The Harvest Field in the Country
Simon Medcroft gives us an insight into the opportunities and challenges of being a pastor of a rural church
For the last year and a half I have been the pastor of Danbury Mission Evangelical church (The Mission). If during my training you had asked me to describe the type of church I would be working for The Mission would not have been it. I, like many, had envisaged working in a town centre church with students and a cosmopolitan mix of ages and cultures. However, Danbury is a village in Essex with a population of about 6,000 and located 6 miles outside of Chelmsford. Within the village there is no university and almost no ethnic mix. So what attracted my family here?
The Opportunities
The strong sense of community that permeates Danbury provides the church with many opportunities to build bridges with the village. For example, virtually every family in the village has been through one of our toddlers groups and a significant number are involved with our Saturday morning football training. These weekly activities enable our members to forge good friendships and feed people naturally into our youth groups and evangelistic courses.
Further, a number of health clinics use our premises on a regular basis and this brings even more people through our doors and hopefully makes it easier for people to come to our ‘Open House’ services.
These various activities also contribute to a general feeling that the church is integral to village life. This most noticeably showed itself at the opening of our new building. We leafleted the village inviting people to come and look round and I was amazed by the number of people who turned up. They had seen the building going up for the previous 9 months and were keen to see the finished article. From the ‘cold contacts’ made during that weekend we saw people join our next Christianity Explored course.
Village life also brings with it a stability that often does not exist in towns and cities. When I worked in a town centre church there was a noticeable turnover in membership as people either moved on with their jobs or away for a “better lifestyle”. The average Danbury inhabitant has moved here to stay. They like the primary schools, they enjoy the countryside around and they are happy with the commute to work. This enables us to build long term relationships with families outside the church and to have the opportunity to disciple and develop those who are members of The Mission.
The Challenges
Within many cities there are a range of evangelical churches to choose from but that is not the case in a village. We have Christians joining us from quite diverse backgrounds who have quite different views on secondary issues. We are undoubtedly a broad church! This is a great joy because we unite around the Gospel and it is a powerful witness to the village. However, it can also be a challenge as we seek to manage those secondary issues and bear with one another graciously.
The flip side of a strong village identity is that pressure can be exerted on the church to become involved with all aspects of village life including joining with non-evangelical churches. Much discernment and prayer is needed in order to prevent the church from getting distracted or compromised on these matters. At the same time we always have to work hard at not appearing aloof or cultish.
Another particular challenge for The Mission is the lack of people in their twenties. This is a demographic issue as many teenagers leave Danbury to go to university and do not return. Further, as property is expensive the village tends not to attract first time house buyers. As such we have very few young singles or young married couples and this can mean that the few who do attend struggle to have good Christian friends their own age. The cost of housing has also led to a lack of sheltered accommodation meaning that some of our frailer congregation members also end up moving out of the village.
The Encouragements
In my short time at The Mission I have been heartened by the commitment of our members to bring friends along to evangelistic events and church services. Contacts made at activities like the football have led to people coming to hear the Gospel. In the village people still seem willing to come to church on a Sunday, especially if there are activities laid on for their children. As such probably 10% of our morning congregation are non-Christian and this gives us a regular opportunity to reach people with the Word of God and to invite them to explore Christianity further. We have also been greatly encouraged by the fact that we have seen professions of faith as people have come under the sound of the Gospel. We pray that this will continue to occur in the future.