Faith in Rural Communities - NC Rural Center

Join us this spring and summer for the Good Neighbor Experiment! This five-month learning cohort takes Jesus’ call to love your neighbors literally and seriously. How well do you know the people who live in the immediate area around your home? Help your congregation move from inauthenticity to joy, draining program management to relationships, and scarcity to abundance using the tools of asset-based community development.

Learn more and apply today!

Faith in Rural Communities - Good Neighbor Experiment The full cost for the program is $1,000, but scholarships of up to $500 are available. Faith in Rural Communities does not want cost to be a barrier that keeps the members of your congregation from these transformational tools.

St. Peter's United Methodist Church in Morehead City was part of our 2023 cohort of Connect Church. They're collaborating with a local Ob-Gyn and emergency food pantry to focus on mother food insecurity to help reduce infant mortality in Carteret County.

Click below to read more!

St. Peter’s UMC invests in Carteret Mother’s Care Project MOREHEAD CITY — St. Peter’s United Methodist Church, Morehead City, is joining in a collaborative effort with Carteret Ob-Gyn and Martha’s Mission, a Morehead City based emergency food pantry, to

We are hosting a training opportunity for those looking for a curriculum resource for teaching about water resources and climate! For Eastern NC non-profits, register here:

https://www.cognitoforms.com/TheConservationFund1/ENCProjectWETTrainingRegistrationForm

Due to limited space, if you are a for-profit, an intermediary organization, an agency representative (Cooperative Extension, Soil & Water, etc.) or represent an organization with resources greater than $300,000, we kindly request that you refrain from registering. Thank you for understanding.

There's one week left to apply for Homegrown Leaders, one of the premier leadership and community development training opportunities in NC. Our three-day program will equip you to best serve your community. Apply now: https://ow.ly/sIuK50Qwnr0. You can also learn more about Homegrown Leaders on our website: https://ow.ly/qWXb50QwnqZ

Murphy First United Methodist Church in Cherokee County is in an area known as a "child-care desert", a term used to describe locations where families seeking child care are unable to find it. Through their participation in our Community Connect program, they are developing a two-prong initiative to address the issue. First, they're partnering with other local agencies to offer assistance to individuals interested in starting a new family child-care home. Second, they're opening their own part-time children's center this spring.

Learn more about their ministry to the local community in this article by the Cherokee Scout.

Church launches child-care initiative | Cherokee Scout, Murphy, North Carolina Murphy – First United Methodist Church announces the launch of a two-pronged initiative to increase child-care options in Cherokee County, with the goal of helping advance the coun

When is the last time you’ve done a check-up or upgrade on the work being done to promote health and wholeness in your congregation and community?

Join us on Tuesday, February 20 at 7 p.m. to learn about resources, how to effectively engage your local community, and other best practices for health ministries.

Whether you lead a thriving health ministry or have just started one, this session will inspire you to find ways to maximize your effectiveness and reach!

Register here: https://ncchurches.ourpowerbase.net/civicrm/event/register?reset=1&id=203

On Saturday, we held our orientation for the 2024 cohort of Connect Church. Over the next 11 months, these 24 church teams from 16 different counties across North Carolina will embark on a process of asset-based community development. There was so much energy and excitement in this room full of changemakers and we're excited to see how they're going to impact their communities.

Photo credit: Courtney Collins Photography

The Rural Summit is the NC Rural Center's annual conference. Each year, we think of it as our state's rural homecoming - a unique opportunity for local leaders and state partners to come together in conversation and celebration.

The Rural Summit 2024 is taking place March 20-21, 2024, at the Raleigh Marriott Crabtree Valley.

The 2024 Rural Summit will bring together community leaders, policymakers, and rural advocates from across the state and nation to engage in a thoughtful, intentional dialogue about what we can do today to advance policy and systems change across a spectrum of rural development issues.

Join us at the Rural Summit 2024! Early bird registration is available now!

Be one of the first to register and save up to $50 through January 15, 2024.

To register: https://web.cvent.com/event/b54525bf-6e32-4a34-9a46-b480155bfef1/summary

On Saturday, Connect Church teams gathered in Raleigh to present their community project proposals. Each church team presented a proposal that utilized their gifts to meet a well-researched and identified need in their community. After presenting their proposals, they received constructive feedback from their peers, as well as a team of Rural Center staff "friendly sharks." They will incorporate that feedback into a final application for an implementation grant of up to $10,000. Project proposals included an affordable childcare program in a county with approximately 700 children on a childcare waitlist, a mobile shower service to provide dignity to individuals experiencing homelessness, and an after-school literacy enrichment tutoring program for elementary school students. Thanks to The Duke Endowment for their generous support of this program.

According to a new study from Partners for Sacred Places and the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute prepared for The Duke Endowment, in North Carolina, a rural church contributes between $488,598 to $735,000 of value to its local economy each year.

The economic value that rural churches bring to their communities, according to the study, includes: supporting local businesses; acting as a community hub, providing space to solve problems and build social capital; providing early childhood education, many times in areas underserved by child care centers; and so much more.

Rural churches fuel economies Rural churches and their leaders should look beyond the length of the membership rolls and the amount of donations collected to gauge their worth, a new study in North Carolina suggests. Jim Patterson reports for UM News.