Worship Weblog
Thursday, May 12, 2005
Sundays in the Country
The cover story of the May issue of Touchstone magazine is a poignant reflection by Joel Tom Tate on pastoring a small rural congregation in Vermont:
There had crept into me a notion like a virus, the toxic idea that little local churches are unworthy of good leadership, that good leadership and top-notch resources would be wasted on them. I had become an anti-shepherd, all too glad to forsake the hundredth sheep for the company of the ninety-nine who knew well enough to stay in a comfortable fold where the weekly bulletin reads like a book and you’re encouraged to bring your coffee and Danish to your seat between the first guitar chords and the point when the drums kick in. ...
And yet it’s not as though my little church doesn’t deserve the benefit of a pastor with the insight and skills, the knowledge and preparation, that one acquires in seminary. What happens here is very, very important, and I almost would that God had called someone more qualified to the work here.
Related from CICW: Where Twenty or Thirty are Gathered: Rural Worship
Also in Touchstone: What to Do When Scott Peterson Sits In Your Pew
Posted by Nathan Bierma on 05/12 at 09:20 AM
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