UMRA news & updates

April 2022

WE ARE ...
THE UNITED
METHODIST
RURAL ADVOCATES

You would not ignore a

community more than seven
times larger than New York City.
Yet the rural population in the
United States, with over 60
million people, is often overlooked
because they are not all living in
the same area.

Whether your church is urban or

rural church, large or small, the
UMRA invites you to join our
association of clergy and laity in
reaching out to meet the needs of
people from rural communities,
My Journey
their churches and their pastors.
by Rev. Peggy Paige, Vice Chair UMRA
We provide advocacy at General
My journey with the United Methodist Rural
Conference and Annual
Advocates (UMRA) began when I was a
Conferences to affect rule
seminary student at METHESCO (Methodist
changes that enable churches
Theological School of Ohio). One of my last
to better minister in their
courses before receiving my M.Div. was with
communities, provide
Dr. Ethel Johnson on Church
educational opportunities for
Administration. As part of that course, we
the leaders of rural churches to
traveled to the 1976 General Conference in
better serve their church
Portland, Oregon. There I was introduced to
bodies, and support church
United Methodist Rural Fellowship (UMRF)
leaders in personal growth and
and began my training in writing and tracking
ministry.
legislation along with networking with others
to create coalitions to get it approved. At that
Officers
time my main concern was legislation
2021-2024
allowing clergy couples to be appointed less
Chair - Randy Wall -
than full-time as my husband, Jim, and I
RandyLWall@aol.com
were requesting to be appointed as co-pastor
Vice Chair - Peggy -
upon graduation. The legislation was
peggy4249@yahoo.com
approved allowing 1/2 pension credit for each
Secretary - Doug Flinn -
of us for each year we served, unfortunately
doug.flinn64@gmail.com
 Spiritual Director -
Orrinda Stockton -
ostockton@hotmail.com
Communications Dir -
Michele Holloway -
chele101953@gmail.com
Advocacy Dir - Mollie Stewart
- Molliecstewart0128@gmail.co
m were appointed as co-pastors of the 3-point
Membership - Sue Grace
smgrlg51@yahoo.com
Treasurer - Judy Hill
judyh@plainstel.com
that legislation was ruled unconstitutional as
it applied only to clergy couples.
With the help of UMRA in 1980 that option
was approved by General Conference and
made available to all clergy. During the
interim time according to our pension record
each of us was appointed for 6 months of
each year at full-time although in reality we
charge of Morris-Bennington-Pittsburg
thanks to Bishop Ammons who supported
clergy couples. We continued to serve as co-
pastors, 1/2 each, until 1991 while raising
our family.
Upon appointment in the Detroit
Conference, I was invited to join their chapter
of the United Methodist Town & Rural
Fellowship. This was a God-send to this new
pastor who was a “city” girl from Akron,
Ohio. They welcomed me and mentored me in
this, for me, new area of ministry. I received
UMRF’s Citation of Merit in 1996 where 1/2
of the money raised stayed with the
Conference which was used to fund
scholarship for pastors and laity to attend
local, jurisdictional and national
events. During the years I have been able to
take advantage of the moral and financial
support of both groups to attend National
Consultations on Cooperative Parish Ministry,
Circuit Riders and Station Charge
Workshops, NCJ Town & Country/Urban
Events. UMRF/A Legislative Consultations
and General Conference.

Their unconditional support helped me to become a General Conference Delegate in

1992. I believe it was also one of the reasons that I was chosen to serve as District
Superintendent of the Port Huron District (2002-2009).
My work with UMRF/A at General Conference has continued throughout the years
including a return to Portland, Oregon 40 years later for another General Conference in
2016 once again serving as UMRA’s Legislative Co-Chairperson. Highlights of the work at
General Conference done in collaboration with others over the years include:
· Option of Less than Full-Time Service with Pension in ¼ increments for all clergy
· NOW (Nurture-Outreach-Witness) leadership format
· National Comprehensive Plan for Town & Country Ministries
· Expanded responsibilities and rights for Local Pastors and Associated Members
· Certified Lay Minister / Lay Servant Ministry
· Rural Chaplains
· Cooperative Parish Ministry
· Church & Community Workers
· Resolutions celebrating God's Creation. Rural Ministry & Rural People

My hope for the future is that UMRA may continue “to advocate for the work of Jesus
Christ in rural and town & country communities.’ We have covenant together to be united
in this aim no matter where we stand on the LGBTQ+ debate that threatens to divide the
UMC.

