Rural Depopulation and the Church
An earlier version of this article first appeared in the February 18, 2008 issue of the Christian Courier.
Redefining Rural Ministry
Rural Canada is changing. While some areas—especially those adjacent to larger urban centers—have experienced significant growth in recent decades, other more isolated regions face serious decline. Rural depopulation has had many repercussions, especially for government and others who strive to provide the same level of service with fewer local human and financial resources. The church faces similar challenges.
Traditional agricultural areas have been hardest hit by rural depopulation, according to John Young, director of the Rural Ministry Program at Queen’s Theological College in Kingston, Ontario.
“In some parts of the prairies and southern Ontario and in the Maritimes, there is clearly rural depopulation,” Young said. “Where once you had four farms, now you may have only one.”
As a result, many rural congregations have a smaller population base to draw from, which in turn has led to the demise of some congregations and the combining of others, Young said.
The changing demographics of rural agricultural regions are not unique to Canada. In the United States, rural areas face similar challenges. In their paper “Changing Demographic Profile of Rural America,” Annabel Kirschner, E. Helen Berry and Nina Glasgow note that “throughout the 20th century, young adults in rural areas have migrated disproportionately from rural to urban areas for education and employment.” The authors also point out that, while in the past higher rural birthrates offset youth out-migration, this is no longer the case. In fact, their study noted that rural birthrates “declined more rapidly for rural than urban women beginning in the 1960s, and both rates have converged at ‘below-replacement’ levels.”
As rural populations dwindle, pews begin to empty and churches can get discouraged, according to the Rev. Jack Gray, pastor of Sully Christian Reformed Church in Sully, Iowa, an area affected by rural depopulation.
“This is the first congregation I have served that is experiencing population decline in the area,” he said.
Gray said his church’s council had the wisdom to understand that their congregation’s challenges were unique to rural churches and encouraged him to seek out peers leading similar congregations for support, networking and the exchange of ideas. The result was a peer learning group dubbed “Pastors of Large Rural Churches.” The peer group’s goal was to study how to help rejuvenate their rural ministries.
Gray’s peer group applied for and received funding from the Christian Reformed Church’s Sustaining Pastoral Excellence project to cover travel costs for their meetings and to bring their churches together for a conference. Gray and his peers, who hail from three different states but serve similar types of rural churches, used the book Leading through Change, Shepherding the Town and Country Church in a New Era, written by Barney Wells, Martin Giese and Ron Klassen, to help them rejuvenate ministry in communities that many have written off as “dying.” The pastors also drew on rural church resources from Lutheran and other church denominations.
In their studies together, Gray and his peers learned that population decline doesn’t have to lead to the demise of rural ministry. “The rural church needs a sense of purpose and accomplishment to keep going and keep improving,” Gray said.
Gray and his peers identified many ways in which rural churches can maintain vibrant ministries and outreach. Rural congregations can focus on reaching out to their neighbors as well as supporting home and world missions, he said. They can thank God they are the “keepers of the spring” from which many young people emerge to take leadership in urban and suburban congregations. They can build relationships with churches in growing population centers.
“While we cannot change our situation, we can make sure churches are available where population growth is great,” Gray said. Two congregations with pastors in Gray’s peer group have begun church-planting initiatives in nearby urban areas.
A Grieving Process
Young, director of the Rural Ministry Program at Queen’s Theological College, noted that rural depopulation has put a strain on rural churches. Combined with the increasing secularization of our society, depopulation has made it harder for some rural churches to survive, much less thrive.
“There are just fewer people involved in the life of a local congregation on a regular basis,” Young said.
As a result, these changes have caused many churches to grieve for “what used to be.”
Many rural congregations experience a sense of loss, Young said.
“They’re dealing with grief issues,” he said. “They say, ‘We don’t have the numbers that we used to have. We’re older. We don’t have as many young people.’ Churches wonder, ‘Are we going to be able to keep going? Will the congregation be able to sustain itself financially, and will it continue to be a force in the local community?’”
Young agreed with Gray that a redefinition of ministry is crucial for churches in areas of depopulation.
“Rural churches need to stop beating themselves up because they are growing smaller,” Young said. “They need to recognize that the changes they’re facing are part of the broader society. They need to think less about the past and focus on what they can do in the present.”
Young said he was “cautiously optimistic” that rural churches are already taking such steps. Many look at themselves and ask what they can do to be more proactive in the community. They no longer assume that people will come, simply because the church is there.
“In our rural churches, we’re starting to learn to talk to the folks moving in and introducing our churches,” he said. “There is more willingness to do one-on-one evangelism than there was 20 years ago.”
Rural Challenges, Rural Strengths
The Rev. Derek Bouma, is serving his first church, Riverside Christian Reformed Church, in Wellandport, Ontario, in the rural heartland of the Niagara Peninsula. A recent seminary graduate, Bouma learned quickly that rural ministry has both challenges and strengths. Although Wellandport’s proximity to several major cities has protected it from rural decline, the parish is geographically large and sparsely populated, which can make growth a challenge, Bouma said. On the other hand, rural congregations are likely to be deeply rooted in a community, which can be a real advantage, he said.
“In rural settings you often have people staying for a longer period of time, and people have deeper roots within the community,” Bouma said. “I find that in some ways, it creates a different atmosphere, and within the church there is a real welcoming atmosphere.”
Rural churches have to form their identity around who they are now and not who they once were, Bouma said.
“You have to ask, ‘How do we do church now that we’re smaller?’” he said. “‘How can we use that small size to our advantage?’”
Gray and his peers are learning to harness that advantage and to see that smaller can still be powerful.
“In five years, Sully CRC may be smaller,” he said. “But we will also be leaner and more mobilized for ministry. Our focus is sharper, our vision clearer, and God’s desire and agenda for us more easily understood.
