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Overview of the Course

The course includes ten units pertaining to church life in rural settings. Each of the ten units includes a set of readings. The ten units are divided into two volumes with five units each. The first volume provides an overview of the church in its rural context. The second volume addresses some of the ministries in and of the rural church. Some of the readings are historical "classics," while others are more current. An Introduction Section reviews the readings. We realize that you have constraints on your time. Thus, as you read the introduction section, select the articles that you will be of most interest to you in your particular setting.

The readings should provide a background for the topics under discussion in the various units. Most of the readings address the church primarily as a social organization rather than as a spiritual or theological one. Although theology plays a key role in the way churches are organized and function, theological issues rarely are included in the readings because of the wide theological diversity of those taking the course. We selected readings from many denominational backgrounds. Theological discussion is critical to rural pastors. Depending on the composition of your group, you may wish to share theological materials from your own collections that could be valuable to the other group members.

At the end of the readings in each unit is a list of projects or assignments to complete. They will culminate in a self-study of your church in its denominational and community context. We designed the assignments on the basis of current research and the practical experiences of rural practitioners. They are intended to be thought-provoking, practical, and fun. Some of these assignments are action-oriented; others require you to reflect on the information you collect.

The course should be taken with other pastors. By meeting regularly and consistently every week or two, you will receive the most benefit. Pastors who have taken the basic Rural Social Science Education course found that the group meetings became a course highlight. Participants shared their experiences and expressed their concerns about what they had been learning. And, like the basic Rural Social Science Education, this course also works best if each member in the group completes the readings and assignments before meeting with the group.

The first unit of this volume covers the rural church in America, some of its theology and history, and how various denominations have been involved with rural churches. Unit 2 describes the characteristics and dynamics of the rural church. Contrasts are made between urban and rural churches. The third unit analyzes how contextual (social, economic, and demographic) changes impact rural churches. Units 4 and 5 focus on how the rural church responds to contextual changes. Unit 5 pertains primarily to the church's response to changes in the structure of rural industries such as agriculture, forestry, fishing, and mining/energy.

Various ministries of the rural church are explored in Units 6, 7, and 8. The ninth unit involves leadership, administration, clergy-lay relationships, and organizational issues in the rural church. Finally, Unit 10 deals with clergy preparation for rural ministry through seminary training and continuing education, and it explores the future of the rural church.

The course is designed so you can conduct a self-study of your church. The readings and assignments are tools to use in your study. To complete the self-study, you will use a wide range of study methods, and you will be directed to numerous sources of information. The self-study primarily will involve a number of ethnographic methods. Ethnographies (from the Greek words ethnos, people or folk, and graph, to study) are descriptions of people from their own perspectives. That means that the ethnographer must be able to perceive the world of the folk being studied from their own vantage point. Thus, many of the activities include conversations with those who are involved in your church as well as with those outside of your church.

A second source of information will be secondary data, which will be used to provide demographic, economic, and social background on your church and community. You can obtain this information from your library, state Census Data Center, state and local governments, business organizations, and school officials.

A third source of information will be documentary data. This type of information includes documents from your church, such as financial and membership records, minutes of meetings, clippings, and letters to the editor of your local newspaper. Thus, what you learn from this course comes from a variety of sources and methods (Figure 1).

The ethnomethodological approaches used in this course can be summed up with the saying, "To learn, you must D.I.E." (sounds theological, doesn't it?!). The saying means that you must Describe, Interpret, and Evaluate your experiences. For example, suppose you are studying the changes in your community. You start by describing or listing what you have observed. You would ask, "What is happening?" Next, you interpret what you observed by asking, "What do these changes mean?" or "What are the impacts of these changes?" Finally, you evaluate the changes by asking, "Am I OK with what I see, or would I like to see something else happen?" At this point, the rural pastor can minister to the church and community. Many of the assignments take the D.I.E. form of reflection.

Texas A&M's Rural Social Science Education program strongly encourages that the basic course, Discovering the Uniqueness of Rural Communities, be taken before this course on The Rural Church in America.