Multiple Paths to Stronger Rural Communities
The Duke Endowment is investing $3.8 million over five years to help rural pastors and churches take the lead in creating more viable communities.
Among the 1,900 United Methodist churches in North Carolina, the Duke Endowment considers 1,300 – nearly 68 percent – to be rural. The Endowment defines “rural church” as those with populations of less than 1,500 people within a one-mile radius.
Challenge
Over the past several years, as North Carolina’s rural communities have undergone economic and population declines, many rural congregations have suffered. When rural congregations weaken or shrink, they become unable to support strong pastors who might lead the church and community to new opportunities. Even within the United Methodist Church, both new and experienced clergy who otherwise might wish to serve in a rural setting turn instead to larger churches or positions with more financial security. This downward spiral endangers not only the sustainability of the churches, but also the communities to which they are inextricably linked.
Response
The Duke Endowment and the United Methodist Church have deep roots in North Carolina’s rural communities and understand the importance that churches can play in ensuring the vitality of these communities. To strengthen rural churches, the Endowment, the North Carolina Conference and the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church and Duke Divinity School developed the Thriving Rural Communities Initiative in 2006.
Thriving Rural Communities helps prepare clergy for service in rural churches and strengthens the churches. The program uses four main strategies:
- Rural Ministry Fellows
The Rural Ministry Fellows program selects six students each year from Duke Divinity School for intensive study and two rural field placements that will prepare them for service in North Carolina’s rural churches. Rural Fellows are provided full scholarships for their campus studies and stipends for field placements. In exchange, they agree to serve in a rural North Carolina church for at least five years after graduation.
Rural Fellows are also matched with mentors from seven model rural churches (see Thriving Rural Churches, below). Fellows do everything their mentors do: visit the sick and elderly, lead youth group programs, preach, help organize and lead service projects, lead Bible study and more. They also work with their mentors to assess their own strengths and challenges and regularly reflect on their experiences and their vocation.
- Thriving Rural Churches
The Thriving Rural Churches component of Thriving Rural Communities highlights and supports the work of seven rural churches in North Carolina that are building engaged congregations and actively ministering to community needs. Each of the model churches hosts Rural Ministry Fellows for field placements, and pastors at the model churches serve as mentors to the Fellows. These churches also serve as demonstration sites for other rural churches and as examples of best practice and possibility. In addition, the model churches may receive additional funds for community projects.
- Stakeholder Institutions
The four stakeholder institutions — The Duke Endowment, Duke Divinity School and both of North Carolina’s United Methodist Conferences — make a concerted effort under the auspices of the Thriving Rural Communities Initiative to become more collaborative in planning and implementing new programs and activities to strengthen rural churches. This includes establishing new professional development and outreach programs for rural clergy in North Carolina, including the popular Courage to Serve program that helps pastors explore issues of life and leadership.
This initiative marks the first time these four partners have intentionally discussed strategic approaches to their common goals and have worked together to envision, plan and implement new ideas. The group meets quarterly and a core group of 15–30 people has emerged as a cohort of collaborative leaders on important issues for rural churches.
- Hispanic and Latino Outreach
Hispanic and Latino outreach is a new component of the Thriving Rural Communities Initiative, added in 2008. This program will help pastors prepare to work with culturally diverse congregations and to welcome rural North Carolina’s growing Hispanic and Latino population into the church.
Participating Sites in North Carolina
- North Carolina Conference, United Methodist Church Raleigh
- Western North Carolina Conference, United Methodist Church Charlotte
- Duke Divinity School, Durham
Contact Us
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Director of Rural Church
704.927.2251
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