Dakotafire Get your spark here.
The Rev. Tim Koch serves Concordia Lutheran in Cresbard and Immanuel Lutheran in Wecota. “People are people—rural ministry, inner city, it doesn’t matter. You are going to deal with a lot of the same issues,” Koch said. “We all struggle with sin, and the need to hear a Savior. We struggle with raising children and what that means, and what does it mean to love our neighbor as our self.” Read more of Koch’s thoughts on rural ministry here. Photo from the Concordia Lutheran website
For urban and suburban pastors, serving rural churches means crossing a cultural divide
By Heidi Marttila-Losure, Dakotafire Media
Reporting by Doug Card, Britton Journal; Bill Krikac, Clark County Courier; Garrick Moritz, Faulk County Record; Melody Owen, Tri-County News
Which way, in faith?
Our prairie churches are no longer what they once were.
A century ago, rural folks didn’t have to travel far to church. Nearly every township had one, and most small towns had churches for several denominations. Pews were often full as people found renewal for the week in the music and the message; church steps were crowded after services, as neighbors shared greetings and the news. Finding council members and Sunday School teachers wasn’t terribly difficult, and when the church needed to, calling a new pastor was challenging but doable.
That’s not the scene for many churches today. Much of the attention of the world and the larger church has moved, with many of the people, to cities and suburbs. Most of the rural church buildings still stand, but membership numbers are fewer, costs are higher, and everything feels stretched—time, money and energy.
The old era is gone. But what is coming next? Many rural churches face difficult, painful decisions—but it’s possible that on the other side of those decisions, a new era for these people of God could emerge. As one church leader said, “we are a Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Easter Sunday kind of people.” What appears to be the end turns out not to be.
This is the first in a three-part Dakotafire series about the challenges facing our rural churches. This week’s story looks at the difficulty rural churches have in calling and retaining ministers.
See the next two stories in the series:
- From Jan. 21: “Rural churches’ survival sometimes depends on crossing denominational boundaries”
- From Jan. 28: “Rural churches, built for a different era, look for ways to stay relevant”
Don’t come to St. John’s Lutheran Church in Britton, S.D., on Sunday morning for worship—you will be about half a day late.
The church recently lost its full-time pastor, so the pastor of a joint parish in Andover and Ferney is leading services for them. There are not enough hours on Sunday morning to get to all the churches, so St. John’s is worshipping at 6 p.m. Saturday instead.
Alternating church times may remain into the future. They had a joint parish with Peace Lutheran in Hecla, but that country church is considering closing. St. John’s won’t close, but it is struggling also. The church has come to the difficult conclusion that it can no longer support a full-time pastor.
“Ten years ago our average church attendance was in the 90s, and now it’s in the mid-40s and -50s,” explained Kent Zuehlke, council president at St. John’s. “In the meantime, wages have gone up, and costs for retirement plans and health benefits have increased.”
Zuehlke said that getting a seminary-trained pastor is a $70,000 expense for churches, which would require about 90 to 100 people in regular attendance. They don’t see numbers going in that direction.
“Our goal is to keep the door open as long as we possibly can, and we will find a way to do that,” Zuehlke said.
As mainline churches across America struggle with declining membership, rural churches often face an additional problem: The difficulty of calling and keeping a pastor. Cost is a significant concern, as health care costs and the amount of debt seminary graduates bring with them have both skyrocketed at the same time that membership numbers have declined. But making the math work is just part of the challenge.
Pastors not growing up in Lake Woebegon anymore
In 1918, author Edwin L. Earp argued that it was important to develop good candidates for rural ministry, even though it might not seem necessary, since “the countryside is still furnishing about eighty-five per cent of the ministerial leadership of the churches, including the cities, and when many of the leading laymen were born and reared in the farm home or in the manse of the country parish.”
Today, the urban apartment or the “manse” of the suburbs might be more accurate descriptions of where pastors grow up, as the statistic has nearly exactly flipped. For example, between 80 and 85 percent of students going to Luther Seminary are from urban or suburban backgrounds, according to Alvin Luedke, professor of rural ministry at Luther.
But as the background of ministers has changed, the location of most churches has not changed much: 47 percent of churches that are part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) are still in rural places, Luedke said.
