Rural America is undergoing significant changes, yet we often rely on outdated assumptions about what it means to thrive as a rural congregation, or how rural congregations can serve their communities. In this webinar, we’ll explore the myths and realities of rural ministry, how rural congregations can better understand vitality in the rural context, and how rural churches can lead from their strengths to become agents of change and transformation in their communities.

Allen Stanton is the Chief of Mission Integration and Outreach at the University of Tennessee Southern, where he also serves as the Executive Director of the Turner Center for Rural Vitality. Previously, Allen served as the inaugural Rural Faith Communities Fellow at NC State University’s Institute for Emerging Issues, and as a rural pastor in North Carolina. He is the author of Reclaiming Rural: Building Thriving Rural Congregations (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021), which explores how rural congregations can act as anchor institutions to lead economic and community development. Allen is an ordained elder in the Western North Carolina Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, and holds degrees from Wake Forest University and Duke University.