Are the Following True of You?

Transforming Church in Rural America: Breaking All The Rurals

Consider the following:

• You passionately love Jesus but you don't really want to be like Him.

• You admire His humility, but you don't want to be THAT humble.

• You think it's beautiful that He washed the feet of the disciples, but that's not exactly the direction your life is headed.

• You're thankful He was spit upon and abused, but you would never let that happen to you.

• You praise Him for loving you enough to suffer during His whole time on earth, but you're going to do everything within your power to make sure you enjoy your time down here.

I'm reading a book called Transforming Church in Rural America: Breaking All the Rurals by Shannon O'Dell.

www.brandnewchurch.com

This blog post outlines blurbs from his book.

If you want your faith transformed, check this book out.

The insight and thought-provoking, blunt straight talk in this book will cut to your core.

Passages from the book, as written by Shannon O'Dell:

1. If you want to go somewhere else, you have to start where you are and God is ready to meet you on the backside of your desert. Pg 38

2. When you desire to grow a congregation, you will never get it. But if you grow congregants, then you are going to see transformation in their lives and within the church. Pg 39

3. I finally realized I really have to love people...I have to lead with my life. So I started by sharing the Gospel one person at a time, it started getting everyone's attention and transforming this small community.

4. Churches get mired down in "discuss, debate, vote". I chose 5 men, of like mind, who would let God's Word speak for itself. We researched bylaws and biblically based constitutions from churches of every size and denomination. We were trying to figure out what needed changing to allow us to work most efficiently and (most importantly) most biblically. Pg 43

5. It isn't about power, it's about accurate structure. Pg 44

6. They hired me THINKING they wanted to change, but they wanted to be engaged to change and stay married to their traditions. Pg 47

7. Many struggling rural churches don't want a real pastor to lead them; they just want a pacifier to nurse them throught the years.  Pg 47

8. Ranchers don't expect their herd to grow and multiply without hard work and strategic effort. Farmers don't expect harvest without working the soil, planting seed and praying for rain. These people are brilliant and apply the most powerful principles of LIFE. The rural community has vision and belief bred into their DNA and they take that wisdom everywhere they go, it seems, until they step in the door of the church.  Pg 54

9. Too many rural pastors have little vision and few have a call. They don't have a vision for their staff, the building, their marriage or their personal worship, so it all falls into disrepair. They are content with "small" everything.  Pg 54

10. Too often rural churches have committees and boards paralyzed by indecision, bogged down by bureaucracy, and shackled by tradition.  Pg 54

11. One of the tests of God-driven vision is that it can only be accomplished if God does it.
Your own vision will likely be something you can plan or orchestrate and do on your own.  Pg 58

12. A God-driven, God-dependent vision allows you to see with faith eyes, not just facts.  Pg 58

13. We need to step out in a way that reflects total and bold dependence on God's leading in a God's provision.  Pg 58

And that's JUST the beginning...

This isn't just a book about a pastor from a large church moving to the country and trying to make a small church large... It's about having a REAL faith, believing what we say about God and what God says about Himself and truly LOVING people to Him.