A Country Parish
The Revd Steve Wookey is Rector of St David’s Church, Moreton-in-Marsh and Rural Dean of Stow, a rural area of the Cotswolds.
I am often asked about gospel ministry in the country, and I am under the impression that people expect that it may significantly differ from gospel ministry elsewhere. In some details of course it does, as I shall point out, but essentially gospel ministry is the same everywhere. It is the simple proclamation of Christ crucified to sinners in the hope and prayer that they will repent and believe. People are fundamentally the same, their needs are the same, and the message is the same, although the situation in which they find themselves may not be.
So first, the specific challenges of rural gospel ministry. I find the biggest obstacle is, strangely enough, our church buildings. In this part of the world our church buildings are a blessing and a curse. They are often extraordinarily beautiful - I love the soft, mellow Cotswold stone which is a feature of them all. Many people come to visit them. They are much photographed and admired. But in two ways they are a curse. First there is the ongoing cost of keeping the buildings open. Every five years they are inspected for urgent work, and often a small village parish of, say, 300 will be faced with a bill into the thousands, if not the tens of thousands. In one village in our beneifce the cost for making the stones in the graveyard safe (our legal responsibility) has been estimated at in excess of £200,000. Much time, money and worry is expended in such a process. The second frustration with the buildings is that people expect a service there as often as possible, preferably every week, although the congregation will usually number only 10-20. In a benefice of five churches that can present logistical problems, but, more than that, it means that resources cannot be harnessed in the way one might like. If a village has only one service a week, if that, PCCs can be more loath to try something a little more adventurous - an alarming number of village services are 1662, to which the faithful alone will come. With a larger parish, and more services it is far easier to cater for differing tastes.
Another challenge of rural ministry is what one might call folk religion. Being so close to the country gives people a much greater sense of Creation, and churches will often be packed for Harvest festivals. There is a palpable sense of relief that all truly has been “safely gathered in.” But equally it is a religion that often stops there, and has little place for the Lord Jesus Christ and a personal faith in him. It can be too easily a form of inoculation.
A third challenge is provided by the nature of the communities themselves. Rural communities tended to be quite feudal, with everyone aware of their place in them, and the church very much at the centre. But mush of that has changed. Whereas in years gone by the majority of villagers would have been attached to the farms in one way or another, now only a very few have any connection at all. For the most part the communities are made up of local commuters and second homes. To live in the country no longer means being a country person. As a result the sense of family has been replaced by a sort of metropolitan individualism. The biggest losers have often been the village pub, which has had to reinvent itself as a licensed restaurant, and the village church, which has less of an emotional appeal.
But having said all, the opportunities for rural ministry are immense. Our communities are for the most part a great deal more religious than inner-city ones, if not overtly Christian. In our villages we can reckon to get a quarter of the village, if not more, to some services, such as Harvest or Christmas. That affords an amazing opportunity for preaching the gospel. Even our weekly services will attract frequently up to 10 or 15% of the population. The same figures in city or town parishes would be hailed as astounding success.
The parish model is more effective in such communities. People know their vicar, they will come to funerals and weddings and get a chance to hear more of Christ. Visiting is enormously appreciated, you are much closer to the flock than elsewhere. Admittedly with more and more churches and parishes being lumped together it is becoming an increasing challenge, but there is still that sense of ownership.
I have found too that church members are increasingly open to change. Although there is an innate mistrust of Bible-teaching in many of the churches, it is really one mostly formed in ignorance. A minister who preaches well, loves people, visits, is committed to the parish is usually warmly welcomed even if the church seems to talk about the bible more than before! I genuinely believe that many rural churches are crying out for Bible-teaching ministry, althought they might not express it like that, because all other ministry has been an abject failure.
Perhaps the greatest challenge in rural ministry lies in children’s and youth work. Most rural churches simply do not have the resources, often in terms of numbers of youngsters, to sustain youth work. In addition it can be hard to explain to a PCC with nobody under 60 of the importance of services for younger people, when there is only a handful in the village anyway. Our goal has been to have one thriving Sunday club and Youth Group to serve the whole benefice. Since at present we have about 95 children on the Sunday Club books, and nearly 50 on the Youth Group books, it is not discouraging. But we are fortunate in having one church that is very obviously the centre of the benefice, both geographically and numerically. We recently built/purchased new premises to enable us to function more effectively. Other benefices may not have those advantages. If that is the case, it may be necessary to link up teenagers in particular with the nearest thriving youth work, accepting that our village or parish may not be the best option.
I have worked in rural ministry now for almost 10 years. It has been slow, at times discouraging. But it has been thrilling to see the difference the gosepl makes. It is the same gospel here a everywhere else, “the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.”