The statistics for other mainline churches are similar, according to information from the National Congregations Study from 2009:
Most congregations are small. The median congregation has only 75 regularly participating people and an annual budget of approximately $90,000. Ninety percent of all congregations have 350 or fewer people.
But this is only half the story. Even though there are relatively few large congregations with many members, sizable budgets, and numerous staff, these large congregations contain most of the churchgoers. Even though the average congregation has only 75 regular participants and an annual budget of $90,000, the average person is in a congregation with 400 people and a budget of $280,000. (From a blog entry by Mark Chaves, director of the National Congregations Study)
This means that somewhere around 60 percent of new pastors will have their first call in a rural congregation—unfamiliar terrain for many of them. “Many of them remember going to a farm or a small town to visit grandparents, but they’ve never actually lived there, and yet that’s the context that they are likely to be called to,” Luedke said.
For many of these new ministers, the idea of going to a rural place doesn’t generate excitement.
“It’s more of a reaction of reluctance and uncertainty,” said the Rev. Keith Zeh, Director for Evangelical Mission in Eastern N.D. and Northwestern Minn. Synods in the ELCA. “It would be an adventure for them, if they were an adventuresome person.”
And, apparently, not everyone is.
“I think it is more difficult to get pastors because of our ruralness,” said Kathy Buisker, office manager at First Presbyterian Church in Britton. The church has been without a pastor since May and is seeking a full-time replacement. “Some say, ‘Where in the world is South Dakota?’”
The Rev. John Erbele, pastor of Recharge Church in Streeter, N.D., said that there’s often a sense of a ladder to climb in the world of ministry, just as there is in the corporate world—the idea that “bigger is better.” If so, then last year Erbele was fairly high on that ladder—he was pastor in a church of 2,000 when he and other family members decided to stop “living for the mortgage” and move to Streeter to be closer to family.
Erbele said pastoring a large church took a toll on him, and he realized that “God’s will is not always bigger and better.”
(The seeds they’ve planted in Streeter may have started small, but they are growing quickly: Since launching in April 2012, Recharge Church has grown to 150 people. The church meets on Sunday evenings, as it intends to be an additional worship experience, not to “steal” members from other churches.)
Buisker from First Presbyterian said another problem they face is whether the spouse can find employment in a rural community. Often, spouses have careers of their own they want to pursue, which can be difficult to make work in a small town.
Making sure the spouse feels at home and finds a purpose in the community is vital to successfully calling, and then keeping, a pastor, says the Rev. Tim Koch, who serves at Concordia Lutheran in Cresbard, S.D., and Immanuel Lutheran in Wecota, S.D. (both part of the Lutheran Church of the Missouri Synod).
“I have an advantage in that I’m a pastor, so I am seen by the community and get to deal with a lot of people, even though it is a rural setting,” Koch said. “However, my wife is more likely to fall through the cracks.”
Bridging the cultural divide
The Rev. Tammy Craker serves Our Savior Lutheran in Faulkton. "This is my first call as a pastor, and my family and I have loved becoming a part of the Faulkton community," Craker said. "The whole town and surrounding area has been very welcoming and have accepted us as a part of the community. We are happy to be here." Photo By Faulk County Record
Luedke gives one lecture to students at Luther on the aspects of a rural call that are different from a call in an urban area. For example, he explains that students will be leaving a very academic, theory-heavy environment and going into an oral culture—a place where people relate to each other through story telling. He also explains that when serving an aging population, success likely won’t be measured in increasing membership.
Another challenge is that for pastors to get a footing in the community, they need to take part in community life in a way they might not have to in an urban setting.
Koch had previously lived in St. Louis, where nearly every store or service was in close driving distance. When he moved to Cresbard, he learned that relying on neighbors is a necessary part of rural life.
“I’ve had to go to the neighbor’s to get lasagna noodles, because I was halfway done making lasagna and thought I had some and didn’t. That’s new,” he said. “It forces me to ask for help when before—you just go to the store and buy it.”
The Rev. Nancy Manning, who had a 37-year nursing career before going into ministry and now serves a three-point parish—United Methodist Church in Britton, Claremont (S.D.) United Methodist and Hecla (S.D.) United Methodist—said she’s noticed that younger pastors don’t always see the importance of building these relationships outside of church activities.
“With younger pastors it does not seem that the focus is on visitation, getting to know each other face to face, which rural churches really thrive on,” Manning said.