Partnership
by Randy Wall, UMRA Chair

I wrote an article last year about the fact that the small
membership church where I have the privilege to serve
as pastor is unusual in that Sunday is not the day when
we have the most people on our church campus. While
on Sundays we have 25 or less people on our church
campus, on Thursdays we have generally more than 100
persons on campus. Why so many people on Thursdays?
Because our church is partnering with our local health
department and a local Hispanic ministry, El Puente, to
give COVID vaccine shots to people in our community.

We began this partnership with the first vaccine shots given in February 2021. You can
see above some of the folks that worked in our church fellowship hall on the first day that
those vaccinations took place on our church campus. Studies show that many ethnic
minority persons are skeptical or timid about getting vaccinated for a number of reasons
including language barriers. We are happy that our church is helping bridge the gap to
make persons in our community healthier. Over one year later, those vaccine clinics
continue every Thursday in our church fellowship hall.

I rejoice to report that in the last year that over 6000 COVID vaccine shots have been
given on our church campus. Please note that I did not say that 6000 people have
received shots. I do not have the total on the number of people who have received COVID
vaccine shots, but needless to say that a lot of people in our community have received the
benefeit of these shots. These shots have contributed to the health and well being of our
community. In some cases, they have made it possible for people not only be healthy or
stay healthy, but also to get or keep jobs.

Many rural and/or small membership churches look at themselves and sigh in resignation
that they are not big enough or do not have the resources to do much in their community
especially in these pandemic times. I rejoice to say that the church that I have the honor
to serve as pastor saw not what it could not do, but what it could do when it worked
together with others. - Pastor Randy Wall

A Reminder of and to our Grant Recipients

The United Methodist Rural Advocates (UMRA) are pleased to announce that it recently
awarded 10 local churches or charges with impact initiative grants. These grants were
given out of monies raised by UMRA in their “Impact Initiative” capital fund-raising
campaign that took place about 5 years ago through the generosity of local churches and
friends of the United Methodist Rural Advocates.
The purpose of these grants was to recognize and provide support to rural local churches
and charges making an impact on their community during the pandemic. Below please
find a list of the churches or charges, ministries or programs, and their respective annual
conferences as follows:

1. Grace Charge/Trinity UMC - Feeding Ministry with Homeless East Ohio Conference
2. First UMC of Fort Branch - Back to School Bash Indiana Conference
3. Simpson UMC - “Guns into Garden Tools” Michigan Conference
4. Dakota Rock Grove - Personal Care Pantry Northern Illinois Conference
5. Ellendale UMC - The Food Shelf Minnesota Conference
6. Center UMC - Reading ministry with neighborhood children
North Dakota Conference
7. St. Mary's UMC - C.O.W. (Church on Wheels Ministry) West Ohio Conf
8. Manzanola UMC - Blessing Box and Food Pantry- Mountain Sky Conf
9. 1st UMC of Connellsville - “Clothes 4 U Ministry” Western PA Conference
10. Gate City UMC - Children's Playground Holston Conference

The United Methodist Rural Advocates was established in 1940 to support, encourage,
and advocate for rural United Methodist Churches, rural people, and rural communities.
For more information about the United Methodist Rural Advocates, contact Randy Wall,
chairperson at randylwall@aol.com or check out our website
at www.umruraladvocates.org.

Please share the story of your ministries (with or without pictures), by sending your
article to Gayle Lesure deaconess.gayle.88@gmail.com.

Grace Charge/Trinity UMC, West Ohio Conf, Grant Recipient

The Emerging/ Impactful Ministry Grant application from

Grace Charge/ Trinity UMC in McConnelsville, Ohio,
shared their feeding ministry in the Morgan County area.
As covid arrived the need to feed homeless and near
homeless was identified. The local sheriff informed them of
20-30 people living in their cars or under bridges. In Feb.
2020 MOCO Feeds hot meal ministry launched in the
“ underground” Fellowship Hall at McConnelsville Trinity
UMC with the goal to provide lunch to those who might
need a meal. The number varies from 25-45 or greater who receive a meal each weekday.
Volunteers from various churches and community organizations work in teams to
accomplish this needed ministry.
As treasurer for UMRA and the one who mailed the checks to the grant recipients it was
delightful to receive the following thank you note response for the $500.00 check from this
Grant.
“When the federal and community grant money we received last year was not renewed I
was starting to get a little apprehensive. We were down to about two month’s operational
expense as we approached 2022.
But God is faithful to deliver through your gift and donations from folks in local churches
we are looking good on supplies for nearly half the year. What a difference you are helping
us to make!

