Wal-Mart churches spring up in rural areas

...Farley said rural churches need to face reality, particularly the expectation that they should have a full-time pastor.

Fifty years ago this model was emphasized so strongly in the SBC that many people treat a bivocational pastor as a step backward, he said.

But Farley recommended churches reevaluate their ministry and accept their capabilities and limitations. The other step he suggested is finding a niche and doing it well.

"I tell rural churches all the time to find themselves a signature ministry," Farley said. "Don't try to compete with these big, emerging churches. Find something you do well that will draw people who need the ministry or want to do it, such as music or ministry to an age segment."

"I know one rural church with 75 to 80 in Sunday school and they take 30 to 40 people on a mission trip every year. If a church can find something to get excited about, it will revitalize them and they'll do well. That's the future of the rural church."

To survive, existing rural churches need strong pastoral leadership and a willingness to reach out and serve their communities, said Harris, who accepted Jesus as his personal Savior at a rural SBC church in southeastern Kentucky.

"If they stay like they've been, they're going to die," the NAMB official said. "There's a new kind of rural church needed that is more ministry -- than program-driven. People are hungry (and) homeless. There are unwed mothers. I haven't been in an area where churches couldn't grow if they looked around at the needs."

Randy Jones, director of missions for the Kentucky Baptist Convention, said that rural churches can be revitalized and turned into missions-minded, growing assemblies. But it requires committing to a minimum five-year process and realizing that some who don't like change will leave, he said.

Excellent thoughts on the rural church.