Rural Church
Conference 2009
(Peter Ball
writes)
A good number
gathered at Halstead URC on May 16th for the first Rural
Conference. The folk at Halstead made us all very welcome and
the day included worship, teaching, sharing times and social
opportunities. As well as this all participants left with an
armful of new resources and ideas to take back to the local
church.
As far as I was concerned
this was certainly one of the most satisfying events I had put
together and taken part in. The reason for this was that those
attending had a real heart for the churches and communities they
are a part of and a desire to share Christ in meaningful and
relevant ways.
After hearing about the
local situation each person had come from we spent time thinking
about what it means to be God’s people in the 21st
century focusing on being priestly, prophetic and evangelistic
and looking at what this means in a rural setting. One question
we faced was what does it mean to say “all are welcome” on
church notice boards and how do we show it, or not as the case
may be?
One of the big questions
asked by many was how do we lower the age profile of rural
churches? (this is a question not only for rural churches to
grapple with) Rona Orme was able to share her experience of
starting up a sustainable service for children and parents in a
small rural church in Devon. Her ideas and experience really
inspired those in attendance and led to a feel of “we
could do that” and provided real encouragement.
We started and ended the
day with worship reminding ourselves that this is God’s work in
which we have a part to play. It is the intention to hold a
Rural Conference each year with next years agenda being set by
the issues raised by those who attended this years event.
Alongside of this we aim to put together a Rural Roadshow
that will be made available county by county across the Eastern
Synod.
If you have
not been convinced to attend next years conference yet, then
here are some of the comments made by those who attended.
RURAL CHURCHES
CONFERENCE