Hinton Rural Life Center Resources

Equipping Mission Outreach Groups and Local Churches

Resources for the Journey

Hinton Rural Life Center retreat, mission outreach, and training ministries provide opportunities for churches, small groups, organizations, and individuals to grow in faith and become more equipped to bring help, healing, and hope to others. In addition to the Training and Workshops page on our web site, resources on this page include:

  • Mission Outreach forms and applications
  • Recommended articles, books, and online activities
  • E-learning options for ministry in smaller membership churches

Mission Resources

Books and Articles We Recommend

* When Helping Hurts: Alleviating the Poverty Without Hurting the Poor and Ourselves by Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett

* Ministry With the Poor at Its Best: Ministry From the Margins by Mary Ellen Kris

* PlaySpent.org — “Play” a month of a person’s life living in poverty.

* An Introduction to Appalachia

* Diamonds in the Dew by Nora Stanger

 * Justice & The Limits of Charity — Article from The UMC General Board of Church and Society.

* Being Poor Ain’t Cheap: This Appalachia Life

* My Name is Child of God… Not “Those People” by Julia Dinsmore

Interested in Hinton's Mission Outreach Program?

Fact Sheet: Why We Do What We Do

What to Pack

Required forms for groups attending our mission outreach program:

E-Learning

This resource page is available for you to access freely. You may use these resources with your congregation, district, or annual conference. If you have questions, please call Rev. Dawn Livingston at Hinton Center (828) 389-8336 or email dawn@hintoncenter.org.

Hinton Rural Life Center is the recognized leader in resources for smaller membership churches. We offer assistance for congregations that make a vital and measurable difference in the ministries of those churches. Among the services offered by Hinton Center are:

– Training and resources that are size- and setting-appropriate for congregations, cooperative ministries, districts, and annual conferences

– Workshops at your location tailored to your specific needs and schedule

– Consultations with local congregations and cooperative ministries

– Models of Ministry resources (See below for links)

– Training and networking events for pastors and for laity

– Guided programs in spiritual formation

Hinton Rural Life Center publishes Effective Ministry in the Smaller Membership Church, a guide with models and resources for congregations. We now offer this guide online for your use at no charge. Please click through the following links to find out what countless congregations, districts, and conferences have found to be invaluable.

  1. Contents
  2. Overview of the Smaller Membership Church
  3. Planning for Effective Ministry
  4. Financial Stewardship in the Small Membership Church
  5. Using the NOW Model for Effective Ministry in Smaller Congregations
  6. Cooperative Ministry
  7. Dynamics of the Small Membership Church
  8. Christian Education in the Small Membership Church
  9. Music in the Small Membership Church
  10. Spiritual Formation in the Local Church
  11. Pastor and Parishoner Health: Indicators for Effective Ministry
  12. If I Were the Pastor of a Small Membership Church
  13. Evangelism Information

To order this guide in printed version, please email your request to info@hintoncenter.org. Notebook copies are $20.00 each plus $6.00 shipping.

Practicing Vital Ministry in Small Congregations: When congregations are willing to become vulnerable to the prompting and leading of God, they can be guided and, ultimately, transformed by three questions.

First, who are we? A congregation must know itself well.

Second, who is our neighbor? A congregation must understand the surrounding community.

Third, what is our next step? A congregation must have a plan. These were originally used for a Vitality presentation in the Florida Conference.

  1. Who Are We?
  2. Who Is Our Neighbor?
  3. What Is Our Next Step?
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