Grace and Peace, Lee Ann “

United Methodist Rural Advocates thanks all serving our rural churches and communities
in all the ways you can ….Judy Hill

Change is Coming!
by Rev. Andrew Coon

Change is coming. It always is. In the coming months, my appointment will be changing,
as Missouri does something new. For the first time, the Missouri Conference is putting two
county seat churches together on a charge and doing so not because of monetary concerns
but because we have run short of pastors to appoint. Both churches I will be serving are
rather active and it will be a challenge to figure out how to be a fruitful and faithful pastor
to both of them.
This is just one of the changes that is coming. My conference is going from 9
districts to 5, effective July 1. This change will bring a new District Superintendent and a
new set of churches to work with. And I hear that there might be some changes coming at
General Conference, whenever we manage to have one.
Maybe this sounds like a lot to you, or maybe it sounds like old hat and is the
type of change you have already navigated in your ministry. Either way, what remains the
same, is that change is still coming.
I am holding on to two things during the changes.
First, as I write this we are entering Holy Week. At the end of Holy Week, we will
celebrate Easter once more, and at the core of that is the simple confession that Jesus got
over being dead. The biggest problem that can be faced – death – Jesus went through it
and emerged on the other side. Yes, He had scars, but He walked out of the tomb. There is
no problem, no change, no issue that we will face that is larger than death, and we are
following Jesus, the one who overcame death. This is not a surprise to anyone reading
this, but I do think it is worth being crystal clear that “Our Hope is Built on nothing less,
than Jesus Christ, our righteousness.” And that even when “all other ground is sinking
sand,” that Christ is the Solid Rock.
Second, I am holding on to you. Yes, you. All the people who are reading this,
are part of the wider Connexion. To follow Jesus as those inspired by John Wesley, we
understand that we are doing this together. Because the Connexion is wide, there is
always someone who can help and counsel us through the changes that are in front of us.
I shared that my appointment was changing – and a friend reached out to me because
they had gone through the same thing. For many of us, or connection to the wider
Connexion is our District Superintendent or Conference Office. Please, reach out to such
folk if you need them.
 Change is coming. But Jesus is still Lord, and we have each other to
lean on. His grace is sufficient for even a time such as this. And in
the end, we are headed towards the Kingdom. We have the good
news that the future is not determined by us, but by the Lord who
we follow.

Devotions
by Orrinda Stockton, UMRA Spiritual Director

Psalm 137 (NRSV)

Lament over the Destruction of Jerusalem
1 By the rivers of Babylon—
there we sat down and there we wept
when we remembered Zion.
2 On the willows there
we hung up our harps.
3 For there our captors
asked us for songs,
and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
4 How could we sing the Lord’s song
in a foreign land?

When I was a kid, there was a wooden bowl of rocks and agates that
sat on a shelf in our living room. One of the rocks was solid white
and shaped just like one of those big hard-shell, Brach’s
marshmallow Easter eggs. I don’t know how many times I kept going
back to that rock during our Easter morning egg hunt trying to turn
it into one more egg for my basket. I was doomed to disappointment.
And I couldn’t just laugh it off and confess that–once again–I had
been fooled–by a rock. It wasn’t as if that rock mysteriously appeared
at Easter–it lived in that bowl. It simply went unseen until it
masqueraded as something it wasn’t. What that rock did was to give me a rather
jaundiced view of the world at a very early age.

That highly colored view helped form my snarky, slightly irreverent approach to life and
demanded that I find out why things happened and how things worked. The fact that I was
exploring a scientific method did not provide me with a good defense when I took my
mother’s watch apart. Or when I experimented with whether my grandmother’s piano
sounded different if I hit the keys with my fingers or with the gnarly, chewed off eraser end
of a pencil. Those poor women had no idea what they were dealing with. In a sense, I lived
in a foreign land.

The Israelites had rebelled against God and ended up being captured, taken into slavery in
Babylon, and their temple destroyed. The prophet Ezekiel was one of the exiles from the
Babylonian deportation. The people of Judah were taken in several major waves ending in
587 B.C. Ezekiel is thought to have been carried away with the second group, along with
King Jehoiachin. Think how frightening it must have been to see their king captive along
with the best and brightest young men of the day–of course, in that culture the women
didn’t count. The Israelites (as one commentator put it) sat around singing the blues,
dwelling on one disaster after another. And yet, in the same place that others sang
laments, Ezekiel saw fantastic (and at times, gruesome) visions from God.

