Research in Rural Ministry from Across the Pond.

This paper evaluates a recent study on rural ministry emerging from the USA and assesses its relevance for the rural Church more widely, with specific reference to the UK. The study has the challenging subtitle, 'moving from anecdotal assumptions to data-derived opportunities'. It is the work of someone who grew up in the farming community and worked as a farmer before becoming a rural minister and then undertaking serious academic research into the connections between rural living and rural ministry. The paper argues that there are two groupings of lessons to be learned from this study. It is worth giving serious attention to research conducted in other cultural contexts and it is worth encouraging others to invest in research of this nature. The rural Church needs such research and the rural Church can benefit from it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]