The North Dakota District, like other midwest/rural LCMS districts, has a complicated situation. I serve the "big" congregation in our circuit as sole pastor (with also have a full time deaconess). But recently I began serving a small rural congregation about 30 miles from where I live. They used to be part of a dual parish, but the other congregation closed. There are no other congregations in our circuit that they could join with because they were either too far away or already a in a multiple parish arrangement (e.g., north of my congregation we have a 3 point parish and a 4 point parish!). I'm am leading a 2:00PM Sunday service at this small rural congregation where many of the members who live in that small town are elderly and can't easily make the drive to Jamestown where I live. So, I'm glad I'm able to serve them because they would not have other good options otherwise. They were willing to have a 2:00PM Sunday service because unless I offered a 6:00AM Sunday Service for them it would need to be afternoon or evening (I have two Sunday morning Services plus a morning bible class at my congregation).
What I described above is going to be more and more the norm for ND because we already have many multiple parish arrangements and some congregations have no other option but to be served by one of the pastors from a nearby larger congregation.
But what about the next 10 years for ND? Like Tim, I, too, will be retiring in less than 10 years - and so will many other pastors in the ND District! On the other hand, I can imagine several of our smaller congregations in ND closing within the next 10 years. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out and what solutions we come up with to deal with the situation.
Awhile back the Wyoming District was at over 2/3 dual or more "parishes," which means multiple preaching stations taken care of by one pastor. And the same is happening throughout the rural lands of Protestantism. Included in this is the closing down of a percentage of congregations as well.
A similar scenario is playing out in urban settings, with multiple sites overseen by one pastor or one staff. The urban difference is the amount of people in the various neighborhoods, which is basically plenty, as opposed to the thinning out of the rural communities (at least that's my impression) through the decades. Maybe you've been to some of those rural and small town confabs, Tom - what's the thought when it comes to outreach mission in the multiple site preaching stations? My impression is that a lot of the work could be described as pastoral chaplaincy - taking care of a dwindling and aging small group or two or three of them. Is there thought given to demographics/potential work in different ways?
I say this just having been in touch with a pastor who came from an urban background and has really started some new kinds of ministry in a rural setting that I hadn't thought would be possible. I'm trying to listen in more to understand the context. But what's your understanding of how this moves forward?
Dave Benke
As you noted, one huge difference between very small congregations in rural versus urban settings is that urban settings have a huge population of people to whom we can witness and who could be potential members. In contrast, many rural ND towns are dying. The pastor I mentioned who serves a 4 point parish in our circuit lives in a town of less that 200 people - and that's the BIG town among the 4 communities he serves. A couple of the towns where he serves congregations have less than 100 people - and those who mainly elderly people. The young families often end up moving to the bigger communities to obtain education opportunities for their children.
Now, this doesn't mean we do not have legitimate ministry in these very small towns. We have to find some way to serve our elderly members who live there - and usually that means a pastor from a nearby congregation or a retired pastor. It also may mean the District considering calling a full time circuit rider who could travel to these communities and visit our elderly people there.
As for our congregations in these small communities, one challenge to evangelism is that they already know everyone - and they know them all too well. This familiarity, depending on the history of their relationship, might actually get in the way of witnessing sometimes. But that doesn't mean they shouldn't try. In some cases reconciliation ministry is needed in these small communities. In addition, members of our small rural congregations could find ways to minister to those in their small towns who have various needs - if they are not ministering to them already. In some cases, the people in small towns in ND are actually doing a good job looking out for one another.
This is a great response, Tom. Small town/rural America, even with various and sundry problems and issues, still is where people by nature help people out - even if they don't like them much. A challenge then is combining congregations across larger acreages, when the people from, say, Wautoma, don't really have that much to do with the people from Plainfield. And that's not just accidental. Anyway, it takes some wisdom and knowledge of local lore to craft a plan with legs when people are taking their legs and moving out.
On the urban side, it's transition, as all-white neighborhoods were taken over by non-white people a generation ago, and now the grandchildren are coming back to, say, Bushwick, Brooklyn and driving out the people who came in 40 years ago and paying jacked-up rents.
I've had a long hesitancy about statistics trying to demonstrate that only 40% of rural people have a church home. Maybe that's the case, but my childhood with rural relatives and their friends contained no one who wasn't in somebody's church.
Dave Benke
