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Pursuing Gospel Joy in Rural Ministry

If you grew up in a rural church, you probably sang this song: “I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart!”

And if you are serving in leadership as an adult in a rural church, you may spend most of your time on the second line of that same song, asking, “Where?”!

Joy can be elusive to most of us because we confuse it with happiness. Growing up in the middle of nowhere Kansas, I’ve always been told that happiness is like a greased pig — You might catch it for a little while, but you’re certainly not going to hold it forever. It will get away.

You see, happiness is circumstantial. But joy, especially gospel joy, is something completely different.

According to George Barna, almost 38% of pastors have considered leaving the ministry in the past year. If you’re one of those in that category — or maybe on the edge of that statistic —I won’t pretend to understand what’s going on in your heart. I can, however, guess this is true: You are not be finding much joy in what you’re doing.

After 30 years of serving in church ministry, most of them in rurality, let me share three common pitfalls of looking for happiness instead of joy in the rural mission field.

1. Compare and contrast. You may have experienced one of the best-attended Sundays in recent years. It caused your spirit to soar and filled your hope tank to the top and run over. But then, Tuesday morning at The Donut Shop, you run into the pastor of “Slightly Larger Than You Baptist” down the street, who told you they were triple in size and had never seen anything like it! You spend the rest of the morning sitting in your truck, eating the box of donuts you were going to take to the church and share. We get so caught up in comparing budgets, attendance, programs, and any other metric that it robs us of the joy of what God is doing in and through us.

2. Unrealistic expectations. We all believe in God-sized goals, but why do we always mess it up with human-sized effort? We read books about incredible God movements in churches from 100 years ago and 1,000 miles away. We watch YouTube videos with pastors testifying to the outpouring of revival in their congregation. Then we buy the kit, share the book in a group study, pray the prayer, set out the chairs, and cater the event. But when we don’t turn into that church or ministry we saw online, we wonder what’s wrong with us. It robs us of joy.

3. Rural norms. Although it hurts my heart, one of the truths of rurality is that we let that homespun, down-to-earth farmer/rancher work ethic creep into the ministry. I know it’s shocking for me to call this out as a negative, but there is a downside to working like a farmer. They don’t know when to quit. Sunup to sundown, 24/7/365. We even make excuses for them during busy seasons like harvest and tell him we’ll see him in about a month! Where is the Sabbath rest? Where is the healthy rhythm? Where is the time for the gospel? When we work like they do in the church, it can suck the joy right out of you.

These are just a few of the things that can get us stuck on circumstantial happiness and miss gospel joy. So how do we find … no, how do we exchange our pursuit of happiness for the pursuit of joy.

Here’s a familiar passage to challenge us from Philippians 4:10-13 (CSB):

I rejoiced in the Lord greatly because once again you renewed your care for me. You were, in fact, concerned about me but lacked the opportunity to show it. I don’t say this out of need, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I find myself. I know how to make do with little, and I know how to make do with a lot. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being content — whether well fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need. I am able to do all things through him who strengthens me.

Whether you’re in a big urban church or a small rural community, there are a couple of truths here that we need to grasp.

The first one is that joy comes from contentment. Obviously, Paul had experienced all kinds of circumstances, good and bad, up and down, thrilling and devastating. But he is saying that a response to circumstances can’t be what drives his mindset. He will not allow the externals to overshadow the amazing work of grace, the fantastic transformation of sanctification, and the unfathomable privilege of a calling that exists internally.

Paul’s joy stems from contentment, whether the church was running full steam ahead or hitting barrier after barrier, whether he was feasting in the home of a new believer or singing in a jail cell with an old friend. If Paul let his circumstances determine his joy, he would be one of the most flighty men you’d ever met. But because his joy was based on what God was doing in him, he was steady as a rock.

The second thing we need to see in this passage is that contentment is supernatural. When you find yourself dissatisfied, depressed, and dissuaded, just telling yourself to be content is like your daddy telling you to quit crying. Do you remember trying to do that? You could pull a muscle, trying not to sniffle.

Contentment isn’t about your effort; it’s a supernatural blessing.

For years, athletes, ministries, and artists have all abused the verse, “I can do all things through Christ.” If you actually put that verse in its context here, it’s about the miracle of contentment. It’s not a promise you can run faster or jump higher, that you can reach your insane goals, or that you can be elevated on some platform for all the world to see. This verse is Paul’s declaration that God can supernaturally produce contentment in the life of his followers no matter the circumstance.

So that’s where the rubber meets the road or, in our rural brethren’s case, where the rubber meets the gravel! I don’t know what it is in your life that draws you to Jesus, brings you closer to God’s heart, or produces an intimacy that brings healing to your soul. But whatever that is, that is what we do to replace our pursuit of happiness with our pursuit of joy!

When you feel the tendency to compare and contrast and just want to sit in the dark and eat a box of doughnuts (sorry, that may be a personal problem), that’s when you need to remember there’s something better than feeling good and being happy. There is a gospel joy that God has, that God gives, and that you can live in.

Run to Him and live in gospel joy!

 

Also published by the North American Mission Board at: namb.net

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