{"product_id":"fresh-expressions-of-the-rural-church-9781791025793","title":"Fresh Expressions of the Rural Church","description":"\u003cb\u003eLearn to cultivate the extraordinary gifts of Christian community in the countryside\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003ewith \u003ci\u003eFresh Expressions of the Rural Church\u003c\/i\u003e by Tyler Kleeberger and Michael Beck.\u003c\/b\u003e The rural church was a community's centerpiece. The place where people gathered to worship and hear a sermon, break bread together, and support each other through the joys and struggles of life with the land. In many ways, the rural church captured a central aspect of the church's mission: to be the guiding hand for the life of a place. Can rural congregations flourish again? Can new Christian communities succeed in rural areas? Could healthy rural churches catalyze a better future for their declining communities? This book collects stories from the diversity of rural contexts across the US. It lays out a fresh theology for rural life and offers principles for harnessing the potential of what some consider the forgotten spaces. Each chapter includes a helpful Field Exercise--questions for discussion and suggested actions for leadership teams to work through together. Chapters conclude with a Field Story illustrating how the chapter's main ideas can work in a real church setting. Praise for \u003ci\u003eFresh Expressions of the Rural Church\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003e Fresh Expressions of the Rural Church\u003c\/i\u003e offers hope for the renewal that can take place in \"out of the way\" places. In these sacred rural places folks can experience the love of God and neighbor, undergo true healing, participate in the renewal of community, and discover a place to belong. - Daniel G. Beaudoin, Bishop, Northwestern Ohio Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America \u003ci\u003eFresh Expressions of the Rural Church\u003c\/i\u003e helps us to reconsider our Wesleyan roots and the gifts of our rural contexts, a seedbed packed with possibility for new communities of faith to form and flourish. - Heather M. Jallad, Fresh Expressions specialist, North Georgia Conference, UMC Beck and Kleeberger have taken a sample of the good soil that is faithful rural mission, identified the challenges, celebrated the riches, and offered us a powerful way to learn and be in partnership and connection with the gifts of God. - Ken Carter, Bishop, Florida and Western North Carolina Conferences of the United Methodist Church; co-author, \u003ci\u003eFresh Expressions: A New Kind of Methodist Church\u003c\/i\u003e from Abingdon Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Abingdon Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/20\/2022\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781791025793\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 144\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.41lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.43d","brand":"Michael Adam Beck, Tyler Kleeberger","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42303926862005,"sku":"9781791025793","price":17.84,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_c9b0bc20-3ed4-4987-8b9e-259ca0cbbddd.jpg?v=1658843629","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/fresh-expressions-of-the-rural-church-9781791025793","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}