Reaching Rural North America

Clearly in Acts 1:8 we understand that the Great Commission is a comprehensive missionary mandate to the people of God—it is local and global. We have no choice to neglect any of it. Likewise, this is true of North America when it comes to “people”—every people—and “places”—every place—both urban cities and rural settings.

A goal of “gospel saturation,” must have an urban and rural focus. When calling attention to lostness in rural regions, never neglect the cities where 65% of the population reside. Likewise, do not focus on lostness of urban centers to the neglect of the small towns, villages, and open country places. If we are to be missionaries, we must see every pocket of lostness, and design appropriate strategies for each. Densely populated urban North America is a mission field, and the vast expanse of rural North America—though less populated in some regions—is a mission field. Therefore, a Great Commission-minded Christian will champion total gospel saturation of all places.

For our immediate discussion, let’s focus on the rural opportunity. This discussion is about a concerted strategic response that I will term “National Rural Reach.” If Acts 1:8 means that rural North America is a mission field ripe for harvest, then a biblical response is to call forth and deploy workers into the harvest. This response includes deploying missionaries who think rightly (understanding correct missiology) as cross-cultural missionaries,[1] and who act rightly (doing missionary tasks). A missionary is a person who, in response to God’s call and gifting, leaves his or her comfort zone and crosses cultural, geographic or other barriers to proclaim the gospel and lives out a Christian witness in obedience to the Great Commission.[2] A missionary does three basic tasks: networks for evangelism, gathers small groups that can become churches, and identifies and equips leaders.

Moving from an agrarian to a military metaphor, the missionary is placed strategically to win the lost, to enlist an army of workers, and to lead them to advance deeper and wider into enemy territory. This is a military strategy: establishing beachheads in enemy territory and advancing further and further to establish more beachheads while taking down strongholds and reclaiming enemy-infested territory. Spiritual warfare is real. Satan’s fortresses have been established nationwide, and we are called to advance against them. The need and call to rural North America may be greater than ever before. Much strategy today is focused on greater populated areas, necessarily so, but often to the abandonment of the lost in the less populated rural regions. A fresh engagement is needed to mobilize God’s people into and within rural settings.

Missionaries, like military leaders, must summon the “troops” to new levels of spiritual engagement in rural North America. Who are the ground troops? They are the people of God in our local churches across North America. A large portion of these are in our rural places. Approximately half of these come from rural and smaller membership churches.[3] The Southern Baptist Convention is a denomination of 48% rural OR smaller membership churches.[4] These congregations are a vital segment of our seedbeds as Southern Baptists. What can be done in and with these existing congregations, and what is the need in the rural regions in which they exist?

National Rural Reach

Some simple aspects of National Rural Reach may be the solution. Rural Reach is a two-directional calling. First, it is a call for a revived emphasis on sowing down rural America afresh with the gospel seed. Second, it is a call to rural and smaller membership churches to embrace their potential through obedience to Acts 1:8, resulting in exponential evangelism, church planting, and mobilization of workers into the harvest. Rural Reach has three strategy components[5] based on Acts 1:8:

1.  Reach Upis a call for spiritual renewal. Jesus said, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” This is the “Father Focus” which acknowledges the need of a genuine movement of God of spiritual renewal and awakening. In evaluating the present reality, some rural and smaller membership congregations are vibrant and alive, but many are at plateau or in decline. Unless God changes us and brings spiritual renewal to rural and smaller membership churches, we cannot hope to reach North America for Christ. If truly 50% of who we are is rural and smaller membership churches, we need a spiritual movement of God to occur in them just to survive. Yet none of us want to just survive, rather, we want to thrive. To penetrate the lostness that exists within the 63 million people living in rural America and Canada, and plant the presence of the gospel in the places that make up 80% in landmass of the North American continent, it will take no less than a sweeping spiritual awakening much like Ezekiel experienced with the valley of dry bones of his day. This must be a movement of prayer and dependence on the Holy Spirit. Practical tools to help you “reach up” include a prayer initiative and such processes as the Church Renewal Journey and Experiencing God emphases conducted in our local churches. 

2. Reach Aroundis a call for evangelism and church planting. Jesus said, “You shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem.” This is the “Forgotten Focus” by which every lost and forgotten person in the rural church community is engaged through evangelism and church planting projects. This means reaching the “new-comer”—new in-migration to rural regions that are unreached by existing churches. This means reaching the “up-comer”—new emerging generations that established churches are losing. This means reaching the “old-timers”—existing unreached persons that may have been soured on religion and are searching for authentic transformation. Here are some tools to help you get started:

a. Deploying and strategically placing cross-cultural missionaries to network for evangelism, start small groups that can become churches, and identify and equip leaders.

b. Implementing the Peoples Search process.

c.  Strategically identifying every pocket of lostness.

d. Designing and implementing church planting and evangelism projects for saturation gospel seed-sowing.

e.  Planting new expressions of churches, such as cowboy churches, new generation churches, and dynamic traditional churches.

 3. Reach Beyondis a call for mobilization. Jesus said, “Witnesses … in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” This is the “Further Focus”—every rural and smaller membership church will find validity and fresh vitality by participating in God’s work of Acts 1:8. Here are some tools to help you reach beyond:

a. Every church becoming a missionary center with a comprehensive Acts 1:8 mission strategy—no church need be left behind, regardless of size or perceived strength.

i. Each church can become a missionary leadership incubator and “call out the called.” The called may serve as church planters or church planting teams. They find expression of the calling to national or international fields.

ii. Each church can become a missionary sending agent or a “staging platform” to reach their state, North America, and the world through short-term and long-term mission projects. 

b.Youth Evangelism Saturation (Y.E.S.) initiatives within associations for church planting and evangelism practicum for new generations of missionaries. YES can be implemented on a local church, association, or state convention level, raising up a new generation of missionary leaders. Associational and state convention leadership are valuable partners to assist in resourcing this initiative.

Through National Rural Reach, Southern Baptists can begin to make an impact on lostness and reach rural North America with the gospel.

Written by George Garner. George is a member of the Church Planting staff at NAMB.