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PRESBYTERIAN
SUMMER 2023
presbyterian.ca
Connection
Discussions about Rural and Remote Ministry During the 1980s
By Peter Bush, former Editor of Presbyterian History
The Board of World Mission intro- duced “Suggested Guidelines for Mission Strategy in Rural Cana- da” at the 1983 General Assem- bly (A&P, 1983, pp. 458–461), starting a six-year conversation about Rural and Remote Ministry within the church.
The guidelines opened with an attempt to define “rural,” the result being rural communities had popu- lations of 10,000 persons or fewer. The definition recognized that “ru- ral” did not always mean “agricul- ture.” Nine theses statements pro- vided the skeleton to the guidelines, drawing on what was known about “the many examples of [rural] con- gregations growing, qualitatively and quantitatively in dynamic and encouraging ways,” and (1) were to be studied by congregations and presbyteries; (2) would lead to the development of better resources for congregations; and (3) affirmed the “vitality and validity of rural ministry and mission.”
The second thesis statement included: “The rural congrega- tion is an adequate centre for the mission and ministry in rural Canada.” Rural congregations did not need to emulate urban or sub- urban congregations to be vital congregations bearing witness to the good news revealed in Jesus Christ. In fact, the values of self- sufficiency and independence which mark the life of many rural communities and congregation were strengths to be applauded. The responsibility for rural church life depended upon the congrega- tions and clergy of rural churches
A photo of Valleyview Presbyterian Church in Calgary, Alta., taken in the 1980s. PHOTO CREDIT: PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH ARCHIVES
report to the 1989 Assembly, to- gether with its 16 recommenda- tions, presented a comprehensive re-imagining of the place of rural and remote ministries within the denomination, as vital contexts of Jesus’ mission in the world. (A&P, 1989, pp. 469–478)
A significant area of concern was the staffing of rural church- es. The colleges of the church were asked to add a rural expo- sure/immersion component to their curriculum, recognizing that many graduates would begin their ministries in rural congregations. Presbyteries were called to build intentional mentoring networks around ministers newly arrived in rural congregations. Congre- gations were challenged to build relationships with their pastors so that the minister and their family felt welcomed and had a sense of belonging in the community.
Among the calls for structural changes was the right of aid-re- ceiving congregations to call their ministers, instead of having min- isters appointed to them. This and other recommendations sought to address the second-class status many rural congregations expe- rienced within the denomination.
Finally, a clarion call was is- sued to re-imagine the dominant model of ministry: “That presby- teries consider alternate models of ministry for existing rural and remote work instead of terminat- ing that work.”
The nine theses of the “Sug- gested Guidelines” are now 40 years old, inviting the question: What theses would define a Mis- sion Strategy in Rural Canada in 2023?
and their presbyteries. The na- tional structures were to take the lead from the rural community, “the national agencies must re- discover the ‘servant role.’”
The church had been invited to respond to the guidelines. By Feb- ruary 1984, 105 responses had been received, which encouraged the Board of World Mission to “pro- pose that the Joint Task Force on Rural Ministries be reconstituted.” But little action was repor ted until two years later in November 1986 when a Rural and Remote Con- sultation took place in Lumsden, Saskatchewan. Billed as an op- portunity for churches in western Canada to express their concerns, the Lumsden gathering was a cru- cial event in giving permission to clergy, elders, and lay people from Rural and Remote congregations to speak of the challenges and joys of rural church life, and to confront
church office personnel with the ways in which the national struc- tures denigrated, diminished, and dismissed rural congregations. (I was not at the Lumsden gathering, but in speaking to some who were at that gathering they describe it as transformative in their self-under- standing as rural church people.) The Lumsden gathering led to two distinct sets of conversations within the denomination, running on parallel tracks.
The first conversation picked up on the farm voices as the Church and Society section of the Board of Congregational Life brought lengthy reports to the Assembly in 1987 (a preliminary report) and 1988 (a fuller report with 11 recommendations) about the food crisis in Canada. The pre- senting issue was the runaway interest rates (which, throughout the 1980’s, was over 9%), which
dramatically impacted farmers, particularly new, younger farmers. The interest rate crisis laid bare other challenges for the family farm. These reports took up a pro- phetic stance, offering comfor t to the hur ting and discomfor ting ur- banites who knew little about how their food was produced.
The second conversation was spurred on by two overtures to Assembly in 1987—one from the Presbytery of Kamloops, the oth- er from the Presbytery of Assini- boia, asking for a Task Force on Rural and Remote Ministries to propose policy changes that would not “negatively affect [rural and remote] pastoral charges.” The Rural and Remote Task Force was reconstituted and began a two-year exploration of the joys and challenges of rural ministry in The Presbyterian Church in Can- ada. The Task Force’s nine-page
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