The Rural Think Tank
…It's Different Out Here.
This post was originally published on MinistryPlace.net. When the snow piles up, community shows up Last weekend brought a snowstorm like I have never seen before. We had temps of -12 and spent approximately two days straight with subzero temps, plus a foot of snow blowing around in 30 mile-per-hour gusts. Our church had a …
Why Welcoming New Staff Matters If you live in a community of any size, there is a decent probability that one of the churches will have hired new or replacement staff members. Uprooting and moving a family two miles or two thousand miles is a big deal. How can the believers in your local community …
This post was originally published at my other blog, MinistryPlace.net I had a first in ministry today. A cat as a visitor to the congregation. The church I am serving is across the street from a home with several kids and a few cats. Often when I come on Sunday morning, there is a black and …
One invitation changed a family tree It all starts with a young coal miner named John Kuhnert. He had a young family at home, and not a lot of resources. John and his brothers went fishing using a technique called hogging or noodling, grabbing large catfish out of sunken logs during spawning season. One day, …
I read an interesting article that makes a ton of sense, yet many of our small town employers have not implemented the idea – reaching students in High School early in their experience to help them see local opportunities. In this WSJ article by Dante Chinni, He quotes a local HR manager in a small …
The Gone Generation What happens when a generation leaves the rural area to seek education and employment in other parts of the country? The Southern Illinoisan Newspaper did a series looking at the students that leave small communities. The article points out that we are training our best and brightest to leave, and reaping the …
The Crisis Hiding in Plain Sight If you work in a rural community, there is something you need to be aware of. Farmers are hurting. I am not talking about poor harvests or lack of technology. Farmers have a significantly large suicide rate. The CDC has retracted numbers on their last study, deeming coding errors …
The Doctor Is Out — Permanently Debbie Weingarten wrote an article at TalkPoverty.org looking at the shortage of rural primary care health providers in America. She looks at the closings of rural health centers and hospitals and how that can affect the surrounding communities. The problem is getting worse. The National Conference of State Legislatures …
Smaller and Grayer This article from The Atlantic has been out on the web since 2016, but it gives a snapshot of what rural America looks like in many places. There are many small towns all over the landscape that were once prominent, but are now smaller and grayer, as the generations have moved on. …