The Center for Theology & Land

Many small town and rural congregations and communities are facing significant changes and challenges in their context.

Their leaders realize that their congregations need to adapt their mission to respond to these challenges in ways that support sustainability and promote vitality.  Yet they often struggle in discerning what God is calling them to do and how to practically implement new visions and forms that emerge.

Students will learn and develop skills for entering a congregation and leading a discernment process.  Students will learn how to concretely implement a vision for new strategies or forms for mission aimed at sustaining and revitalizing congregational ministry. Students will be offered methods, tools, and processes to assess the congregation’s current situation using hard data as well as the congregation’s energy and spirit.

This course highlights numerous possible missional formations as well as other creative adaptations and the methodology to bring them to reality.​

This course explores the commonalities and unique differences of youth and family culture in a small town and rural setting. 

This course considers the practical challenges and opportunities of leading youth and family ministry in small membership congregations and multiple congregation parishes. 

Particular attention will be given to best practices for such ministry in a small town and rural context.

Environmental sustainability is at the forefront of societal concerns and in rural contexts there are deep socio-economic and cultural relationships between environment and community. 

This course will explore those relationships through a biblical/theological lens and reflect on connections to rural cultural contexts and how that informs our practice of ministry—particularly preaching, teaching, and worship.

This course studies the changing patterns of Small Town and Rural (STaR) ministry and the formation of multi-point parishes. In many regions, STaR congregations cooperating with other congregations in various types of configurations are the norm rather than the exception.

The area parish, a configuration of multiple congregations with a staff of pastors is a cutting edge and growing model for STaR mission.

This course addresses the challenges, the art, and the opportunities for ministry in these settings. Development, leadership, administration, and planning aspects of this type of ministry will be explored.

The goal of this course is to expand the student’s understanding of the rural setting in order to promote

ministerial effectiveness in a small church parish. We will examine the context of the town and rural church and explore the future minister’s understanding as a community and spiritual leader.

This course centers on a field experience in the communities of Poplar Grove, Illinois and Clinton, Wisconsin, where students will observe agricultural and other rural enterprises in operation, converse with community and congregational leaders, and learn about the resources and challenges that can affect the quality of life in a rural setting. 

This course runs from a Friday afternoon until Sunday afternoon, normally the first weekend in November.

Students, together with clergy and lay persons from small town and rural congregations, study issues affecting America’s small town and rural (STaR) communities.

Clergy and lay persons from STaR congregations and communities are engaged as part of the course. Contexts include southwestern Minnesota, western Iowa, and North Dakota. Implications for ministry and leadership in these contexts are explored.