainstay and two more in which federal or state
government is the largest employer.
Rural America is Undergoing
the Mayberry Shake-Up
Church Revitalization Realities
in Rural America!
The challenge to rural America is
to preserve itself as the repository
of our nation’s traditional ideals
while adapting to the realities of
the 21st century.
A New Image of Rural America
 Popular images of rural1 America are often based on outdated
stereotypes that equate rural areas with farming. Though
farming remains important in hundreds of counties, rural
America is now very diverse. The rural population, labor force
and economy encompass far more than farming. In fact, only
6.5 percent of the rural labor force is engaged in farming, or
roughly half that employed in manufacturing (12.4 percent).
 Patterns of population change are surprisingly diverse as well.
In the vast rural heartland of the Great Plains, for instance,
hundreds of rural farming counties had many more people
living in them in 1900 than they do today. In contrast, in areas
endowed with natural and recreational amenities or situated
near metropolitan areas, sustained population gains strain the
social and physical infrastructure of communities.
The Mayberry Shake-Up: Where Economic and
Ethnic Change Comes to Rural America
 From the 1920s to the 1960s, people left rural America
in substantial numbers, but rural counties still grew
slowly due to natural increase. In the 1970s a dramatic
and surprising shift occurred when more people moved
to rural areas than left.
 After out migration and slow growth in the 1980s,
renewed migration gains fueled greater rural growth in
the 1990’s.
Church Revitalization Realities
in Rural America!
The Carsey Institute report on the Challenges and
Opportunities in Rural America confirms what we found
to be challenges faced by denominations and churches
around the country:
 Poverty rates are higher in rural than in urban
America.
 Alcohol and drug abuse (including prescription drugs)
and methamphetamine use are major problems for
rural areas.
Church Revitalization Realities
in Rural America!
The Carsey Institute report on the Challenges and
Opportunities in Rural America confirms what we found
to be challenges faced by denominations and churches
around the country:
 Many low-skill jobs in rural areas are vulnerable to
economic globalization; international competition is
causing continued decline in low-skill jobs within
agriculture and manufacturing industries.
 Young adults continue to leave rural America. At the
same time, people in their 50s and 60s are increasingly
moving into rural areas.
Church Revitalization Realities
in Rural America!
The Carsey Institute report on the Challenges and
Opportunities in Rural America confirms what we found
to be challenges faced by denominations and churches
around the country:
 Rural America is growing more diverse. Since 1980,
one-quarter of the population increase in rural
America has come from the growing Hispanic
population.
Church Revitalization Realities
in Rural America!
The Carsey Institute report on the Challenges and
Opportunities in Rural America confirms what we found
to be challenges faced by denominations and churches
around the country:
 Persistent population loss is occurring in only parts of
the country: Great Plains, parts of the Corn Belt, the
lower Mississippi Valley and central Appalachia.
Rural parts of the South and West see increases in
part due to retirement communities.
Church Revitalization Realities
in Rural America!
The Carsey Institute report on the Challenges and
Opportunities in Rural America confirms what we found
to be challenges faced by denominations and churches
around the country:
 Counties with attractive natural and recreational
amenities hold onto and attract residents (coastal,
lake, mountains). Proximity to cities is also a major
advantage for rural areas.
Church Revitalization Realities
in Rural America!
 Rural America Churches reputation for
resisting change may be deserved, but perhaps
a healthy skepticism is a more accurate
description of rural American churches
attitude. Rural America has undergone and
continues to undergo significant change, but
not without reflection and yes, the occasional
resistance. That is to be commended: change
and progress do not necessarily accompany
each other.
Rural Church Revitalization
Works Best When…
 Renewal efforts are developed by the church not an outsider
 The bi-vocational model is utilized
 Shifts are taken carefully ad with slowness to allow time for the
congregants to adapt to the nurural.
 You understand that rural America is not a static place; it is
undergoing rapid change. The impetus for change comes both from
within and without. Immigration, education, globalization – all are
having dramatic impacts on the lives of rural citizens.
 Become a great teller of stories. The folks who attend their churches
and the folk they are most effective with tend to be “oral” as
contrasted with “literary” folk. The Gospel truth is communicated by
them through moving stories that touch the heart.
Rural Church Revitalization
Works Best When…
 Renewal is focused towards the older resident which makes up
the majority of rural communities in North America
 Some sort of church hosted educational program to assist
those with the acquiring of new skill sets is helpful
 Church Revitalizer operates as the social navigator of key
community needs and issues and becomes the influencer for
the betterment of the community.
 Food Kitchens and helping the impoverished work well in
rural declining areas.
 Teamwork and utilization of volunteers is a very strategic
choice to be made.
Rural Church Revitalization
Works Best When…
 Renewal is focused on care of community residents,
conversionism, social services, social issues of the
community, and serving as a leadership voice into the
community for the residents.
 Renewal efforts are pushed from a 6 mile focus to a thirty
mile focus.
