ARC Resources

Making the Most of Key Resources for the Rural Church

This material from the Arthur Rank Centre is actually a collection of modules – each relating to a single resource that is of significant value for rural churches, their members or their leaders. To a large extent the modules included here result from research carried out in 2010. This identified a number of major resources that have been repeatedly found helpful by rural church practitioners – lay people, ministers and training providers. However, potential problems were also identified with the successful use about 10 of these resources:

• Knowledge of them, and their uptake by rural churches, is often quite patchy. Some regions and denominations use them widely; in others strategic training providers have no experience of them, and so rural churches often remain ignorant of what is available. This is certainly true of some materials that have been produced for use in a single region or denomination; but it is also clear that other nationally-distributed materials are not widely known either.
  
  
• Even where they are known, rural church practitioners often admit that they are unsure how the resources might be best used in their circumstances.

As a result the Arthur Rank Centre is providing an over-arching programme (“How Best to Use ...”) that gives guidance and help in using many of these key resources. In most cases, this means making the individual resource more easily available (e.g. as a freely downloadable file), inclusion of several case studies of how it has been employed in different circumstances, examples of how it can be developed, endorsements, and simply making an excellent resource known to a wider audience.

Virtually all the materials available in the different modules of “How Best to Use ...” are available to download free from this website – as you can see when you look at any module individually. In a couple of cases, the underlying resource still has to be purchased, as it is not yet available for free or online.

Substantial numbers in our rural constituencies have poor internet access, and downloading large or multiple files can be difficult. Significant numbers of lay people within the rural church are not comfortable using computers or electronic documents. So we are also making all of these modules available on a CD-ROM, which we can send to individuals, churches or training providers. Then you can copy or print out whatever you need without having access to the internet; and people who prefer not to use computers can still use the material ... printed out for them by others.

If you want to discuss or share anything in relation to any of the “How Best to Use ...” modules, especially examples of how you have used any of the resources, then contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   or 024-7685-3068.