Category: Rural Ministry and Small Church
-
Youth Ministry Networks: Why Rural Youth Workers Need Them Most
One of the most consistent findings in youth ministry research is that isolated youth workers burn out faster than those connected to a network of peers. This is especially true in rural ministry, where the nearest colleague might be 30 miles away and the nearest youth ministry conference might be in a city that feels…
-
The Rural Brain Drain: What It Means for Small Churches and Rural Communities
The rural brain drain is one of the most significant challenges facing small towns and rural communities in America. Young people leave for college, for careers, for military service, or simply for a different life. Many do not come back. Over time, this outward migration reshapes the community in ways that are hard to reverse.…
-
Small Church Leadership: What Works When You Have 40 People and No Staff
Small church leadership is its own discipline. The skills that make someone effective leading a congregation of 40 people in a rural community are not the same skills that make someone effective leading a congregation of 400 people in a suburb. The contexts are different, the relationships are different, and the challenges are different. I…
-
Rural Church Revitalization: What Actually Works in Small Towns
Most rural church revitalization conversations start in the wrong place. They start with programs, strategies, and models borrowed from suburban churches that have nothing to do with the actual situation of a 40-person congregation in a small town where everyone knows everyone and the church has been there for 100 years. I have been in…
-
Rural Ministry AI Tools: What Helps, What Hurts, and What to Watch Out For
Rural ministry leaders are using AI tools. Most of them are doing it quietly, without a policy, without a theological framework, and without much guidance from their denomination or their peers. That is not a criticism. It is just where things are right now. I have been in ministry since 1998 and in IT since…
-
The IT Leader Who Is Also a Pastor: Why I Work at Both
People sometimes ask me which one I am: the IT guy or the pastor. The honest answer is that I have never been able to separate them, and I stopped trying a long time ago. I have been in IT since 1997. I have been in ministry since 1998. For most of that time, those…
-
Small Town Church Technology: What Actually Works and What to Skip
Most church technology guides are written for churches with a full-time staff, a dedicated IT person, and a budget that can absorb a few bad decisions. That is not most churches. Most churches in America have fewer than 100 people in attendance, a bi-vocational pastor, and volunteers who are doing their best with whatever tools…
-
Bi-Vocational Pastor Conference Speaker: Speaking From the Inside
If you are looking for a speaker who understands bi-vocational ministry from the inside, not just as a topic, I have been doing it for most of my adult life. I have worked in IT since 1997 and been in ministry since 1998. For years those two things ran in parallel. They still do. That…
-
Faith, Technology, and Rural Community: Why I Work at the Intersection of All Three
People ask how I ended up doing both IT strategy and rural ministry. The honest answer: I never really separated them. Both are about helping people build something that lasts.
-
The Bi-Vocational Pastor and Technology: What Helps, What Hurts, and What to Ignore
Most bi-vocational pastors are running on fumes. Here’s how the right technology can give small church leaders back hours every week — and what to skip entirely.