The Emerging Rural Church?

It's been quite awhile since I last posted, but I'm still around. I'm working on a project for my January interim class, a self-directed study to examine ways in which the emerging church might positively influence rural/small town churches. My idea is that there are things that rural churches can learn from that way that emerging church communities live and worship together. There is a vibrancy in these emergent communities which seems unequalled in most rural congregations. Many of our ELCA congregations are struggling to keep their doors open - not just open to welcome members, but open to send members into mission in the world. It seems there are two primary areas which the emerging church movement can address which might help rejuvenate these stale rural congregations: 1) worship, and 2) vision for mission. Many traditonal congregations get stuck in a worship rut that has no root in the people. Worship isn't about us, but we are the ones doing it. It seems to me that worship ought to be a place where people actually feel called and gathered by God for the purpose of being sent out into the world.

Often, we don't allow ourselves to get out of our comfort zones and worship (and thus mission) becomes static and becomes a place where people go to simply be part of a club or a place to feel comfortable. Worship and what results from it is so much more than simply a way for our comforts and needs to be met. It's about being energized by God's Word of salvation and grace for the purpose of sharing that Word with others outside the church walls. If what is done on Sunday mornings (or evenings or Saturdays or whenever) in worship is an outgrowth of that excitement or even if it helps to facilitate that excitement, all the better it seems to me. If, however, what is done in worship simply harkens back to some tradition which few know the origins of or which simply serves to be a familiar "thing" for people, then I believe it actually gets in the way of who we're called to be and what we're called to do as the people of God in the world.

The church is fundamentally mission. If a local church only serves as a social club or a place of comfortable hibernation for its members, then the church isn't heeding its call. The church must not be static; it ought to be in motion, sending people outside to those in need - whatever that looks like.

How might we regain vitality and excitement for worhsip and mission in our rural congregations?