The Project on Rural Ministry (PRM) at Grove City College aims to be a bridge connecting students with rural pastors and congregations for the mutual benefit of everyone involved.
This year, groups of Grove City students decided to forgo the typical spring break experience in favor of spending a week with a handful of local pastors affiliated with PRM and their congregations.
It was a win-win experience for the pastors and the students, as Charlie Cotherman, PRM program director, recounts in a recent post on the PRM’s website.
“Ministry, like the Christian life, is centered around relationship—first with God and then with others. Sometimes, however, the ‘other’ is distant or unknown enough that relationships never have the chance to form. Too often, that is the case with college students and the small and/or rural churches in the neighboring region. While these churches may long for interaction with college students, and may, as is often the case, have much to offer to and receive from these students, all too often no connection is made,” Cotherman writes.
“In the PRM's student-led, short-term mission trips, we’ve found an encouraging starting point in our effort to bridge this gulf, but there’s much more work to be done. We believe college students and rural churches are better together, and we look forward to facilitating more rural ministry connections in the months and years to come,” he concludes.
Read the entire story here and learn more about PRM at ruralminstry.org.