The Church Lobby

Ep 044: Ministry in Today’s Rural Church, with Brad Roth

Mar 23, 2023

48:38

Creator website

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Introduction

2min

The Importance of the Rural Church

3min

The Importance of the Rural Church

2min

The Different Types of Rural

3min

The Rural Worldview

3min

The Challenge of Moving to a Small Town

3min

How to Be an Authentic Pastor in a Small Town Setting

4min

How to Overcome a Burnout in a Rural Church

4min

The Power of God's Transformation

2min

10.

The Importance of Place in Rural Ministry

5min

11.

The Importance of Being a Part of the Community

2min

12.

The Importance of New Metrics in Rural Congregations

4min

13.

How to Measure Your Church

3min

14.

Encourage the Discouraged Rural Pastor Today

2min

15.

The Importance of Being Together in Rural Ministry

3min

16.

The Best Piece of Ministry Advice You've Ever Received

2min

17.

God's Country, Faith Hope and the Future of the Rural Church

2min

18.

The Importance of Metrics in Church Growth

3min

Karl Vaters interviews Brad Roth, a Mennonite pastor in rural Kansas, a blogger at DoxologyProject.com, and the author of God's Country: Faith, Hope, and the Future of the Rural Church.

Brad and Karl talk about four concepts from his book:

The importance of Rural church
Acedia
The importance of Place
A New Way to Measure Growth

They also have an important conversation about replacing the typical metrics of demographics and attendance with what Brad calls “getting weird” as we assess church health and growth. Specifically, Brad raises the idea of using “rule” rather than metrics as our baseline.

This episode will encourage you who serve in rural areas, and hopefully will inspire pastors in transition to keep small towns on your list of ministry options.

Links from this episode:

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