The Center for Rural Ministry will see the launch of a new affinity group on March 23 for women. Women’s Life Together Affinity Group, facilitated by Adelia Matson and Miriam Brown, will seek to connect women serving in churches in rural places, as ministry wives or in women’s, children’s, or youth ministry roles.
“We hope this will be a place to exhale, to pray honestly, and to learn and share and grow together. Not another task, but a strengthening space,” Brown explained.
Having spent the past 17 years as a pastor’s wife in a rural setting, Brown has come to understand both the blessings and challenges of small-church life. She hopes the group will be “a place where the unique joys and challenges of rural ministry are understood without explanation and ‘small' is honored." "As women serving in churches in small places, we understand the unique pressures and responsibilities of rural ministry, and we are not meant to carry them alone,” Brown remarked.
She recognizes there are too many misconceptions about rural contexts in today’s world. “Small does not mean insignificant.” She hopes the affinity group will support women in seeing the work that God is doing through them in small places. “The Lord sees and values small obedience. He sees your Tuesday afternoon Bible study prep for five women. He sees every meal delivered and every encouraging word shared. He values your commitment to nurturing relationships and serving joyfully in a church of 40.”
Brown’s heart is for the ministries of hospitality and encouragement, and this influences both how she sees her work as a pastor’s wife in a rural church and how she is approaching this new role as facilitator of the Women’s Life Together Affinity Group. At her home church, Rose Point Reformed Presbyterian in Slippery Rock Township, Pa., she has worn many hats – taking on responsibility for social events, children’s Sunday School classes, and mentorship for younger women. Her home is a central location for community members to gather for meals and fellowship, and she hopes this affinity group will be a similarly hospitable and welcoming space.
Matson similarly has spent most of her life involved in ministry, citing her childhood as the daughter of a pastor and her now over 20 years of labor as the wife of a local family pastor as instrumental in shaping her view of ministry, with all its joys and challenges. Over the past few years, she has expanded her involvement in rural ministry to include working as the Administrative Director for CRM. She loves the vibrancy of the Center and her ability to integrate her knowledge of business and administration and rural ministry to support local pastors and their congregations through the Center’s programs and events.
An Idea Takes Shape
“The idea had been kind of popping around in my head for some kind of women’s reading group,” Matson explained. “CRM has been brainstorming ways we can support pastors, without putting more weight on pastors. I threw out the idea of a group for women involved in ministry – women’s ministry, children’s and youth ministry, pastor’s wives – because when people around the pastor are heathier and thriving, a load will be taken off the pastor.”
The mission statement for the affinity group is to “build Christ-centered community for women in rural and small-town ministry contexts who desire to connect learn, pray, and grow together.” Meetings will feature testimonies, a devotional message, and guided small-group discussion and prayer, beginning with the theme, “Faithfulness in Small Things” – because, as Matson expanded, in the rural context “the Lord is calling us to faithfulness in small things…[Rural ministry] strips away that desire to be bigger and more important than God is calling us to.”
“We’re going to have time for studying the Word – it’s going to be Christ-centered,” Matson described. “And we’re going to hopefully be gaining some practical tools, whether bringing in a specialist…or maybe someone is having an issue, and we can see the overlap in our ministries…we can brainstorm practical ways to support one another.”
Hopes and Prayer Requests
When asked what she would see as a successful affinity group experience, Matson said, “I would love, at the end of the three meetings, for the group to say, ‘Let’s continue! Let’s keep going!’ I want this to not be a burden, not just another thing on the To-Do List, but something that is actually drawing us closer to the Lord and helping us to draw others closer to the Lord – which is ultimately the goal of ministry.”
“My hope and prayer,” Matson continued, “is that the women who come and are part of this group will feel seen and safe in it, that they will feel like this is beneficial to both their ministry but also to their walk with the Lord.”
Another prayer request that Matson expressed is that the women who would be built up and supported by the affinity group will find their way to the meetings and not be inhibited by fears. She knows from experience how working in small, rural contexts can feel isolating, but she is praying that “women will have the confidence to actually join the group and get support.”
As Brown described, “when our work feels invisible and our faithfulness in small things seems insignificant, we need one another. Let’s unite in Christ-centered community—sharing our experiences and strengthening one another as sisters in a calling honored by the Lord and crowned with eternal reward.”
Anastasia Brown is a junior English Secondary Education major at Grove City College. She also serves as writing fellow for the Center for Rural Ministry.
