#RuralMinistry and More.
What a great week to do ministry. Right now, in our country, debate is raging about marriage equality. My Facebook and Twitter timelines are filling up with articles, messages, icons and new profile pictures that proclaim a student’s or adult’s stance on the issue. No matter what side you fall […]
This week, I’m preparing to preach our Easter sunrise worship service. It’s the fifth consecutive year I’ve had that privilege. That spans two churches, two pastors and an interim period. I enjoy preaching that service. I get to speak on the first service of our most holy day in front of […]
I’m the guy Walmart and Target loves. I enjoy walking into a store and making various types of purchases all at once. I hate going from store to store just to get everything I need. It’s more convenient to get everything under one roof. I’d much rather look at shoes, […]
I remember my first youth group Christmas party. I had planned a big party for the youth group, which was heavily middle school at the time. I lined up a host home for the event. We hyped it and publicized it. We prepared games and activities and spent part of […]
Resources are scarce in many rural churches today. None of us have unlimited volunteers, facilities or cash on hand. Many of us have to “do without” in one or multiple areas of ministry. Others try to do everything that the “big churches” do, but on a smaller scale. The health […]
This post is part one of a series on Rural Church Health. One of the things I see over and over in small and rural churches is that most of them desperately want to be healthy, but do not realize that they are “sick”. In this series, I am going to borrow […]
Brent Lacy from MinistryPlace.net is featured in an an interview at YouthWorkinIt.com. The interview is about Rural Youth Ministry. and the unique characteristics of working with youth in a rural context. Here is an excerpt: As part of our series about different types of youth work, this week we have an interview […]
VBS on spring break? This is an “outside the box” idea for many of you, but first, let me ask a few questions. 1) Do you have a hard time carving out a week during the summer to do VBS? 2) Are the bulk of your children’s and youth ministry […]
I was blessed with the opportunity to read Brian Berry’s New book Criticism Bites. We have all had to go through criticism from Youth Parents, bosses, family members, spouses, and even the voices in our own head. Brian does a great job reminding us that while we are linked to […]
13 years is a long time to do anything, even something you love and have a calling to do. Throughout the years I have learned a couple things that just make life smoother. In Youth Ministry, the idea of conferences came along fairly early, thanks to some older, wiser friends […]
When you think of rural churches, they are not often what you think of as the most welcoming churches. Our thoughts typically run to the “multi-mega-super-duper-humongo” city/suburb churches that have whole brigades of people ready to make your worship experience truly life-changing. That takes budgets, facilities, and people that rural churches lack. […]
Last week, one of the top news stories was the fact that some dude in Australia got an 11-inch footlong at the local Subway shop. Years ago, this wouldn’t be a big deal. He would tell a few friends, they might laugh at him for getting “ripped off”, and that […]
