Leading congregations toward a more faithful practice of making new generations of disciples.
Resources
This page will be added to regularly, so check back for more resources! If there is something specific you are looking for or working on, send me a message. I’ll happily share my recommendations!
The mission of Not Consumed Ministries is “Helping families grow in faith”. They offer solid resources for family discipleship. My family is using their “Brother Keeper” study. It is Biblically solid, engaging, and easy to use as a family. I highly recommend their resources. Click the image or HERE to check out their website. Many of our rural student ministries have either disappeared or been struggling to re-develop since the pandemic. And even before that, we have struggled in this area. Perhaps these resources can be used to encourage and equip families to get in the word together and strengthen their relationships with one another and with our loving and merciful Creator!Click the image above to check out this training resource offered by Pfrimmer’s Chapel in rural Indiana. Referenced in Strategically Small part 1 and part 2 with Pastor Tim Johnson. The books pictured above are some of the newest rural ministry resources having been published in 2018, 2019, and 2020 respectively. You may also find reviews for each at the links below.
Interview with Danny Davis- author of Rural Church Turnaround
The books pictured above and article links below are mentioned in or recommended after our conversation on Politics and Rural Ministry, posted February 11, 2021.
Here are two more good reads for churches right now. We Need to Talk About Raceis written specifically to white churches and So You Want to Talk About Race even has a study guide. In this season, we need to have some hard conversations with ourselves and with our congregations. You may need to start with Difficult Conversations: How to discuss what matters mostand encouraging your leaders to read it too. White Fragilityand How to be an Antiracist are highly recommended to our congregations for this season as well. Hard copies may be difficult to find at the moment, but each congregation and pastor in the MO UMC conference will receive a copy of White Fragility in August. The Hate U Give is a fictional novel that may serve as an excellent conversation starter especially among youth. It has even been made into a movie, which also helps to engage students in the conversation. I plan to work my way through these books this year. Certainly these will influence my blog posts, so if you want to read along with me, I’ll read in this order beginning withGod’s Country: Faith, Hope, and the Future of the Rural Church. Transforming Rural America, Exponential. Blessed be the Busybody is the first in the Ministry is Murder mystery series by Emilie Richards. I’ve included this because I so enjoy a good mystery. When your brain is on continuing education overload, it is good to have something fun to read so you don’t lose the desire. When Helping Hurts is a must read for all who have a desire to help those in need. This book doesn’t tell you not to help, but teaches you how to help in transformational and healthy ways. This book speaks to individual giving, local missions and benevolence funds, short-term mission trips, and long-term global partnerships. If your church is like most, you keep asking the same question: what are we to do with and for the needy people who come knocking every month? How can we help them without perpetuating their situation? This book is for you! Click HERE for a resource list which was developed as a handout for the Rural Ministry Now Conference. This list includes recommended reading, curriculum resources, ministry ideas, and more. It is by no means an exhaustive list, but just may spark some creativity.This Changes Everythingwill explain and remind us of the WHY behind student ministries! A New Kind of Leader comes out of Orange and helps our congregation members build relationships with youth and their parents by transforming the way we think about them. It is an easy read and offers a page at the end of each chapter to write down some action steps.This bookoffers practical help for building or growing school partnerships.Growing Young comes out of Fuller Youth institute and offers 6 strategies to help your church connect with young people.Sticky Faith is a must read for youth directors AND congregations who love youth. So often we leave youth ministry to our paid or volunteer staff person and the parents, but this book reminds us of the important role of the whole congregation!This book totally transformed the way I think about and do youth ministry. It is an important book to be read by your youth ministry team. If you have one, your youth ministry staff person (paid or unpaid) may have read it already, but should also be read by anyone with responsibility for hiring or oversight of that position as well.Have you heard about these folks? They’ve been around a while and they offer training opportunities and other resources and support. Check out their website here.
Growing Rural Ministries 