I have a theory about rural communities that have populations under 2,000 people. It’s not based off of any scientific research… it’s purely an observation. Here it is: the vast majority of people in rural communities are passive and not naturally gifted as leaders or interested in the characteristics generally associated with leading.
There, I said it.
And for me, this has been one of the most difficult issues to deal with… and it daily drives me crazy. Let me give two reasons why it is frustrating:
(1) Our culture is supposed to mistrust church leaders. Anyone who knows anything about post-modernism knows that church leaders are suspect. They are probably lying and if they aren’t lying, they are just wrong. This has been demonstrated time and time again through research after research. People in cities mistrust pastors. Yet in many rural communities, pastors are still considered culturally to be “men” or “women” of God. In fact, pastors may be the most educated people around… so everyone assumes they should just follow their leadership. If you come from a mindset that takes the research about post-modernism’s mistrust of church leaders hook, line, and sinker, you’ll find yourself frustrated that everyone is always looking for you to… *gasp*… lead!
(2) Deep down, all leaders know that sometimes what appears to be “following” is actually just apathy. When people naturally “follow,” I sometimes wonder if they are just so apathetic about things that they will go anywhere. Deep down I know I’m not a good enough leader to get anyone and everyone to grab their gear and head into the deepest and darkest battle with me. That’s just not realistic. And my natural reaction to apathy is to pull away and distance myself from it, rather than to continue leading.
Despite these frustrations, I have come to see these two obstacles must be overcome if you want to serve well as a leader. I’m sure that there are other reasons that frustrate rural church leaders. What would you add?
Luke is a pastor-theologian living in northern California, serving as a co-lead pastor with his life, Dawn, at the Red Bluff Vineyard. Father of five amazing kids, when Luke isn’t hanging with his family, reading or writing theology, he moonlights as a fly fishing guide for Confluence Outfitters. He blogs regularly at LukeGeraty.com and regularly contributes to his YouTube channel.
I think there may be more to it that just that. One thing about rural settings is that everyone knows everyone (or at least it seems like it). In fact, the majority of the population is somehow related to each other. In a large city setting, you can tick someone off and then just go to a different church and never see them again. In a small town, that’s not really an option because you’ll run into them at the gas station or the grocery store or grandma’s birthday party. So small town people tend to try harder not to do anything that might be perceived as offensive. (Or at least, the church people are like that.) As you know, a good leader has to risk offending people sometimes.
“What would you add?”
hmmmm
Power brokers are difficult in a rural context for me sometimes… If the church has had a power broker or power brokers (for several decades) who give the church a characteristic of maintaining the old ways rather than engaging the new it creates an us VS them culture within the body when new people come in. If the power brokers could just step out by faith and lead the church to change rather than maintain… WOW who knows what would happen in many cases.
How about…
They are in the rural community because they are self starters and self sufficient and they hesitate having someone else tell them what to day.
Where I live though more than 2000 people (only 6000), the vast majority are go get’em entrepenuers and don’t like someone telling them how to do things.
Just thinking it through with all y’all
Judd,
In our community it is the opposite. I wonder if that’s a Midwest thing? Colorado’s cultural make up is WAY different than the Midwest… but maybe it IS the numeric thing.
In quite a few of the WI rural communities that I have been to (or learned from other pastors), they often feel like everyone is very, very passive. This is partly because of the concerns raised by Teresa, but I think it’s partly ingrained in the cultural make up that goes back for generations.
Of course, these are all just opinions… I need to find some research… ha ha
The problem seems to be more of being in a comfort zone than an issue of leadership. In my rural area, people seem to be upset about the changes of the economy. We are seeing many families move due to lack of work and those who are left want to see their church be that old reliable comfort. They cannot stomach any change because they want to live in that comfort of tradition that they have come to love.
If pastors and teachers (and administrators too) remembered that church is about a mutually supportive family of inter-serving gifted saints, then the modern American obsession with leadership would evaporate. Here’s the challenge for American churches: stand up to the perversely hierarchically impressed American culture, and find a biblical culture to challenge it. Perhaps by conducting church life in a manner opposed to the ‘ceo’ mentality of worldly adulation, and reflective of the biblical mutuality of service.
From my time in a small rural church I’d agree that ‘leaders’ were hard to find. That’s because we couldn’t care less about leading, what we cared about was service to each other, including the pastor. To conduct this ‘service’ some were organisers, some facilitators, others were encouragers, many prayed, some taught, all sought to be lead by the Spirit, and not a man (or woman).