Dear Rural and Small-Town Ministry Friends,

Made to Flourish and the Rural Church Institute at the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center are partnering on Rural Pastoral Development Research Project, a national research initiative focused on understanding the development, preparation, and long-term flourishing of rural pastors. This study seeks to identify the experiences, relationships, educational pathways, and ministry practices that contribute to effective and sustainable rural pastoral leadership. Findings from this project will inform seminaries, denominations, ministry networks, and church leaders seeking to strengthen rural ministry training and develop future rural pastors.

Would you be willing to grant me a personal favor by completing the survey linked below?

Participation Process

• Complete the 29-question Rural Pastor Survey.

• Estimated completion time: 5–10 minutes.

• Questions focus on demographics, calling, training, mentorship, preparation, ministry realities, and factors influencing long-term service in rural ministry.

Instructions

• Answer every question as accurately as possible.

• Choose the single best response unless the question specifically states, "Check all that apply."

• Use the "Other" option to provide additional context when needed.

• Responses should reflect your personal experience in rural ministry.

• Individual responses will remain confidential and will be used for research purposes only.

https://wheaton.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3QL1CaLUdGfUo4u

Thank you for contributing to this important effort to better understand and strengthen rural pastoral leadership.

Grace and peace,

Dr. Jason McConnell

Director, Rural Church Institute

Wheaton College Billy Graham Center

Cell: 802-752-0068

Church ministry is uncomfortable. It takes training, sacrifice, long hours, and prayer. We work against the flesh, pride, impatience, and exhaustion. It's hard to get a bunch of people rowing in the same direction when they can leave the boat whenever we want. We long for moments of comfort, when we are affirmed in our efforts and receive encouragement from all the right people. More than comfort, we also want to be comfortable. We want to feel good in our roles, we want our various programs to run smoothly with good results, we want relationships to be low-tension and low-maintenance. Even for just a season. Wouldn't it be great if we could reach that period of "flow" where we are overall comfortable.

All of our planning has the main goal of "glorifying Christ by ...". But a common secondary goal of our planning is to make things more comfortable - smoother running programs with fewer complaints. Things aren't going as well as we'd like and some people are bothered by it, so we plan, we tweak, and we reposition to make things hum along. Comfortable. Just listen to how we pray for programs to "go well" and for God to "smooth out" the details. There's nothing inherently wrong with this, but comfort can become one of our goals.

But we also acknowledge the danger of becoming comfortable in the sense that we become complacent. We want things to run smoothly, but when they run smoothly, do we stop trying to achieve even more excellence? Do we desire comfortable so that we don't have to work so hard? Is comfortable a place that we park or a place that we launch the campaign to take more ground for Jesus?

At times I catch myself accidentally reinforcing the complacent kind of comfort. "How are things going at church?" "They're going well! The programs are humming along, we have plenty of volunteers, and the feedback is great. We're seeing spiritual growth!" And I reply with "That's great!", which I should, but I'm often too timid to ask, "So how are you going to escalate from here?" Can't we just enjoy the moment? Indeed we can. But I don't want to fail to encourage people on how to strategically use their comfortable platform they are currently enjoying. I don't want my words to reinforce complacency. 

Where has comfort replaced hunger in my ministry? Where have I allowed a good season to excuse me from excelling still more? Am I using the momentum to accelerate or to coast? Even when the overall ministry might be struggling, are there pockets of comfort in which I'm allowing myself to become satisfied?

Discuss this among your elders. Have them take an honest look at you and any ways you may have become too comfortable. Have them evaluate themselves on where they may have been coasting in comfort. Have them look at all the church ministries for both good and bad forms of comfort. Then ask how to thank God for the goodness but also ask Him to keep you hungry.