My friend Eddie Ragsdale and I have started a new side project known as The Rural Church Podcast (iTunes link). At the time of this post, we are all of two episodes in. I just wanted to write about the heart of this podcast and some reasons we wanted to do it.
First of all, the impetus behind this is that there aren't a lot of discussions out there from the rural church perspective. By rural, we don't mean small necessarily, but outside of an urban environment. As a friend of mine recently said, the rural church is the backbone of American Christianity. I think there's a lot of truth in that. Don't get me wrong, I think cities are important and I think reaching cities with the gospel should be a priority for us. At the same time, the reality is that there are millions of Americans who do not currently and will not ever live in a truly urban environment. How do we minister to them? That's a lot of what this podcast is about. We'd also like to demonstrate that there are a lot of faithful churches out there in the rural context. Sometimes you can feel alone in the ministry and we want other brothers to know that there are other churches out there in the rural context seeking to follow Christ just like they are. We don't know all the various directions our episodes will go, but we just plan to have fun with it and hopefully be a help to other brothers out there in similar situations as us.
Another reason for doing the podcast is the excuse to talk with Eddie every week! In ministry, we can get so busy that we neglect some of our dearest friends. By doing this podcast I am now obligated to talk with a great brother once a week! Win win. Eddie Ragsdale is one of the greatest men I have been privileged to know.
Finally, it's great to talk through issues together because by talking through issues, we learn. I've been blessed by the podcast already and I'm a co-host! So, it's a great motivation for me to keep going knowing that this is something that helps me to grow in ministry.
I can't tell you what future episodes will hold, but we'd love to have your feedback or suggestions for topics. I am contemplating doing a 'sermon of the month' where we feature sermons by known and unknown preachers. Hope to have one up in September. If you have any other ideas for us, let us know!
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