Rural Churches Face Challenges

The church has played an important part in rural life since the country was settled. Often the first building constructed in a newly settled community was a church building.

The church then, as it is now, an important part of the community. It was perhaps even more so in farming communities, because families lived so far apart that the church became their connection to the rest of the community. The church also provided a support structure for its members, providing pastoral care and help during hard times. But things have changed.

In the 1940’s, one farmer could only produce enough food for 15 people, but by the 60’s, the number of people that one farmer could feed had risen to 65. The reason was technology – better equipment, better farming techniques, and cheap interest rates. The reduced number of farming jobs forced many younger workers to move to urban areas for jobs.

In the 70’s, the economy caused the farming crisis to worsen, causing thousands of farmers (many of them who were young) who were deep in debt to lose their farms. This forced even more to move to urban areas. The gradual decline in population began to impact local businesses, causing many to close.

Those farmers who have managed to stay in the business since then are now aging and are nearing or already in retirement. Many of those are moving to urban areas to be closer to family and better health care.

The continuing decline in rural populations over the past 30 years has left many rural churches struggling to survive.

Many rural church buildings are architecturally beautiful, but no longer very functional. The aging population needs a building that is accessible, but the typical rural church building constructed before accessibility codes emerged has many steps and no elevator. As a rule, the older the building, the more difficult it becomes to make it accessible, effectively shutting a significant portion of the elderly out. New buildings are needed.

Basic building codes pose a serious problem to rural churches that want to replace or remodel their existing facilities. Current codes require that churches that seat over 300 in an assembly or that exceed 12,000 square feet must be equipped with a sprinkler system.

This requires a water supply with enough pressure and volume. In many cases, no city or rural water line is available, or it is prohibitively expensive to extend water lines to the church. The only other alternative is to store water in tanks, with a pump with a backup generator to supply the system. Even this system requires a water supply that can re-fill the tanks within 24 hours.

The market forces that are driving up construction costs on all projects create another big obstacle for rural churches. China is still the main driving force behind price increases, but reconstruction of the southeast coast from Katrina will also have an impact on prices.

Even closing a church poses problems. Demolition costs, asbestos abatement, emotional attachment to a building, and historic preservation can generate significant costs.

Despite the problems, it is still extremely important that rural churches find some way to survive. Even though populations have declined, there are still a lot of people who live in rural areas, so it is important for these congregations to think out of the box to make certain that the church does not disappear from the rural landscape.

It is doable. On a recent trip to my home town in Illinois, I passed a country church that I had been familiar with during my high school years. At that time, they met in a small, typical country church building, and had, probably for decades, an attendance of about 50. As I drove by, a large new building had been recently constructed, and the old building was gone. Their attendance is now about 325. Somebody there was thinking out of the box.

The answer to the problems that the rural church faces lie in attitudes and planning. It may be that congregations have to come up with solutions that are out of their comfort zone. However it is done, the rural church is too important not to survive.