Reclaiming Rural - by Allen T Stanton (Paperback)

About the Book

As rural communities continue to undergo massive economic and demographic shifts, rural churches are uniquely positioned to provide community leadership. This book is an energetic and encouraging call for how religious leaders can develop vital church communities in rural America.

Book Synopsis

As rural communities continue to undergo massive economic and demographic shifts, rural churches are uniquely positioned to provide community leadership. This book is an energetic and encouraging call for how religious leaders can develop vital church communities in rural America.

Review Quotes

Reclaiming Rural is a really valuable book. It should be read not only by those who feel the call to rural ministry but perhaps more importantly to those tasked with leading national and regional denominational bodies. It will be important for such leaders to understand what rural ministry might look like and can look like.

Reclaiming Rural offers a compelling call for understanding rural churches as essential, yet endlessly varied and diverse, parts of healthy rural communities. As a book that calls for deep engagement in the places we call home--be it our local communities or our theological traditions--Reclaiming Rural is a welcome addition to the growing literature on rural ministry and a call to greater attentiveness right where we are.

Reclaiming Rural offers a delightfully direct account revealing the depth of often overlooked gifts from rural communities and congregations. Stanton draws on a wide range of pertinent interdisciplinary studies to inform his candid and wise arguments that push the reader to consider the depth of possibilities.

When Allen Stanton writes of rural congregations as anchor institutions, do not take it lightly. Institutions are essential to the ways in which we order our lives, and Stanton's vision of congregations as trusted local institutions that can lead whole communities into God's purpose is important.

About the Author

Rev. Allen T. Stanton is the executive director of the Turner Center at Martin Methodist College and an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church. Previously, he has served as the pastor of a small-membership rural church in North Carolina, and as the Rural Faith Communities Fellow at the Institute for Emerging Issues, a public-policy think-tank at North Carolina State University.