Benjamin Durheim grew up in Pierz. His experience in a small-town setting prompted him to raise his own family in a rural community. He and his wife, Tara, and their two children live in Avon.
“I appreciate how there is accountability and responsibility to one another,” Durheim said.
“My neighbor is a great gardener and if he sees that my garden looks like it is drooping, he comes over to water it. And I help him with snow removal. Neighborly action transcends some of the imported social conflict.”
His passion for rural life has become a topic of research for him, and as assistant professor of theology at Saint John’s School of Theology and Seminary, a subject of his course instruction.
For years, Durheim has taught students about rural communities and ministry in the classroom. Over time, he wanted to provide a hands-on experience of rural living to his students.
“You can only do so much in the classroom,” he said. “In addition to reading about how systems work, there is real value to seeing those systems at work.”
The idea expanded to a conversation with colleagues.
“We discussed what would be important to understand about rural life — agriculture government, healthcare, access to business — and that became the anchor point,” Durheim said.
This summer the seed grew into reality. In early June the SOT, in partnership with the Mexican-American Catholic College and the Archdiocese of San Antonio, Texas, launched the first annual Rural Immersion Program. This program was made possible by the Sustained Encuentro grant program, part of the Pathways to Tomorrow initiative of the Lilly Endowment.
“MACC offers an annual immersion experience on ‘Hispanic Ministry in the21st Century’ in Texas, which includes a visit [for some of our SOT students] to the US-Mexican border,” said Daniella Zsupan-Jerome, assistant professor of pastoral theology and director of the Sustained Encuentro program. “Through the grant partnership, Saint John’s had the opportunity to create a parallel immersion experience here in Minnesota, one in which we focused on both our rural and liturgical legacy.”
The course is anchored in prayer and theological reflection while “engaging diverse rural churches, spaces of nature, family and industrial farms, rural healthcare institutions, rural and small-town manufacturing enterprises,” according to the course description.
Durheim led the inaugural Rural Immersion Program this summer.
“We included topics such as Catholic social teaching, grief and loss, aesthetics of the land and small communities,” Durheim said. “This is not meant to be a didactic mode of learning, but one of immersion and engagement, merged with theological teaching and Scripture.”
Like Durheim, SOT student Luke Waltman, knows small-town living well. A native of Little Falls, Waltman is a diocesan diaconate candidate and director of operations for the six-parish Haven of Mercy Area Catholic Community.
What Waltman, five other students from the SOT and nine students from the MACC and Archdiocese of San Antonio, experienced was seven 12-hour days woven through communities in central Minnesota.
“The diversity of the speakers was exceptional,” Waltman said. “It wasn’t just focused on agriculture or small towns but every area of small communities.”
The speakers were witnesses of rural life: as small business owners, farmers, bankers, healthcare employees, priests and deacons. During these sessions, students were asked to put into practice the very first word of the Rule of Saint Benedict, “obsculta,” which means “listen.”
“For our students, this was a call to deep listening,” Durheim said. “Through this, even the students who come from a rural setting were seeing things from a new lens or perspective.”
Waltman was one of those captivated by the program.
“As a group, we were reflecting on the different experiences throughout the program and talking about those we heard speak from small churches. They worried their church would be closed,” he said.
“To them, it’s not just about the faith aspect of not having Mass and sacraments close. It’s about their families’ generational contributions to the buildings — they bought that tabernacle, they paid for that stained glass window. It’s been a staple of their identity. But we can’t just talk about it as a building. It’s way deeper than that and we need to be sensitive to that. We all need to be more pastoral when we’re listening.”
//////
Dig deeper into rural life through three-part podcast series
Learn more about the Rural Immersion Program and life in central Minnesota by listening to a podcast series produced by the Diocese of St. Cloud.
Part 1: Introduction to Rural Immersion Program
Ben Durheim, assistant professor of theology, and Daniella Zupan-Jerome, assistant professor of pastoral theology and director of the Sustained Encuentro program, both from Saint John’s School of Theology and Seminary, discuss the origins of the Rural Immersion Program, the partnership with the Mexican American Catholic College, the process of inviting speakers to the program and why curriculum of this type is vital for ministry today.
Part 2: Rural Life Communities
Christine Luna-Munger, director of the Episcopal House of Prayer and new farmer, and Deacon Leo Wehseler, who both presented to the students, discuss life in small towns and on the farm, what it means to know your neighbor and how life in rural community yields more than sellable goods.
Part 3: Student Reaction to Program
Program participants Camille Piper from San Antonio, Texas, and Luke Waltman from Little Falls, share what they learned from the Rural Immersion Program and how this will impact their ministry going forward. The conversation will include reflection on the stories they heard and lives they witnessed.
Find the podcast episodes and more about the Rural Life Immersion program here: 
LEARN MORE
For more information about courses and programs offered by Saint John’s School of Theology and Seminary, please visit csbsju.edu/SOT.