Frequently Asked Questions

A rural place is a populated area with open country and less than 2,000 houses or 5,000 people. This definition comes from the USDA. As of 2021, 14% of the U.S. population (approx. 46 million people) live in rural counties. These rural places make up as much as 97% of the land mass in the United States.

Other factors also define rural places.

Land Dependence: Rural places are usually economically dependent upon jobs that extract resources from the land (such as farming, mining, logging, etc.) or use the expanse of land for other work (such as ranching, tourism, wind/solar, etc.).

Social Isolation: Rural places are often more than twenty miles away from important goods (such as grocery and clothing stores) and services (such as hospitals and vehicle repair).

The lifestyle of rural people is often directly connected to the physical land. Therefore, they usually care deeply about the availability of natural resources within their community and pay careful attention to weather patterns and policies which affect the land.

Due to the rise of technology and rural internet access, more rural people are working with systems of commerce (ex: computer based-jobs, online work, etc.). But even with this shift, rural-minded people are still often thinking about local resources and the current conditions of the land since their hobbies are often land-related (ex: fishing, hunting, racing, rodeo, etc.).

This rural lifestyle tends to be dramatically different from urban in several ways, but here is one example. Rural people tend to be relationally-focused more than progress-focused. When making decisions which affect the rural community, rural people may prefer to seek consensus before agreeing with any new thing. If highly respected rural persons (usually older) are not in agreement with the new thing, the project is unlikely to move forward.

If you are interested in learning more about rural culture, we invite you to consider attending one of our TACT classes.

We serve the churches, church-plants, and pastors in the rural ‘homeland’ of the United States of America. Isolated regions and people living in rural communities are often lacking in financial resources and healthy Christian friendships. Therefore, Christian leaders in these places easily grow discouraged as they work multiple jobs yet want to give more time to engage their neighbors with the good news of Jesus. They relate to Jesus words, "the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few" (Mt 9:37). And the few who are there are also tired.

We also work with rural congregations who don’t have any denominational support and yet have a passion to spread the gospel among their least-reached neighbors. If a church serves as the only gospel presence within their broader community, we eagerly desire to support their work with coaching, care, and equipping resources.

Thousands of protestant, gospel-centered churches close each year. Many of these are located in rural places where a lack of resources make it difficult to sustain a paid pastor. Many rural pastors are bi-vocational and are unable to give much time to ministry outside of Sunday morning duties. Yet the material and spiritual needs around them are often much greater than those found in suburban or even urban settings.

Materially, life is rough for many rural people. As of 2021, 13% of rural people live below the poverty line – a higher number than those who live in US cities. Almost 20% of rural children live below the poverty line. 25% of American Indian, Alaska Native, or Hispanic rural households experience severe housing problems. Over the past twenty years, the suicide rate as increased 50% in rural areas, and is 73% higher among rural youth.

Additionally, alcoholism, domestic abuse, the misuse of opioids are all greater among rural people than those who live in suburban and urban areas. The lack of resources (like adequate healthcare and social services) with the reality of social isolation only add to the despair found in rural communities. And when there is no church or missionary present, rural places are often very hopeless places.

Spiritually, 60 counties in the US have an evangelical witness of 3% or less. Historically, these ‘least-reached’ counties have been located in rural New England and in the rural west. But as protestant churches close, the need for gospel-centered congregations and gospel-minded missionaries is only increasing. Now there is increased spiritual need in rural counties within the Great Plains and New Mexico. These regions of the US are often overlooked by church-planting and missionary efforts. But they are not overlooked by RHMA.

If you have a desire to pray with us for these 'least-reached' regions of the US, we invite you to learn more about our Back 40 online prayer meeting each month.

A missionary pastor is someone who has been commissioned for church leadership by a sending church and is dependent upon financial support to accomplish their mission of establishing a healthy, self-sustaining congregation. They are missionaries in the sense that they are often serving in a region where their rural neighbors don’t have access to any other gospel-centered congregations. Their rural neighbors may have heard of the Bible, but may not own one, and certainly have never been taught from it.

Generally speaking, 98% of what is given for RHMA missionary support goes directly to that missionary. RHMA asks missionaries to pay an annual administrative fee, as is common practice for mission agencies. This fee is on a tiered scale based on their overall support level. Administrative fees help to provide missionary-focused support such as printing and mailing quarterly letters to supporters, accounting practices for these financial gifts, and hosting an annual conference for the RHMA missionary families.

