Influence: Why are you involved with rural ministry when your church is in a larger city?
Rick Lorimer: The simple answer is rural communities matter. Many people in our church and city have a rural background, so it’s a natural, heartfelt focus for us. It’s not a stretch for us to say, rural matters. Our location, background and passion for people coming to Christ positions us to be a difference maker in rural ministry. We want all rural churches in Nebraska to experience growth and transformation.

How did your passion to partner with rural America begin?
My burden grew exponentially while I was the district youth director of Nebraska. During that time, I worked with some really incredible ministers, our rural pastors. I was blown away by their work ethic and passion for their communities.

After serving the district, I was blessed with the opportunity to serve at the Assemblies of God national office in Springfield, Mo. It was there that I became more aware of our rural church’s condition and the leadership vacuum that exists in many of our rural towns. I knew, if given the opportunity to pastor, I would do what I could to be a friend and lend my support as a peer. Most of our rural churches don’t need a big church to rescue them. However, they do appreciate our respect, friendship and support in their vision and mission.

How is your church involved in rural church multiplication?
We are still trying to figure that out. We have put together a development strategy for rural church multiplication that involves three tiers of respective expectations and relational guidelines. Internally, we call the first tier our Friends Network. There is no fee to be involved, and it gives rural churches access to all our ministry resources for weekend ministry and church operations. Within this informal network, we have formal leadership cohorts and coaching taking place.

Our second tier relates to affiliate campuses. At this tier, the level of support is greatly increased because affiliate churches willingly come under the authority and leadership of Christ’s Place Church. The Assemblies of God calls these campuses Parent Affiliated Churches (PAC). Our affiliates enjoy all the benefits of being a part of a larger church. We are presently adopting our second church, and it happens to be in a rural setting.

Most of our rural churches don’t need a big church to rescue them. However, they do appreciate our respect, friendship and support in their vision and mission.

Our third tier of commitment to rural communities is Fresh Starts. In the next five years, we plan to plant at least two new churches in rural areas that presently do not have an Assemblies of God church.

Why should a rural church become a parent affiliated church?
Let me first say that being a parent affiliated church is not for every rural church. It should be the exception, not the rule. It takes a unique church that loves the vision and mission of a parent church to surrender its independence. This kind of bold move is exactly what some churches need.

Many pastors are reluctant to go into rural areas because of the potential isolation it presents. If you are a PAC, your isolation is minimized. Each week campus pastors can drive to or video conference our staff meetings, sermon planning and campus-hub team discussions. They are included in all district activities and participate in Christ’s Place pastors’ retreats. In addition, our central services takes on the crucial non-pastoral responsibilities of the campus church. This frees campus pastors to focus on communicating, equipping and replicating disciples in their communities.

Being a PAC is not for every church. If it seems right with the Holy Spirit, the church seeking affiliation, the district and us, we begin the process of affiliation.

What is working and grabbing traction in your network?
We endeavor to live by the motto “friendship before ministry” in everything we do. This is fleshed out in each of the following network initiatives.

Open Resourcing. We make all our ministry resources available — videos, graphics, worship songs and message transcripts to those who are interested in networking with us. Many rural pastors are bivocational and have neither the time nor money to spend on professional-grade resources.

Coaching. We believe in leadership replication and ask each of our pastors to be multipliers. They are encouraged to develop relationships with pastors in rural Nebraska and practice one-on-one mentoring/coaching.

Cohorts. We have three leadership cohorts presently taking place (executive leadership, creative arts and worship, and youth ministry). Technology has blown open the door of possibilities for cohorts and coaching.

Leadership Intensives. I’m really excited about the leadership intensives we are launching in fall 2016. Twice a year we ask our campus pastors and their spouses to travel to our campus for a three-day intensive. They are responsible for their travel expenses, and we will cover housing and meals.

There seems to be a rural/city divide in how church is to be done. How is Christ’s Place Church helping to overcome it?
It is unfortunate and unnecessary that a divide exists between pastors in rural and metro America. While there are cultural differences and unique challenges to both settings, there is much they have in common. One setting is not better than the other; mutual respect is crucial. I know rural pastors who are reaching a far greater percentage of their community than we are. But because of the emphasis placed on size, they receive little to no attention. We have a lot to learn from each other.

At Christ’s Place Church, we are overcoming the divide by building mutual friendships and working together to reach our communities. I find it interesting that Jesus chose to spend most of His ministry in Galilee, which was much more rural than Jerusalem. We can have a worldwide impact regardless of the size of our community. We just need to lead well.

Rick Lorimer is lead pastor of Christ's Place Church in Lincoln, Nebraska.This article originally appeared in the April/May issue of Influence. For more print content, subscribe here.