Contact: Rev.

Daniel Wolpert
-4853
revdoc@gvtel.com
or Kerry Traubert
404-727-1170
ktraubert@thefund.org

RURAL COMMUNITIES SEEK NEXT GENERATION

OF MINISTERS TO SERVE LOCAL NEEDS, FILL GAPS

Exploring a Call to Ministry in Remote Communities,

Gifted Young Adults Consider Cost, Rewards of Serving Heartland Towns

WHAT: Paradoxical Possibilities: Exploring Rural Ministry, a national Fund for Theological
Education (FTE) learning event for students and seminarians considering a call to
pastoral ministry in underserved rural areas. The event is funded by the Otto Bremer
Foundation. Participants will gather in rural Minnesota to explore the possibilities of
ministry in remote communities. Rural America is struggling and needs help. The
attraction of American urban centers leaves rural communities increasingly challenged
to attract and retain young leaders—including pastors for local churches. Many
graduating seminarians are drawn to big-city churches, which often enjoy greater
financial resources, programmatic opportunities and social connections. Pulpit
vacancies for rural congregations in parts of the Midwest routinely range from 50 to 80
percent.

But some young people feel deeply drawn to rural ministry and the richness of small-
town life, in spite of special needs exacerbated by declining tax bases, struggling
economies and talent draining away from the countryside. This conference invites
students who hear this countercultural calling to explore their interest in serving
heartland communities.

WHO: Seminary students from the Midwest and Northeast who are exploring a call to rural
ministry, together with Minnesota church and community leaders, hosted by FTE, an
ecumenical, national nonprofit that supports excellence and diversity in pastoral ministry
and theological scholarship (www.thefund.org).
Interviews available:
• FTE President Trace Haythorn, a national expert on youth, vocation and values,
who served as professor and director of the Vocation and Values program at
Hastings College in Nebraska, on society’s need for gifted young pastoral leaders;
404-727-1858; (thaythorn@thefund.org).
• The Rev. Daniel Wolpert, pastor of Crookston First Presbyterian Church and co-
founder of MICAH (Minnesota Institute of Contemplation and Healing);
218-281-4853; (revdoc@gvtel.com), on special needs of rural Minnesota
communities.
• Young people who feel called to ministry in rural settings.

WHEN: October 3-5, 2008 (8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Central time/schedules vary daily)

WHERE: Mount St. Benedict Convent and the MICAH Center, Crookston, Minnesota. Students
will view the Red River Valley beet harvest; learn from pastors who serve rural congregations; visit
Riverview Hospital (an innovative rural community hospital); hear from local community leaders;
and learn about MICAH, a unique mission of a local church. These visits will reveal the special
needs of rural communities and the challenge of ministry in those settings.