Becoming Part of the Community
Effective small-town ministry requires trust. You need to gain the trust of longtime members of both your church and the larger community.
Gaining trust, though, is challenging. Some church and community members have lived in your new ministry setting longer than you have been alive. They might even belong to the third or fourth generation of a family in either the church or in the town where you serve.
As one long-time church member said to a pastor-friend of mine when he began his ministry in a small-town church, “Remember, pastor, we’ll still be here even after you leave.”
Church members and community members may keep you at arm’s length – at least for a while – because of a bad experience with a previous pastor or town resident. Or they might expect you to stay for only a couple years before you get tired of small-town life and move somewhere else. Or they might fear that you will bring your “big city ways” to their community.
What, then, is a pastor to do? Here are three strategies for becoming part of the community. These are not new or revolutionary. But they work. You’ll gain trust more quickly and more deeply if you practice them – whether you are a pastor, church planter, or the spouse of a pastor or church-planter.
1. Find a third space
This is a social environment away from your home (first space) and your workplace (second space). For pastors and their spouses, it is usually a café or coffee shop.
My brother-in-law, Sam, served as a pastor for many years in a small mountain town in Idaho. He frequented a small café, stopping by almost daily for a cup of coffee and sometimes for a meal. When he took me there on one of my visits, I was struck by how everyone seemed to know him. One customer even asked where he was the previous day!
You can even do some of your sermon preparation in a coffee shop or a café – as long as you are a paying customer and tip generously. Perhaps you prefer working out of your home or church office where you have access to all your books. I’m that way. Yet it makes sense to spend some of your work-time in a space where others – especially those in the community – feel comfortable approaching you. They might not stop by your office at your home or church facility, but they’ll stop by your table or booth to chat.
Also, it pays to identify two or three third spaces. You’ll likely get to interact with a different segment of your town’s population in each setting.
Make sure to show up when people gather. If the locals get together at 7:00 a.m. at the Corner Café, don’t arrive at 8:00 a.m. when they start leaving.
You will be surprised how much ministry happens in the places where townspeople gather for coffee or a meal. Where are your third spaces in your community?
2. Leverage your interests and skills
Another terrific way to gain trust and build relationships is by using your interests and skills to serve your community.
When I was a pastor in a rural community in Montana, I got involved in it through sports. I coached Little League baseball, helped with a Saturday morning basketball program for grade-schoolers, and served as the public address announcer for girls and boys basketball games at our local high school.
A few years into my ministry in this community, a middle school student committed suicide at his home. The next day, the school principal asked if I would come to the middle school to make myself available to counsel students who were struggling. This was a public school, so I was amazed that the leadership trusted me in that vulnerable moment. I’m convinced that my involvement in community sports activities paved the road to this ministry opportunity.
The means of community involvement are endless. Simply leverage your skills and interests.
My sister-in-law, Joy, used her artistic interests to build relationships in the little Idaho town where her husband, Sam, served as a pastor. Joy painted landscapes and ended up serving on the board of a local art society. Eventually, Sam took up outdoor photography, and the two built relationships through their interest in artwork.
My friend, Joel, served as a firefighter in his small town in Montana. Eventually, the town council asked him to serve as mayor!
My mom, Ruth, taught music in a local grade school in a rural Montana community. Some of those kids ended up getting involved in the church’s AWANA program.
What interests or skills do you have that you can use to serve? Nothing shows commitment to your community more than getting involved in it.
3. Learn local history
Four decades ago, my father, Maynard, stepped down from his role as Executive Director of RHMA (Rural Home Missionary Association) so he could return to small-town pastoral ministry. He accepted a call to a rural Montana church with a high percentage of third- and fourth-generation ranchers.
One of the most significant ways my dad gained trust was to learn local history. He read books and articles about the mountain valley in which the church was located. He talked to old-timers about their experiences. He listened to stories about people who were buried in the local cemetery.
Within a couple years, my dad gained the reputation of knowing more about local history than a lot of the ranchers who were born in the valley!
To be sure, this provided him with a good supply of sermon illustrations. But more importantly, this knowledge strengthened his bond with the congregation. They were more willing to listen to him preach because they sensed his love for and commitment to the community in which they lived. He became “one of them” by embracing their history.
Effective ministry requires gaining the trust of both your church members and the general population. Trust takes time. But you can accelerate your acceptance by finding a third space, leveraging your interests and skills, and learning local history. What do you know about the history of your community?
You will make a difference in people’s lives when they sense that you are “one of them” and have invested in the place where they live.
Steve is the Executive Director of The Biblical Preaching Advance and serves as an adjunct professor in preaching and Biblical studies at Western Seminary. His early ministry included 20 years of pastoring in rural Montana.