For current AMERC information see www.amerc.org

The Appalachian Ministries
Educational Resource Center
(AMERC)

WHAT IS AMERC?

AMERC is a training center devoted to preparing church leaders for effective ministry in Appalachia and other rural areas. AMERC is sponsored by 43 seminaries and divinity schools, representing 52 denominations.

WHY DOES AMERC EXIST?

AMERC exists to teach pastors and lay leaders who can give wise and loving leadership that does not offer a quick fix or treat people and places as commodities. For over 1400 seminarians, pastors, denominational leaders, and professors, AMERC has provided nationally-renowned training for rural ministry that is often life-changing.

WHAT DOES AMERC DO?

• AMERC trains persons for ministry or church leadership in rural communities, with particular emphasis on the Appalachian region.
   
• Each year, through winter and summer seminars and internships, students learn from regional scholars. ministers, farmers, community leaders, and seminary professors.
   
• Hundreds of denominational leaders and seminary professors have come to the AMERC center to learn about Appalachian and rural ministry, to plan new programs and to strengthen ongoing ones.
   
• Pastors and lay leaders come to AMERC to learn about creative small church ministries and community outreach.

FACTS ABOUT AMERC

• Seminarians from 88 theological schools, representing 52 denominations, have participated in the AMERC program offerings.
   
• More than half of all seminarians will serve a small town or rural church in their first year.
   
• Sixty percent of all U.S. seminaries have no educational offerings related to rural or small town ministry.

• AMERC has trained 140 Presbyterian seminarians.
   
• 50% of all Presbyterian churches are small churches, having fewer than 250 members.
   
• 50-75% of all Presbyterian seminary graduates begin their ministry in small churches in rural or small town America.
   
• All Presbyterian (USA) seminaries participate in AMERC. AMERC has also trained Presbyterian students and pastors from the Presbyterian Church in Ghana, Korea, and Taiwan.
   
• The founder of AMERC, Dr. Mary Lee Daugherty, is an ordained Presbyterian (USA) minister. She grew up in West Virginia and served as a missionary in Brazil before founding AMERC in 1985.
   
• AMERC has recently been featured in several Presbyterian publications, including Cornerstone (March 1998) and Presbyterians Today (June 1997).
   
• Of all Presbyterian adherents across the nation, 588,586, or 14.9%, are in Appalachian counties. Presbyterian churches are present in 347 of the region's 399 counties, though they are more prevalent in the north. Overall, 2.8% of the region's population is Presbyterian, while 2.5% is specifically PCUSA.

The challenge of assimilating a different culture is something we generally associate with being in a foreign county. However, adapting to a different setting within our own culture can present similar hurdles. Consider, for example, the economic and social changes a pastor faces in coining from an urban or suburban background to serve a church in a poor, rural mountain area. There is a high turnover of pastors who are unprepared to meet the needs of a rural mountain community, and this is exacerbated by the large number of ministers sent to these communities right out of the seminary.

Fortunately, for these congregations, there is Mary Lee Daugherty. An Appalachian resident born and bred, Daugherty stands at the vanguard to remedy this situation. Daugherty' is a Presbyterian minister and founding director of the Appalachian Ministries Education Resource Center (AMERC) in Berea, KY the largest consortial effort in the history of U.S. theological education to focus on rural ministry. Its service area includes 399 counties in twelve states ranging from Western New York to Eastern Mississippi. Now in its twelfth year, AMERC works with 49 denominations and 88 theological institutions.

As a minister, Daugherty feels "...the traditional seminary program prepares people primarily for middle-class urban and suburban churches. A minister coming to an Appalachian community must be ready to deal with a very new set of circumstances. They not only have the charge of leading a congregation, but must do so in the absence of significant funding or volunteers."

This calls for resourcefulness, creativity and a firm grasp of rural socio-economic realities. In a small church, the minister often flies solo, acting as secretary, Sunday school teacher, planning committee, even the janitor. AMERC teaches not only how to navigate this solo flight, but how to enjoy the journey, take care of oneself and avoid burnout. All of this is crucial to leading a congregation. Says Daugherty, "AMERC trainees come to understand how churches and grassroots cooperatives can affect the spiritual, physical. emotional and psychological needs of a flock."

The biggest challenge is funding the program year after year. This is Daugherty's chief responsibility arid a task she pursues with characteristic determination. "I'll travel anywhere to speak about AMERC... I speak at church services, mission committee meetings, women's meetings and to individual parishioners," she says, "...wherever there's interest or wherever I can generate it."

AMERC has established a fund through the Presbyterian Foundation and is in the process of setting up an endowment. AMERC is currently seeking support to create a challenge grant. Daugherty is extremely enthusiastic about this opportunity and is highly motivated to meet the challenge. "This grant will give us a firmer base for the program and enable us to cope with any situation, such as the increasing flow of students," she says.

Daugherty felt that it was logical to turn to the Presbyterian Foundation for help with establishing the funds and meeting financial goals. Daugherty remarks, "People are familiar with the Foundation and comfortable with giving through this organization. Its involvement has helped generate interest and the financial support that's so vital to our mission."

Daugherty is very proud of the more than 1,000 seminarians AMERC has trained to date - 178 of which are Presbyterian. "We must be doing something right," she says. "So far 37% of those who've gone through our program have come back to serve the Appalachian ministry, and another 30% are in economically depressed areas such as the Mississippi Delta, on the U.S.-Mexican border, Native American reservations and foreign countries." This doesn't count the hundreds of non-seminarians who've also attended the program.

Regardless of the hardships endured by this region. Appalachia is rich in courageous individuals who are very proud of their heritage. They have a long history and tremendous spirit as survivors. But survival is becoming increasingly difficult for many in the mountains. Reflects Mary Lee Daugherty. "I feel so blessed for what AMERC has accomplished so far and what we're continuing to do. Solutions are not always evident but, by the grace of God, we always find them."

For more information about AMERC, call their administrative offices at 606-986-8789 or call the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) Foundation at 800-858-6127