already apparent, as with the role of stories and examples of others’ good practice. While this is by no means necessarily limited to rural churches, it does reflect the acceptance and adoption by many rural churches of the mixed economy.
d. Other Significant Rural-Specific Publications
Several other rural-specific publications are identified and commented on; all are valued, and sometimes criticised, for a variety of reasons. The following represent the five identified sufficiently often to merit discussion: • God-Shaped Mission: theological and practical perspectives from the rural church, by Alan Smith. The value of this is felt to lie in its practicality, in the series of important questions it asks of contemporary rural churches and that it then attempts to answer. A major negative comment is that it is written from, and largely for, the perspective of the Church of England, and the substantial discussion of the role of bishops makes it much less useful for non-Anglicans.
• Changing Rural Life: a Christian response to key rural issues, edited by Jeremy Martineau
et.al. Although somewhat older than the other publications considered, this has been valued for having in one place discussions of all the important issues facing rural churches and communities, especially at the time of publication. A major criticism is that, as a collection of essays by various authors, the quality is quite patchy.
• Rural Children, Rural Church: mission opportunities in the countryside, by Rona Orme. The major value attached to this is that it is virtually the only book that discusses real-life church work with children in the countryside, taking the impact of contemporary church and community demographics seriously.
• All Mud and Matins: understanding rural worship, by Paul Lack. This is considered useful for three major reasons: (a) it contains helpful, brief consideration of real-life rural church practice, alongside very useful questions to guide reflection and discussion; (b) although written by an Anglican, much of what it covers is relevant across the denominations; (c) it is only 32 pages long.
• The journal of the Rural Theology Association (RTA). This is generally appreciated for (a) useful practical theology, helping to pin down generally-agreed perceptions with hard data, and (b) being the only really serious attempts to engage theologically with important rural issues. The major negative comment is that some of the articles are too abstruse or irrelevant for the average rural minister.
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