Help from church bodies
Larger church organizations have recognized that they need to do something to help connect urban pastors and rural churches, and have started programs in response:
Becoming a Better Call
Small churches aren’t always able to offer more money, but it’s possible to find other ways to be welcoming that increase the chances a pastor will come—and stay. Here are some ideas shared by area ministers.
- Consider a team effort. The work involved in a multi-point parish can be daunting; it’s possible that the load could be lessened if some of the duties were done by part-time paid staff or volunteer laypeople.
- Be creative with the financial package. One thing that might help is starting an investment fund to help pay down the debt of the seminarian, said the Rev. Keith Garness of Willow Lake.
- Welcome the family. This could mean helping the spouse find work. “If the congregation is hospitable to the family, that will overlook a whole lot,” Garness said.
- Be open to change. “If they are willing to be flexible in some things and willing to try things that always haven’t been their tradition, it makes a significant difference,” said the Rev. Nancy Manning of Britton.
- In the long term, develop lay leaders and young people into future ministers. People who grew up in rural ministry are more likely to want to continue in rural ministry. “I believe ministers who have a heart for rural ministy are very eager to serve a rural congregation,” said the Rev. Tammy Craker of Faulkton. “Growing up in a rural church helps me to understand what it takes to serve the people in a rural setting.”
- The Presbyterian Church (USA)’s program, called For Such a Time as This, pays some of the new pastor’s costs when they accept a call in a rural congregation, and in return the pastor commits to stay for two years. Churches still pay full salaries to the pastors.
- The Lutheran Church of the Missouri Synod has a program called Rural and Small Town Mission that provides training to leaders in responding to the needs of rural places.
- Town & Country Training from Rural Home Missionary Association offers rural immersion experiences for ministers who may serve in a rural church. Participants attend cattle sales, farm auctions, and sit down for dinner or coffee and talk with the locals, explained the Rev. Tim Blackman, who serves both Grace Baptist Church and the United Church of Christ in Gackle, N.D. Blackman said the program has been successful in preparing new ministers for the differences of rural congregations compared to cities.
- Luther Seminary (St. Paul, Minn.) offers a rural immersion program, in which participants get to know a rural community over the course of an intense weekend.
- Wartburg Theological Seminary (Dubuque, Iowa) has a Horizon Internship program that connects new pastors with rural congregations.
Some of these programs have already helped churches in the Dakotas. The Rev. Mark Terayama, for example, went to the First Presbyterian Church in Sisseton in 2010 as part of the For Such a Time as This program. In September his title was changed from “designated pastor” to “pastor.” (His story was featured in this Faith & Leadership article.) Bancroft Lutheran in Bancroft (S.D.) has an intern that is working through Wartburg’s Horizon Internship program. But many of these programs are new, and “we don’t have enough of them,” said the Rev. Keith Garness, who serves the three-point Prairie Star Lutheran Parish in Willow Lake, S.D., and Vienna, S.D.
Benefits of rural calls
The turnover rate at rural churches can be quite high—some rural churches have had to find a new pastor every two years, said Koch of Concordia Lutheran. Not all pastors settle well into rural life.
But there are always some that do.
Among the benefits of a rural call that pastors cited are the slower pace of life, the can-do attitude and the caring relationships among neighbors.
“In a rural congregation, members know every other member,” said the Rev. Tammy Craker of Our Savior Lutheran in Faulkton. “There is a close connection to those around you, not only in your church, but in the community at large. If someone needs help, the rural community will do their best to help them out.”
Garness said he has gotten to know people in the community as well as in the parish. “Going to festivals, parades and basketball games on a cold January night and being part of a community you are welcomed into, means a lot,” he said.
Koch said rural ministry also gives pastors the opportunity to do things that they couldn’t do in a suburban setting, such as see people at work—riding along in a combine, for example.
“The opportunity … to share with them the ministry of presence and the word of Christ at the same time they are doing their job, I think that is unique to rural ministry,” Koch said.
Koch would tell his seminary classmates hankering for urban placements that rural calls can be immensely satisfying with the right attitude.
“If you look at rural ministry like the gulags in Siberia, you will have a terrible time out here,” he said. “But if you look at it as a wonderful challenge, you will approach it with zeal and excitement, and when you are excited, the people are excited, and that’s a wonderful thing.”
