wfn.org | Rural Life Sunday 2000 features a current 'new frontier'

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

March 9, 2000        News media contact: Joretta Purdue ·(202)
546-8722·Washington     10-23-24-71B{129}

By United Methodist News Service

Rural Life Sunday this year focuses on "The New Frontier" facing rural
communities.

Neither the outer space of "Star Trek" nor the cyberspace of the computer
age, the new frontier is at home - just beyond the doorstep or the end of
the driveway. The new frontier of Rural Life Sunday involves answering God's
call with strangers who have sometimes been regarded as invaders.

For the Rev. Mel West, field representative with the United Methodist Rural
Fellowship, the new frontier equates with new neighbors, new challenges and
new opportunities. His sample sermon on this theme is among the resources
included in the materials for this special Sunday, which may be observed at
any time throughout the year.

"It has been said that the United Methodist Church has historically been
most successful as a 'frontier church,'" West writes. "God is giving us a
new frontier in the new neighbors moving in all around many of our rural
churches."

Carolyn Gray Thornton, a longtime writer on rural themes, explores ways to
build community when "the new rural landscape now has a variety of people
from a variety of cultures with vastly different lifestyles and incomes."

"A community that embraces many different kinds of people with varying
cultures will be an exciting, vibrant community where each person learns
from and experiences the other," she observes.

The articles by West and Thornton are part of a 16-page resource booklet on
the 2000 Rural Life Sunday theme. The booklet also includes articles by
other authors; an order of worship that can be copied into a bulletin; a
page of quotes; a list of videos, pamphlets and books; graphs and charts;
and ideas for mission and community-building activities. 

The booklet is available for $5 from UMRF, 108 Balow Wynd, Columbia, MO
65203.
# # #
 

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org