 Marrying and Burying with great competencies will
serve you well.
Church Revitalization Realities
in Rural America!
Problems noted by our respondents which make the rural church revitalization
ministry difficult clustered around the following 10 topics:
1. Aging congregation.
2. Traditional or local in perspective and not open to change, or welcoming of
the new persons, methods, programs.
3. Lack of young people in the church.
4. Shortage of money and other resources
5. Declining population base in the area served.
6. Unable to offer a variety of programs and activities due to limited number of
persons active in the congregation.
7. To few people with leadership abilities and training in the congregation.
8. Hard to keep a minister for the church.
9. Competition from secular activities.
10. Remaining true to the Gospel and proclaiming it properly in an age of
secularity.
Source: ruralchurch.us
Church Revitalization Realities
in Rural America!
Conversely, the advantages that rural ministry offers seems to cluster around
these 10 topics:
1. Its relational, "like family", atmosphere.
2. Dedicated workers who are reliable.
3. Allow the pastor to be a shepherd/leader.
4. Deeply involved in ministry to one another and to the community.
5. Strong financial support to address the needs of the church and its ministry.
6. Actively supportive of the world missions enterprise.
7. Deep abiding faith that has carried many through difficult times, helping
them to grow spiritually.
8. Open minded and accepting of new ideas.
9. Supportive of other small churches.
10. Love is experienced in the congregation.
Consider which of these advantages and disadvantages are descriptive of a rural
or town congregation with which you are well acquainted.
Source: ruralchurch.us
Church Revitalization Realities
in Rural America!
The problems that rural pastors may have to confront, or otherwise deal with can be
congregated around these 10 topics:
1. Small town mentality conservative, pre-modern in thinking, resistant to change, suspicious
of the "different".
2. Limited access to some modern conveniences and cultural activities close at hand.
3. Time constraints related to serving bi-vocationally, or in a multi-point charge.
4. Constraint of opportunities to grow a church to a larger, more active size.
5. Poor self-image for self and church.
6. Struggles over traditions that seem to stifle vision and change.
7. Sacrifices by spouse and children related to living in a rural area.
8. Sense of being "under-employed" or lacking challenges that are related to ones gifts and
training.
9. Stress related to the dysfunctionality of persons in the community; e.g. gossip, addictions,
and abuses.
10. Lack of material resources in the church to provide the kind of ministry that one wants to
be able to provide.
Source: ruralchurch.us
Source: ruralchurch.us
The advantages for those of us who do rural ministry are identified
and collected in this list of 10:
1. Enjoyment of the intimacy and familiar nature of the congregation.
2. The depth of relationships with congregants which makes meaningful
shepherding ministry possible.
3. People who are willing to follow their pastor and are open to new
ways of doing things.
4. Relationships with mature Christians who have a deeply rooted
spirituality.
5. Relaxed pace in the community.
6. Acceptance and affirmation by the church and community.
7. Involvement in the larger life of the community and its institutions.
8. Working with church leaders who really care deeply about ministry to
others.
9. Able to move around the community feeling known and knowing.
10. The sense that one's life is counting for something vital.
Things Which Should Be Stated
About Rural Revitalization!
 This will be the most challenging ministry assignment you will ever
face! STAY THE COURSE.
 Your initial friends in the church will often become your biggest
enemies due to your calling to revitalize a dying rural church.
 Some of those who take flight will talk about you forever in that
community so you must be toughed skinned.
 Your marriage must be strong if you at to survive.
 Often you will feel like you are the sacrificial lamb being led to the
slaughter.
 JESUS loves the little communities as much as he loves the big
ones!
Church Revitalization Realities
in Rural America!
 Despite popular perception, rural America is
not a single community of homogenous
farmers struggling to make a living. The
communities of rural America are arguably
far more diverse than their urban
counterparts. Economically, socially, and
culturally, rural America is at the forefront of
adaptive change.
Church Revitalization Realities
in a Diverse Rural America!
 This diversity is most evident when surveying the rural
economy. Across the country, agriculture still plays an
important economic role – but fewer farmers are in
business today than ever before. Many communities,
blessed by natural amenities and scenic beauty, have
capitalized on increased tourism as a way of
strengthening the local economy. Manufacturing still
employs many rural Americans. The service sector,
including tourism, dominates rural employment,
supplying a full 2/3 of rural jobs. Many rural areas still
rely on mining and resource extraction, particularly in
the West.
Church Revitalization Realities in
Rural America!
 The lasting solutions to rural America’s churches
challenges will be found in rural America. But we
should not delude ourselves into thinking that the
rural American church has so many unique issues.
In fact, most of the challenges facing the rural
American church today, are often the same
challenges for the declining rural, urban fringe, and
extreme urban church seeking renewal and
revitalization. Yet, while the challenges are similar,
but the solutions are more unique.