Ezekiel 1:1 (NRSV) In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month,
as I was among the exiles by the river Chebar, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions
of God.

Ezekiel goes on to describe not only his fantastical vision, but also the task God sets him.
He is warned by God that these exiles are hard-hearted rebels and that Ezekiel should not
allow himself to get sucked into their wailing, moaning and gnashing of teeth. He is to
carry warnings from God to the people of Judah and it doesn’t matter if they listen to him
or not. God will sort it all out. Ezekiel, with an attitude similar to that of Jonah when told
to go to the Ninevites, went kicking and screaming to carry God’s warnings.

We are living in foreign lands–lands of social upheaval, civil unrest, war, increasing unease
due to inflation and lack of integrity among some of our elected officials. Our church is
fast approaching a time when everything will look foreign. How do we as the church see
ourselves responding? Will we hang our harps on the willows, lamenting? Or will we work
to offer a fresh vision of God?

Let us pray: Gracious and loving God, show us a path through these foreign lands that are
just over our horizon. Give us strength for the journey and love and compassion for those
who travel these unsettling times beside us. Be with us now as we consider how to
continue to be in ministry both now and in the uncertain future. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE

The national organization, United Methodist Rural Advocates, is pleased to announce we

have a limited number of scholarships to offer for attending programs or trainings that can
enhance rural ministry. An applicant can be considered for a scholarship of up to the
lesser of $400 or one half of program/event fees, etc. It is through the UMRA IGNITE
fundraising campaign that these scholarships are being offered.

Please contact Treasurer Judy Hill to learn more. Contact information is listed below.

Judy Hill, Treasurer UMRA

3642 Road D
Joes, CO 80822

Email: judyh@plainstel.com

RURAL TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES

 • NETworX WEBINAR sponsored by UMRA. Information may be found on the
UMRA website under events. http://www.umruraladvocates.org/vision--
mission-webinar.html
• RURAL MINISTRY CERTIFICATE is not sponsored by UMRA. This is an online
program through Southwestern College in Winfield, KS. There are currently
two courses being offered: Engaging the Bible in Rural Ministry and Practical
Theology in Rural Communities.
• ACADEMY FOR SMALL CHURCH MINISTRIES in affiliation with UMRA. Check
out larcm.org for ongoing and upcoming training opportunities.

NETworX INFORMATION

NETworX-Securing Well-being Together

Measurable outcomes, measured at six-month intervals

throughout NETworX participation, include:
• Increase in income to at or above 200% of the Federal
Poverty Guidelines,
• Decrease in use of public assistance,
• Decrease in revolving debt from credit cards, rent-to-own, or predatory lending,
• Increase in assets,
• Increase in safe, supportive, and nurturing relationships, and
• Increase in perception of overall quality of life.
If you are interested in hearing more, contact Alan Rice, a member of the UMRA Executive
Committee at 336-239-1526 or visit www.NETworXUSA.org

SHARE MINISTRY/BEST PRACTICES STORIES WITH US

Are there ministries and outreach in your churches that you want others to know about?
We celebrate the truth that rural/town and country churches are vital and active within
their communities and we want to share that information around the country. Do you
have a story of joy or hope that you would like to have shared here? There are others who
could greatly benefit from what has worked for you and even what hasn't worked but that
has allowed you to grow. Send stories to Michele Holloway at chele101953@gmail.com and
your stories will be published in upcoming editions of this eCommunication.
This newsletter is published every other month: February, April, June, August,
October, and December. Please send all submissions to the above email address no
later than the 25th of the month prior to publication.

UMRA MEMBERSHIP

Memberships are available in the following categories:

Limited Income (What you can afford.)
Student $10.00
Basic One-Year $30.00
Church One-Year $50.00
Advocacy Membership One-Year $250.00
Membership Letter and Form - click here
Two Easy Steps to Membership
1. Please fill out membership form:
United Methodist Rural Advocates Membership
2. Pay Membership Dues through PayPal
For more information or membership, contact:
Email: smgrlg51@yahoo.com
Sue Grace - Membership Secretary
2755 Independence Ct,
Grove City, OH 43123
740-707-2901
UMRA membership provides not only voice and vote in the organization, but also
includes a subscription to the UMRA E NEWSLETTER.

United Methodist
Rural Advocates
Click links to the right to find us.