Influence: How did Rural Compassion form?
Steve Donaldson: Growing up in a big city, I always thought God would call me to minister in an urban center. But then God opened up an opportunity for my wife and me to plant a church and develop a ministry to the poor where the Sierra Mountains meet the Cascades. As we shared life and made new friends, we soon realized the incredible opportunities were partnered with overwhelming challenges. Though we were greatly under-resourced, we developed significant connections to community leaders through involvement in the school system, community activities and volunteering for leadership roles.

That experience was the beginning of Rural Compassion. Years later, in 2004, Rural Compassion was officially created with the mission of equipping rural churches to reach their communities. The vast majority of ministry resources are targeted for urban and suburban communities. We determined to give rural pastors the tools necessary for lasting change. 

What are the unique challenges rural pastors face?
Rural pastors face many unique challenges: isolation, limited resources, family-controlled churches and an inflexibility to connect with the current culture. Robert Lewis in The Church of Irresistible Influence succinctly sums up the plight of many rural churches: “If the 1950s comes around again, our church will be ready” (pg. 25).

There is a fresh spirit stirring through rural American communities. 

The majority of rural pastors are bivocational or live at or below the poverty line. Community services found in most cities — assistance for the poor, elderly and disabled — are severely limited in rural areas. Rural Compassion works alongside rural pastors to meet these needs, as well as offer collaborative opportunities to learn best practices from other pastors.

How does Rural Compassion partner with communities and churches?
Rural Compassion hosts training weekends and supplies churches with resources to better reach the community. We coach and mentor pastors. We challenge them to spend one-third of their church work hours serving in the community. Pastor Steve McBrien, lead pastor of the Assembly of God church in Oswego, Kansas, took on this challenge. Today the church in Oswego is the main influencer in its community through serving. The church serves schools, feeds sports teams, appreciates teachers, provides reading buddies and provides needed supplies for facility improvement projects. The church honors law enforcement and fire fighters. It is involved with community leadership to plan and implement community events. And the Oswego church has grown as a result. 

As the rural church gets involved in the community, it becomes an influencer, and the church becomes a vibrant congregation, helping create a community where families and children can flourish. There is a fresh spirit stirring through rural American communities.

Steve Donaldson is the founder and senior director of Rural Compassion in Springfield, Missouri and is a Missionary Church Planter + Developer (MCPD) through Assemblies of God U.S. Missions. This article originally appeared in the April/May issue of Influence. For more print content, subscribe here.