There’s been a recent renewal of evangelical attention given to ministry in rural areas and small towns. The Vineyard’s Small Town USA Initiative plants churches around the country, and Wheaton College’s Billy Graham Center for Evangelism has launched the new Rural Matters Institute. Helpful books have been published, including Donnie Griggs’s Small Town Jesus [read TGC’s review], Aaron Morrow’s Small Town Mission, and Brad Roth’s God’s Country, and articles about small-town ministry have appeared in WORLD magazine and on sites like The Gospel Coalition.
This renewed evangelical interest is part of a broader cultural curiosity about rural areas and small towns—the parts of the country largely responsible for the 2016 election of Donald Trump.
It’s uncertain whether this current interest (both from the broader culture and from evangelicals) will continue. So long as it does, what might be done to nurture it into an enduring and effective movement toward the millions of Americans who live outside urban centers? There are numerous answers to that question; but one of the most important, I believe, is the development of a theological vision for ministry in small places. Read More
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Small Towns Need Jesus Too
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