Getting Started in our Own Community

Faith and Rural Economic Development

Getting Started in our Own Community

Karl Evans



There is a fountain of resources within the Church for economic development in small rural areas. Most of this fountain is untouched. Many people have tried to tell me that the economic development is not a concern of the Church. The claim is often made that the church is for theological matters such as rescue from Hell, teaching prayer, or getting us ready for an eternity in Heaven.

This statement is rarely made by those who stay away from the Church in the lowest income communities. Many of these people agree with this assessment of the mission of the church. However, these issues are not of any major interest at the moment, so they ignore the Church. A lifelong Roman Catholic in Antonito, Colorado told me “When the priest starts talking and making sense about the things that are important to me today, I will be in Mass every day. But most of what the pope says doesn’t interest me at all.”

I am convinced, however, that here is the wide open field for the mission of churches and other charitable non-profits in the U.S. and around the world. People plainly want support in their daily lives.

So the question becomes, how do folks spend their daily lives? It’s an easy answer. People in North America spend most of their lives trying to make a living. Not just surviving, but getting comfortable financially. For most of the world, gathering money is important.

In any community, certain factors which are the clear responsibility of the faith community must be provided if the people are to enjoy the ability to gather money. Without them the community will not make progress in its economic, social, psychological and spiritual levels. Where any of these are not provided, the community effort to gather money falters in some way. The evaluation form which follows is developed from the findings of nearly forty years of professional pastoral, teaching and research ministry.

I have listened and learned about poverty at the feet of people whose whole lives were being rocked by drastic poverty. My parents married and started a family in the depths of the Great Depression. Our neighbors bought or homesteaded land in times when ninety per cent of those who tried in that community eventually gave up. My service and study has taken me into about 150 of the lowest per capita income counties of the U.S.

As I learned, it became obvious that many nonprofit fraternal and service groups of every kind beyond the Church had their responsibilities. While I looked for specific work for the Church, it was easy to translate this to any nonprofit group. Elks, Masonic Orders, Veterans of Foreign Wars, 4-H clubs, Odd Fellows, Grange, hospital auxiliaries, and every other group can find in this study a mission for themselves. Every group has its own words to substitute in the study outcome.

It is also easy to consider the mission of your own family. Almost every family would be pleased if everyone in the family gained the ability to be financially comfortable at some level. The work of economic development for your own family is not just a matter of making a few more dollars each day. Personal economic development is a matter of preparing your own family to better itself economically.

Now as we look at our own home towns, we can pick at a variety of factors that impact economic lives. Each of these is important. Each of these is open to impact from many different sides.

At this moment, India is living with a fantastic spurt of economic growth. The Indian media speaks of the growth as being primarily due to two factors. The monsoon season has brought very good rains, and winds have been light. http://edition.cnn.com/2004/BUSINESS/04/21/india.economy/). Second, U.S. industry is transferring huge quantities of labor needs to Asia. My friend, Murthy Sudhakar, (http://www.indiatogether.org) points out that nearly all of this economic spurt benefits only those already wealthy. His organization is working to enable local low income villages to share in that wealth increase.

This list of important income factors does include the kind of work that is reserved for governments, banks, major industries, or public relations firms. These ‘for profit’ firms and government entities can and should work in most of the areas listed in this series. Every successful private industry and governmental office takes the work seriously. It is a standard function of success. But major responsibilities in these areas are for the church and other nonprofit groups, including families.

At the close of the formal study of the lowest income counties in the U.S. I began to visit more areas. My intent has been to locate and define a major list of factors which of themselves would constitute mission targets for the local congregations and larger Church entities.

Donella and I have been able to talk with people in dozens of rural communities across the U.S. and Canada. Our RV has been through some of the weakest areas of the nation. We have listened, groped for words, asked questions, shared ideas, cried and laughed as the humanity of these areas has been revealed to us.

After all this we have come to a deeper respect for the insights of the people we have met from all walks of life. Pastors, homeless, entrepreneurs, children, educators ... And on and on.

