Thursday, August 11, 2005

Re-inventing Rural Churches
Gary Farley
08-11-05

Fifty years ago most rural Baptist churches were very different from what they are today. Most shared a preacher with one or more other congregations. Most did not have worship services every Sunday. Most met in a one-room building. Most drew their membership from the immediate neighborhood. This has changed, as even a casual observer will notice.

Again, delve into the old records of rural Baptist churches in the antebellum era, and a very different picture of church life emerges. Worship one weekend per month, close attention to dealing with moral lapses within the church membership, no Sunday school and bi-racial membership are among the most obvious differences.

So, for example, when Mineral Springs Baptist Church in McShan, Ala. celebrates its 150th anniversary next month it will be in its third manifestation and seeking to morph into a fourth.

The point is that every couple of generations, due to changes in the cultural and social environment, rural churches have had to re-invent themselves. Typically, there have been some who have resisted the process of re-invention. Many that have resisted successfully have since died.

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