Rural churches have always known that they cannot survive by themselves. They very much need the support and encouragement of other local churches, and churches of the wider Association, if each one is to be faithful to its call and mandate in the respective places of ministry in which Christ has established them.

How they do that today may be very different than how it was formerly done. What to continue doing, what to leave aside, and what to newly establish, in shared mission and ministry, is very much to the front in our thinking of such matters today. No church has all that it needs, in and by itself.

Since no individual Christian has all of the gifts, talents, abilities, training and experienced needed, God has put us together in community. We make use of the differences of what we bring, even as, also, we celebrate the unity of purpose in what we seek to achieve. Thus, local churches partner with others in order to find how their unique ‘pieces of the puzzle’ fits in to the mission at hand, hopefully including vision concerning whole geographical regions, as well as in shared ministries to people in cultural groupings.

Churches may share ‘puzzle-pieces’ that reflect such as: the gifts, skills, experience and abilities of a pastor or other church leaders and the same as relating to that which congregants may offer in an exchange of resources, like money, facilities, teaching and training seminars, stories and perspectives of what they’re doing in terms of practical experiences, training events, and short term ministry and mission opportunities, locally as well as globally.

Such necessary perspective and action may help to arrest the serious decline of many rural churches. They will be stronger and remain or return to new viability as they collectively share and manage resources.