In this light perhaps the most fascinating group we found was making an impact in Tunica, Mississippi. FCCCOT (Former Concerned and Concerned Citizens of Tunica) is a group of individuals who have spent at least part of their lives in Tunica County. Many have moved away from Tunica. But in their hearts, they continue to feel that Tunica County, and particularly the Tunica School System, are in need of their support. They contribute money, leadership, prayers and dream development to the community whether they live in Tunica or in Detroit.

This series consists largely of a tool we have found helpful and relatively easy to use. While we have tried to help, we have first tried to comprehend. This tool has been a labor of love and inquiry as churches and other groups have worked to develop their own mission to their own communities, much like FCCCOT.

My suggestion is that you would gather a number of your congregation or nonprofit group together for evaluation and introduction to the possibilities. Fraternal groups, service clubs, educational fellowships and many other gatherings can adapt this tool. The most significant factor is identifying the group’s own mission in the community regarding entrepreneurship and economic growth.

Following the lead of others who have helped develop this tool, you may wish to score your own community and/or congregation. At some point you may wish to apply the scale to your entire culture.



Defining a Mission of Economic Development

As you work through this study tool, the questions will be both simple and heart wrenching. The words are easy, but the choices you must make will force difficult decisions.

In your community and church, what is your evaluation of each of these areas of life? You, as pastor, officer, citizen, teacher, deacon, elder, student, or member, have the responsibility. You have no leeway to raise the issue of personal poverty without personally looking at potential cures. We also need to remember that God never asks us to take any action God chooses to ignore.

Jesus is portrayed in much of New Testament literature as working with extremely low income people as well as with the wealthy. His work was not limited to healing physical problems. He did not just make the blind see, or the deaf hear, or cleanse the lepers.

Jesus impressed on many their responsibility for the world. “You are the salt of the earth.” “This woman who has given a coin has given much.” “Turn away from your family and neighbors to make the world a righteous place.”

At the head of each section of this little study are two blank spaces separated by a slash. I encourage you to use these spaces to help you understand your own needs and mission as you read each section.

On a scale of zero to ten (0-10), with ten being high, give the community a mark in the first space for the general level of the factor in your community. Take into account all you know about your community, its history and its people. Be as critical and as complete as you wish. No one will call you wrong for your judgement. It is very personal.

Then in the second space, give your congregation and/or your denomination a mark on the same scale for the strength and efficacy of its commitment to build these factors in your community. Ask yourself what would Jesus say or do when faced with the needs of the people in your community today. These needs will be the same for all people whether in the U.S. or other nations. Or perhaps we should ask what Jesus did, according to the Gospels. Then we could judge our own efforts accordingly.

It will be important to sharply limit any generalizations. Be as specific as possible as you work on these questions. Check your perceptions by getting opinions and feelings from a broad spectrum of your community. Especially, check with those who seem to have some overt desire to move ahead economically. Ask them to be very honest in their assessment of the community realities.

Be extremely honest. You are not doing this exercise in order to make yourself or someone else feel good. You are doing it to fit better into the way the Creator works.

Be sure to make many notes. We never know when a random thought will give us necessary insight into our own lives or the lives of others. Brainstorms, ideas and concepts should fill your study pages. Jot down anything you find important to work with later.

The reader should also realize that this discussion will always be incomplete. Every person who studies this material should be comfortable adding to the list of issues and consequences. The same structure can and should be used for any other potential or current affect of ministry.

There are several other keys, of course. Always look to your source of knowledge and understanding for help. The Wesleyan Quadrilateral is a common evaluation tool of sources of understanding and hope. Scripture, history, reason and personal experience provide the base under this scheme.

This series is intended to give you a few handles for fulfilling the needs of the community. Some of it may seem overlapping. Other parts may even seem contradictory. You will probably find a factor or two to add to this list. I do not claim to have found every issue. But in any case, when you struggle with each factor, I believe you will find good help in developing your ministry.

There are fifteen separate areas for evaluation. Be certain to record the scores you give each area of study. As your community congregations and other groups prepare their mission work, they will want to know these scores. If you are honest to your preparation, your priorities for mission will be based on these scores.