Is Your Church in the Sticks?
If you are a staff member, pastor, or volunteer leader at a church in the boonies...in the middle of nowhere...in rural America, then you will be surprised to hear that a conference is being planned just for you. It is called The Sticks -- and is being hosted by a couple churches with amazing stories in Loudonville, Ohio.
Where the heck is Loudonville, Ohio? That's the point...it's in the sticks (if you really must know, see map below). And if you live in the sticks, you are probably tired of going to conferences in metropolitan areas where there are a million people within 5 miles of the church. You think it is cool and edgy, but you know that it would never work in your town. Because you live in the sticks.
Two pastors (this guy and this guy) from central Ohio decided to stop griping about conferences and do their own. And they are bringing together several great speakers from small- to medium-sized towns to help you figure out how to make ministry work in the sticks. I'll be there. So will Mark Batterson.
And a friend of mine from a long time ago, Shannon O'Dell, will be speaking. He started a church in a town with 50 people in northern Arkansas. They now run over 1,000 in attendance through multisites in four small towns. It's an explosion of sticks in rural Arkansas.
I'd love to meet you in November at The Sticks conference.
Anyone think they might go?