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Small Church Leadership Network
Rural Ministry
Building Leaders for the Rural Church
A Ministry of Village Missions
Village Missions exists to glorify Jesus Christ by developing spiritually vital country churches in rural North America. We fulfill this aim by placing pastors in small town and rural churches that might otherwise have to close, and in doing so, preserve the Gospel presence in communities across the United States and Canada.
Two New Books Now Available To purchase, just click on the book cover.
Retooling the Rural Church for the 21st Century
Rural churches are standing at a crossroads. Long seen as stable anchors of their communities, they now face accelerating cultural change, declining influence, and a rapidly emerging post-Christian worldview—even in places once thought immune to such shifts. Retooling the Rural Church for the Twenty-First Century confronts this reality head-on. Rather than lamenting what has been lost, Glenn Daman and Jeff Clark issue a hopeful and urgent call for renewal. Grounded in theology and informed by decades of rural ministry and research, this book challenges pastors and leaders to rethink models of church life and ministry. It argues that survival will not come through preserving buildings, programs, or traditions but through reclaiming the church’s missional identity. Offering both clear-eyed cultural analysis and practical guidance, this book equips rural churches to adapt, innovate, and reengage their communities with confidence—faithful to the gospel while courageously retooling for a new world.
The God of Small Places
The rural church is facing a crisis. Churches are struggling to find pastors, and many are being closed by denominations that would rather focus their resources on urban ministries. As a result, rural communities are becoming a spiritual wasteland where people are unreached with the gospel, and a gospel-driven church is no longer present to give them the hope of salvation. Today, there is a need for a new theological vision for rural ministry that sees rural ministry as an expression of the Great Commission and an outgrowth of God’s character. The purpose of this book is to develop a theological vision for rural ministry by describing how the theology of God’s character and purpose gives purpose, vision, and perspective for rural churches and communities. It serves a clarion call for a new vision for the spiritual transformation of rural communities that is grounded in an understanding of God and his desire for the salvation of rural people.
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