Saving Rural Churches

I have been intending to write something about rural churches for a few days, but what I'm going to write now will be very different from what I intended. It will be much less hopeful. The reason is that I just read the Christian Chronicle study of growth among Churches of Christ in the U.S.

Membership in our fellowship in West Virginia, the state where I live, has declined 31.7% since 1980. That is by far the highest percentage decline for any state. And unless I misread the numbers, our small state has lost more members--I'm talking raw numbers--than any state other than Bible-belt Oklahoma.

The reason is obvious. We're, I believe, the most rural state in the union, and our population is aging ridiculously fast. Our educational system is failing, particularly in the most rural areas, there are few jobs that pay a living wage, and people are leaving the state in herds. Or at least they have been--that's slowed down a bit lately because so many of the young have already gone.

But we're still here. Our rural, small churches still exist. These are churches that defy stereotype. We're not a bunch of backwoods, redneck, ultra-conservatives. There are many bright people among us, and there are, believe it or not, many churches with progressive tendencies back in the woods. Sometimes living in shrinking communities with common values that are drying up quickly causes those who share these values to band together--even if their doctrinal stances or names over the door differ. This has caused some openness as far as the critical area of accepting others goes.

I guess I missed the Christian Chronicle article about rural churches earlier this year. It's been such a year that missing things is easy. I'll go back and look at it. Much of what I've read about rural churches has either been shallow and full of platitudes or somewhat condescending. I get the idea that most are dismissing us completely. Our numbers aren't worth worrying about.

That's the big problem, I think. We need help. We need support, awareness of our existence, at least, and our needs, even. It would be nice if larger or at least mid-sized congregations would reach out to us. Progressive congregations, especially (the ultras send us their free papers and videos telling us who to mark and what doctrines to avoid already).

We're here, and we're not dead yet.