RHMA prays and works diligently to support nearly all its administrative staff and home office expenses by raising support through our ‘General Fund.’ We are so grateful for every financial partner who understands the value of not only giving directly to missionaries but also to the administrative work we do through our home office.

There is also a 3% processing fee for donations made via credit and debit card. Donors are given the option to cover this processing fee if they so choose. To avoid processing fees, we encourage donors to set up an ACH giving.

You will never see ‘RHMA’ on a church sign. We are an association, not a denomination. Our method is to send and partner with missionary pastors as they serve in rural settings. Our contact with a congregation is almost exclusively through that missionary. It’s more accurate to say we have RHMA missionaries than to say we have RHMA churches. We also aim for churches to ‘graduate out’ of missionary support and become self-sustaining, healthy churches. Therefore, RHMA locations may not remain RHMA locations forever.

Our missionary locations have ebbed and flowed since C.J. Rediger started this ministry in 1942. We have served many locations in the Midwest since our home office is located in Central Illinois. However, we have also served congregations in the West, Midwest, South, and into the Northeast. We aim to be ministry of encouragement for every small-town, gospel-centered church and every rural pastor who is actively reaching the least-reached with the good news of Jesus Christ.

Our best support for pastors and churches comes through our annual Small-Town Pastors’ Conference held each April in Morton, IL. This 3-day event is open to any church leader and provides practical resources for small-town, rural ministry. We also occasionally offer other rural ministry conferences across the US.

We also have many educational resources (including books, classes, conference recordings, etc.) which can equip and encourage any rural ministry. Many of these can be found in our resource library (updated monthly) and our monthly ‘Rural Pastors’ Post’ email.

We also have a job board for rural churches who are currently looking for a pastor. We cannot guarantee connections with those who are searching for a ministry position. But do what we can to make these positions visible while we pray and keep our ears open for potential candidates.

We also provide Snailing-It, a cohort for ministry wives. This is open to women outside of our RHMA family. We encourage women to experience the community and spiritual/emotional support offered through this wonderful cohort and its annual retreat.

Yes. We offer the longest-running rural pastors’ conference in the United States. Our annual Small-Town Pastors’ Conference occurs each April in Morton, Illinois. Although the exact dates change, conference begins on a Monday evening and concludes on Wednesday night. This conference includes 5 plenary sessions, and 4 opportunities to experience a variety of 1-hour seminars to relevant to small church and rural ministry.

In recently years, pastoral couples from over 27 different states have gathered at our Small-Town Pastors’ Conference to experience Biblical teaching, connection with other rural leaders, practical seminars, and great food.

Every other year, we offer a Small-Town Pastors’ Conference in Lancaster, PA. We are also expanding our conference ministry to include more one-day events in locations spanning from Massachusetts to South Dakota. We strongly encourage any small-town or rural church leader to come to be equipped and encouraged in your work in serving the Lord.

Yes. We facilitate ministry cohorts for RHMA missionary couples. These year-long cohorts meet in-person quarterly and offer educational tools, prayer support, and time to build relationships with other ministry couples. Currently, they are only offered for those serving directly with RHMA.

We also provide Snailing-It, a cohort for ministry wives. This is open to women outside of our RHMA family. We encourage women to experience the community and spiritual/emotional support offered through this wonderful cohort and its annual retreat.

We recommend our well-established Town and County Training for those serving in rural places. We call this our TACT program. One student said of TACT, “It was one of the most practical courses I took in seminary.”

TACT includes 4 elective summer courses which can be taken for credit through your seminary. Class 1 is offered every summer. Classes 2-4 are offered on a rotating basis over three summers. These classes are taught by professors who have all served as pastors in rural settings and offers master’s-level instruction for the small-town and rural contexts.

Rural leaders may also audit a class and participate for the sake of honing their leadership skills in a rural setting or a congregation of 70 or less. TACT will benefit anyone who is serving their small, rural congregation.

We are also developing Town and Country Leadership Education (TACLE). This is a series of short, 30-minute classes intended to help rural pastors cultivate strong, capable leaders within their own congregation. This is a great resource for any church seeking to raise up Godly leaders.