A few weeks ago, the Town and Country Commission met in Chicago. I serve as the liaison between the commission and the denomination. Our purpose of the commission is to help every town and country church become a healthy missional church.

By healthy we mean pursuing Christ. By missional we mean pursuing Christ's priorities in the world.

I read somewhere recently that three out of four of today's seminarians will one day find themselves serving in a town and country setting. Part of our role on the commission is to lift up the significance of T&C ministry. We firmly believe that T&C churches are not stepping stones to bigger suburban churches. They are destinations worthy of our very best pastors.

Brad Shannon, pastor of the Covenant Church in Twig, MN, serves as the chair of the commission. He told me that most T&C pastors struggle with isolation, a lack of resources and discouragement. Teaching Veritas in some T&C locations showed me the truth of his statement.

For the next year, we are going to try Facebook to foster more of a connection for T&C pastors. We're in the process of creating a Facebook group called 'Town and Country Ministries of the Covenant Church'. Feel free to join this group and use it as a place to connect with other town and country pastors.

One of the joys of serving on the Commission is interviewing candidates for the Dusty Grant. The Dusty Grant (named after pastor Quentin "Dusty" Larson) is worth $10,000 and is awarded to a graduating senior who will be serving in a Town and Country setting in a Covenant Ministry. The money is disturbed over a four year period and is used exclusively to reduce seminary debt. This year’s recipient is Mary Putera. (She and her husband Joseph are seated in the picture above.) You can read about her story on the Covenant Website. Congratulations to Mary!

We also hosted our annual banquet for seminarians who are interested in T&C ministry. At the banquet, three of our T&C pastors participated in a panel discussion. They gave a realistic picture of what life is like for pastors in this unique setting.

Only two conferences have T&C commissions: the Midwest Conference and the Northwest Conference. We are praying that more conferences join in and create their own T&C commissions.

Our fall meeting is scheduled for late September in Sugar Grove, Pennsylvania. I am looking forward to it because we get to visit a few local industries. We also get to meet and share a meal with the Covenant pastors and their spouses who live nearby. If you have any ideas, concerns or comments that you would like the commission to address, please contact Brad Shannon.

Pastor, if you are serving in a T&C setting, please know that you are being prayed for. You are not forgotten! The Covenant deeply appreciates