Mike Harmon ‘19 M. Div. serves at a congregation in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He finds that Faith+Lead’s articles and courses help support him in his work in a rural community and area. Harmon’s challenge with rural ministry is that there is not a set community, meaning that there are a small number of people who live near the church but many are coming from miles away or watching online. It is difficult to articulate the relationship between his direct community and the “larger” governing church that is often located far away from it. The Faith+Lead article “Learning From and With Rural Ministry Leaders” by Jon Anderson articulated the importance of rural churches to the wider church and has helped him articulate this connection within his own church community.
He has also found Ryan Panzer’s course “Hybrid Ministry in a Post-Pandemic Church” to be extremely beneficial in his understanding of technology and how it best serves his context. He enjoyed connecting with others and hearing about what they are doing in their own congregations, including those that are not Lutheran. It helped spark ideas for him and reconfigure the way that his community produces online worship as well as implementing receiving feedback to see what people are interested in or want from an online community.
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