The Small Town and Rural (STAR) Coalition Seeks YOur Input!
The Small Town and Rural (STAR)* Coalition is a small group of people that have come together to bring voice to churches that fall in small town and rural communities, providing support to churches, congregations, pastors, and laity.
The STAR Coalition, in conjunction with the Damascus Project, has developed a questionnaire to help better address the needs of STAR congregations. The questionnaire is only a few items and does not take very long to fill out; but it will greatly help to identify what churches see as important and how we can reach them.
We are asking our churches to please complete the questionnaire to help identify the greatest needs!
The questionnaire is open to everyone. Respondents do not need to be from small town or rural churches. They do not need to be pastors or licensed ministers. Responses are encouraged from anyone with an interest in small town and rural churches, including lay people and pastors at large urban churches, conference ministers, even church staff that are not members of the church they work at and might not be members of the UCC.
I have also included a piece that we have written briefly explaining who the STAR Coalition is.
*Who is the STAR Coalition?
At the virtual 2021 General Synod, a small group of individuals met to share experiences in small town and rural ministry. They shared frustrations and concerns about resources available to these communities. From those discussions, the Small Town and Rural (STAR) Coalition developed. The STAR Coalition meets virtually the second Tuesday of every month to discuss matters that affect STAR churches. We discuss topics such as making liturgical resources available, ways to bring medical services to outlying communities, upgrading and upkeep of buildings with limited funds, search and call concerns, and supporting lay ministry.
We have members from UCC churches spanning from as far west as Hawaii, northeast to Maine, and southeast to Florida, with everything in between. Not all of our members come from small communities. We describe rural communities as less than 25,000 people, are not in “close” proximity to an urban or metropolitan community, or identify as “metro” or “urban” communities. We also have members that do not serve or attend a STAR church, but want to support and be an advocate for our cause.
Sixty-four percent of UCC churches fall within the parameters of STAR churches. Ministry in these communities is so different from ministry in metropolitan, urban, and suburban communities. And sometimes we feel that our concerns are not heard in the national setting. As a result, the STAR Coalition has written a resolution that we are trying to present at General Synod 2025 in Kansas City. The main goal for the resolution is to have the STAR Coalition formally recognized in the UCC bylaws as a formal organization within the United Church of Christ. We are asking for a voice at the table; so that our small town and rural churches can be recognized for the living ministry that they are. Currently the Illinois, Iowa, Kansas-Oklahoma, Nebraska, Pennsylvania Central, Pennsylvania Northeast, and South Dakota conferences have voted to support the STAR Resolution.