Core Issues in Rural America Today
Today, there are three rural Americas, sometimes
distinct and sometimes overlapping, each with its own
challenges:
 Amenity-rich areas, which are growing as Baby
Boomers retire, as more people buy second homes,
and as “footloose professionals” choose to settle in
small towns with rich natural amenities or proximity
to large cities.
Core Issues in Rural America Today
Today, there are three rural Americas, sometimes
distinct and sometimes overlapping, each with its own
challenges:
 Declining resource-dependent areas, which can no
longer rely on agriculture, timber, mining, or related
manufacturing industries to support a solid blue-collar
middle class.
Core Issues in Rural America Today
Today, there are three rural Americas, sometimes
distinct and sometimes overlapping, each with its own
challenges:
 Chronically poor communities, where decades of
resource extraction and underinvestment have left a
legacy of poverty, low education, and broken civic
institutions.
Core Issues in Rural America Today
These conditions influence how communities address
the issues they face amid a changing rural landscape.
 Amenity-rich areas, for example, must work to
ensure the successful integration of newcomers and
long-time residents, avoid a two-tier system of
wealthy residents and those who serve them, and
protect the natural environment that attracted the
amenity migrants..
Core Issues in Rural America Today
These conditions influence how communities address
the issues they face amid a changing rural landscape.
 Communities facing declining economies must
develop programs to ameliorate the impact of
economic decline and innovate to stem future
population and job loss. Chronically poor
communities must expand their human and social
capital to break the chain of persistent poverty.
The rural practitioners interviewed identified five
main issues driving change in rural America:
 Demographic transitions
 Changing economic conditions
 Changing patterns of investment and resource
distribution
 Challenges facing community institutions and
civic leaders
 Environmental challenges
Demographic Challenges
perspectives from the rural field:
 The loss of population, especially the young
 Our communities are 25 percent older than the rest
of the nation. There is a significant decrease in
population aged 30–39 and their children. With it,
the social infrastructure is declining. We have fewer
kids in school and no one to coach Little League.
 Quality of life
 New rural Americans
Changing Economic
Conditions
 Declining resource-dependent areas have been hard hit by
globalization and other economic forces. These are “yesterday’s”
communities, where agriculture, paper and pulp mills, mining, and
rural manufacturing sustained a blue-collar middle class and
reasonably strong community institutions.
 Pools of skilled labor are insufficient and declining in rural areas. a
workforce that can work the land is disappearing.
 Rural communities need more entrepreneurs, and they must attract
people who can build new companies and create jobs.
 Technical and educational resources for workforce training are limited,
often exacerbated by declining revenues for local schools.
 Absentee ownership and destructive resource extraction of core assets
siphon off economic value in some communities and entire rural
regions.
Natural resource-based economy
 Industrialization, consolidation, and globalization have
changed the agricultural and forestry sectors, squeezing out
smaller farmers, landowners, and operators, depressing wages
and prices, and discouraging young people from entering the
field.
 Large-scale agriculture is growing at the expense of small producers.
 An economy based on tourism is both a curse and a blessing.
 On the positive side, in-migrants are often dynamic, but on the
negative side, the tourism economy is a seasonal service economy that
pays no benefits. With a resort-based economy, you end up with some
very wealthy and a lot of low-income earners.
Entrepreneurship
 Entrepreneurship is a critical driver of economic vitality in
rural areas.
 Creating new, flexible small business development services,
loan, grant and tax incentive programs, and technical
assistance and educational options can help reverse the longterm drain of entrepreneurial capacity from rural areas.
Institutions and Civic
Leadership

Challenges Facing Community

The rapid rate of change, declining effectiveness of traditional economic
strategies, increasing environmental challenges, and demographic transitions
require leadership to guide the community in new ways of thinking and doing.
respondents called for leaders to be visionary and to see the potential in their
communities; they must also be risk takers, able to create and respond to
opportunities, and they must identify and use the assets within their own
communities, rather than relying on dwindling and often inappropriate external
assistance. some respondents described their communities as conservative and
risk-averse, places where calling for change and action is not part of the civic
culture.

The old leadership cadre is often resistant to change, accustomed to traditional
ways of doing things that worked well for them in the “old economy.” new
approaches of sharing power and bringing in younger and more diverse voices are
threatening to them. Many describe county officials as remote from community
affairs, more overtly political, and often dominated by big business. Democracy
in some rural communities is weak, with a politics of “who you know,” rather
than one based on issues. some local communities have lost trust in local and
larger government, and public participation has diminished.
Church Revitalization Realities
in Rural America!
The Rural Church in America in this
century, must develop new relationships
and new ways of doing things to ensure a
prosperous, and healthy future while
tapping into the resourcefulness and
creativity of rural people.
Useful Rural Revitalization
Resources
Useful Rural Revitalization
Resources
Church Revitalization Realities in
Rural America!
Church
Revitalization
Realities in Rural
America!
By Tom Cheyney
Founder & Directional Leader
Renovate National
Church Revitalization
Conference