LITTLE ROCK — To Shannon O’Dell the turning point in his life as a minister came during what he calls the “Battle of the Pews.” As a new rural church pastor, he had accepted the call to lead a struggling congregation in South Lead Hill in Boone County. All 31 members of the Southern Baptist congregation voted unanimously to welcome him as pastor in hopes that he would bring growth to the church.
O’Dell had big plans for change, but he quickly found out that taking on the “sacred cows” of church tradition - removing the pews, for example - can be a painful experience. As he writes in his new book, Transforming Church in Rural America: Breaking All the Rurals: “Everyone likes change - except when it makes things different.”
The outpouring of anger at the removal of the pews blindsided O’Dell.
Charter members left the church, and the hard-won gains he had worked on for months were shattered. Attendance dropped and resentment simmered.
O’Dell was ready give up.
“That’s when I was ready to pack it up. That was a crusher,” he said. “It was ugly.”
O’Dell could have left. Before going to Boone County, he had been a successful youth minister at a large, thriving church in the suburbs of Oklahoma City. When he felt God’s call to lead a congregation as senior pastor he had offers from many promising churches.
Pastoring a rural church hadn’t been in his plans. He had grown up not far from South Lead Hill in nearby Bear Creek Springs and was certain that his future was in a large suburban church, not back home.
“I begged God, ‘Please, Jesus, don’t send me anywhere near there,’” O’Dell said.
He wasn’t avoiding rural churches because he disliked rural people. Those are his roots. He did, however, have an unflattering view of rural churches, one shared by many other ministers, he said. He calls them the unwritten rules of rural churches: They are behind the times, can’t be as successful as churches in urban or suburban areas, and they can only afford the leftovers when it comesto leadership. Still, he ended up right back home.
“It was God,” O’Dell said, explaining how he felt led to accept the call to rural ministry.
So even after the pew debacle, turning his back on the congregation - on what he felt was God’s will - wasn’t an option. He was hurt. He cried. But he was staying.
Since then the church has experienced a transformation and phenomenal growth. It’s now known as Brand New Church and roughly 2,000 attend services in person at five campuses (soon to be six). Another 1,500 or more regularly watch live services online.
The journey wasn’t easy, and along the way O’Dell saidhe has learned some valuable lessons - ones he shares with readers in the book and on a blog, breakingalltherurals.com.
“I was never told that, as a rural pastor, I was going to be hated,” he writes. “That the people who left my church were going to be glaring at me in the check-out lane of Wal-Mart for the rest of my life.”
O’Dell offers advice for ministers or would-be ministers of rural churches and shares his insights on how to not only survive but also succeed in leading people to Christ. It isn’t an easy job, he cautions. There’s gossip, some of it malicious.
“At some point you’ve got to know you’ll be a target,” he said. “And, you’ve got to prepare for it. You’ve got to prepare your kids for it ... and you have to marry the vision. When you make an unconditional commitment, failure is not an option and we made that commitment.”
Overcoming decades of tradition, the “church bully” and an organizational structure where change comes at a snail’s pace can be daunting but it can be done, O’Dell says.
O’Dell said he discovered those unwritten rules about rural churches aren’t true. Rural churches don’t have to be stagnant. They can be vibrant and he encourages other pastors to see the possibilities - not just the challenges - in rural America. He points to Brand New Church as an example but is quick to give credit to God.
“We are really just beginning and I can’t wait to see seven years from now where God is taking us.” Information is available online at
brandnewchurch.com
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Religion, Pages 14 on 05/15/2010