Rural Pastor

This website exists because you do, the rural church leader. Because everyone and everywhere matters, the Rural Pastor Podcast exists to help stuck and struggling ministers and ministries thrive again by providing the quality resources needed to start making disciples and begin a new season of ministry!

There are four primary needs experienced by everyone doing ministry in rural places: low access to resources, vocational identity, isolation and hopelessness. Here is how the Rural Pastor Podcast wants to help:

• Isolation – our podcast is designed to help build a community around the unique needs of rural pastors and ministry leaders. Our hosts are longtime practitioners who ask you to pull up a chair and get to know them and others on this journey. We hope to connect listeners through engagement and online relationships that will bear fruit in a mutually beneficial way.
• Vocational identity – full-time ministry is not the big league, but anyone with their hand to the plow is a celebrated co-laborer in the kingdom! We want to identify, support and celebrate volunteer, bi-vocational and co-vocational, as well as full-time ministers. We want to create channels of communication and resources to meet those individual needs and let you know that what you do is important.
• Low resources – the rural church is often limited in its resources, and are reaching communities with limited resources. Why? Because the people in these places are living on limited resources. But, while low resources are a challenge, they aren’t impossible. We intend to discover and disclose the best resources available and maybe create a few along the way
• Hopelessness – too often the rural leader feels too much of the weight of the work and sees too little fruit. In a short amount of time this can lead to downtrodden spirits and heavy hearts. It’s the reality of rural ministry. We want to offer hope to the leader through coaching, rhythms, encouragement and recognition.