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RENDEZVOUS

What Makes Rural "Rural"?

Editor’s Note: Here’s another article by one of our Shepherds’ Conference speakers, to let you see his insight into our rural lifestyle.

by Dr. Gary Goreham, Fargo, North Dakota

Have you seen signs saying, "Now entering Rural" or "Welcome to Urban?" How did you know when you entered an urban area or left a rural one? What makes it "rural," and why does it matter to rural pastors? Definitions of rural are based on population, industrial base, and characteristics of the people.

The U.S. Census Bureau defines "rural" as any place with a population less than 2,500. Places with 2,500 people or more are "urban." These numbers are somewhat arbitrary and the differences often are more evident between a "metropolitan" area (50,000 people or more) and a "non-metropolitan" one. Definitions can be misleading since population based on space are skewed when some states have huge expanses of open land, but the bulk of their populations reside in urban centers.

Another way to define "rural" is based on a county’s industrial base, industrial, timber, ranching, and so on, but rurality can’t be defined solely in industrial or population terms. What about the people themselves? Both urban and rural people typically believe there are qualitative differences between each other. According to a national study conducted for the National Rural Electric Cooperatives (REC) Association in 1992, 72% of Americans believe small town and rural residents have better personal values (compared with 6% for city residents), 70% believe rural people have a better overall quality of life (7% for city people), 69% believe rural people have a stronger sense of family (4% for city people), 62% believe rural people are friendlier (3% for city people), 58% believe rural people are more concerned about the problems and needs of people outside their own communities (8% for city people).

Do rural people really have better personal values and a better overall quality of life? Are they really friendlier and have more concern about the problems and needs of others? Rural Americans may or may not be innately friendlier than urban residents, but both urban and rural people attribute friendliness to rural residents. That attribution leads to a self-perception or mindset of friendliness. Does the self-perception, in turn, lead to unfriendly people’s mythic self-delusion of friendliness? OR does the self-perception lead to regular people engaging in friendly, welcoming, inclusive, inviting actions? The definition of the situation has important implications for our rural churches. How do we perceive and define ourselves, and what are our resulting actions?

Are urban schools, health care services, and job opportunities really better than those in rural areas? Although some data may actually support many of these differences, residents’ perceptions also play an important role in how they respond, and this has ramifications for our rural churches. If church members respond to their schools, clinics, and businesses with the motto, "If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it," their community’s facilities likely will decline in quality. But what if they adopt the 4-H motto, "To make the best better"?

Church members can make a powerful impact in maintaining the quality of life in their communities. The REC study asked where the respondents would like to live: 33% said in a small town or rural area compared with 21% in the suburbs, 16% in a small city, 21% in a medium-sized city, and 9% in a large city. What is your church and its members doing "to make the best better?"

What makes rural "rural?" — the ways in which the people in the community perceive themselves!