Rural realities

Yesterday I took a phone call from a church leader in a small church that we try to support by providing speakers and the like.  As I spoke to him I was reminded again of one of the tragic trajectories which the church in the UK is on.  Put simply Christians are leaving rural churches for big towns and cities.  Not in terms of where they live, they will still live in the villages, but in terms of where they attend church, where they serve and use their gifts.

As I spoke to my friend yesterday there was a sense of weariness as he recounted how two or three families in the village drove 20-30 mins to bigger churches in towns rather than serve in a small local church.  This has left the local church to age, and means that in the next few years it will probably face closure.

As I thought through my friends dilemma, frustration and creeping discouragement, I found myself wondering why?  It isn't a new thing.  His story could be replicated again and again certainly across our borough (Doncaster), our county (Yorkshire) and my hunch is across our country.  Thousands of Christians drive past two or three small bible teaching, gospel proclaiming churches to go to a bigger church.  The reasons are often complex, and I don't want to be critical of individuals I want to love them and be gracious, their desire is often for their own growth and for that of their children (often the reason given).

But I am deeply concerned by the trajectory this places us on in the UK.  As we migrate for worship we leave vast areas of our country unreached with the gospel, but more than that we are contributing to the death of local churches in that community for that community.  The church in Britain is increasingly becoming church for the cities/towns.

I don't think that it is deliberate, its not a strategy. Though some have brought into the idea of reaching city to reach the rest - an idea which I think works in the states but NOT in the UK.  It is just that we haven't stopped and thought about it.

Can you imagine the impact if every church partnered with a rural ministry church.  If we looked to send as missionaries and with support those from rural areas back into those churches?  Not and cut them loose, but maybe encourage them to go to the afternoon service at the rural church whilst joining us in the morning.  Or if there are a few families from a village or two close by, encouraging them to form a bible study group in the village in partnership with the local church.

That seems to be more a Pauline ministry model.  He reaches the cities so people carry the gospel out to the surrounding area.  How ironic that we seem to be sucking people in from the surrounding areas into the cities and then keeping them there.