Rural Faith Workshop Series: May - October 2026
As part of our Rural Faith Initiative, the Center for Rural Strategies is excited to offer a monthly training series for faith leaders and allies to gather, connect, share knowledge, and learn a variety of skills that can help guide your community through moments of challenge and change. We welcome leaders and allies from across faith traditions.
We'll explore strategies for sharing stories, building relationships, navigating conflicts, facing loss, connecting with neighbors in and outside of the congregation, and growing faith communities into centers of community life.
These trainings will happen on the 2nd Tuesday of each month from May through October, from 11:30-1:30 Eastern Time. You are welcome to join us for just one, or for all of them, and you are welcome to spread the word and share this opportunity with others. We look forward to gathering with you! Our second workshop is now open for registration.
Workshop 2: How to Tell Stories Effectively in Public: Me, Us, and Now
Tuesday, June 9th
11:30-1:30 ET
Registration link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/ROkwNRmnRjyNo0v2oRTDrQ
How can we tell stories that connect with our neighbors and move people to act, on the pulpit and off? This hands-on training will explore the public narrative framework, a simple and effective tool for sharing personal stories (the story of self) that connect with a group's shared interests (the story of us) and lead to action (the story of now). Participants will learn the framework, study examples, and get practice crafting their own public narrative, based on the challenges and opportunities we all face in our own communities and congregations.
This training is part of a monthly series offered by the Center for Rural Strategies as part of our Rural Faith Initiative, as an opportunity faith leaders and allies to gather, connect, share knowledge, and learn a variety of skills that can help guide your community through moments of challenge and change. We welcome leaders and allies from across faith traditions.
We'll explore strategies for sharing stories, building relationships, navigating conflicts, facing loss, connecting with neighbors in and outside of the congregation, and growing faith communities into centers of community life.
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Previous Workshops
Workshop 1: Leading Faith Communities Amidst Change
Tuesday, May 12
11:30-1:30 ET
REGISTRATION NOW CLOSED
The faith landscape in the United States is changing in rapid and sometimes unsettling ways. Faith leaders across the country are facing a battery of challenges: how do we guide our communities through this larger cultural moment while at the same time dealing with fewer and fewer attendees at church and fewer dollars in the collection plate? We will explore strategies and tools for building a healthy community culture, navigating change, grieving what we may be leaving behind, and looking ahead to what might be next.