“Town and Country” – what a simple ring it has.  This phrase gives thought to long rows of wheat and corn, lush rolling hills, and a bubbling creek running swiftly with cold, fresh spring water as it breaches the various rocks and branches in its midst. To city dwellers ‘town and country’ reflects everything that they do not have; perhaps a place of peace, quiet, reflection, or even sanity.  Town and country, rural, or small town America is something most Americans dream about or try to visit on vacations.

But what if you live there…one stoplight, no movie theater (it closed down in the 80s), isolation, or even frustration as you see your little town dwindling away from its former self. Or perhaps your town gives you a vibrant life and lifestyle, but you just don’t have all the amenities of the larger city.

Would you agree that it is unacceptable that there are many small towns and villages across our nation that still do not have a Gospel witness or congregation in their midst?

Approximately one-sixth of the population of the United States, or 50 million people, live in a rural setting.   Almost every county in the United States has some population that is considered rural. Just for the record, when we speak of rural we usually mean a town or village, often not incorporated, that has a population of less than 2,500.

What is the challenge of reaching pockets of people who are often isolated by geography or who are at least a great distance from any population centers?  What would cause one to be so concerned with these people that a special article must be written about town and country?  Let’s take a look.

The answer to our second question is much easier to deliver.  Fifty million people is a lot in anyone’s vocabulary. To give us an idea, Dade County, Florida – which is where Miami is located – is said to have 5 million people (this is counting illegal immigrants). So if you multiply the Miami area by 10 times you will get the picture of lostness in rural America.  In Miami we can see wall-to-wall people for miles and miles; however, in rural America this same number of people are separated by miles and miles and are often forgotten by us as we simply drive around the United States on the highways, or fly from one city to another. Take a route off the interstate, or drive to your next destination via local roads and you will see America as you have not seen it for awhile

Now let’s get to the most pressing challenges and attempt to suggest some answers.

What is the challenge of reaching pockets of people who live away from population centers in the town and country/rural areas of North America?

 CHALLENGE: 

• Rural America often slips under our radar screen because of its lack of population density.

ANSWER:

• Let’s develop a network of people working with town and country. In fact, why don’t we develop regional networks that meet at least once a year so we can discuss strategy for rural church planting in our own context instead of talking just nationally?
  

CHALLENGE: 

• With our current established method of finding a seminary trained church planter and then funding him for three years at one particular place we will not have enough people, resources, or time to reach all the pockets of lostness in America.
  

ANSWER:

• Lay and bivocational pastoral leadership must be encouraged, discovered, and utilized in most of our settings. This would involve training that does not include 3 years in seminary.
  

CHALLENGE: 

• How do we train these people?
  

ANSWER:

• Training could be done online or perhaps be locally driven, contextualized, simple, and practical. I know we have some men doing this around our country today, but we are having difficulty networking.
  

CHALLENGE: 

• How do we start these churches?
  

ANSWER:

• The same way we start all things new – PRAY for direction and wisdom from God.
• Pick a place: intentionally target a place or people group within an area.
• Permeate the town to see where God is already working so that we may join in and help them congregationalize.
• Prepare the leader who emerges.
• Penetrate the society no matter what the size with relational activity and ministry.
• Populate the town with new believers who will affect change faster in a small setting than in any city across America.
• Plan to do this again or simultaneously. 

~ Steve Nerger, Strategic Places Church Planting Manager, North American Mission Board

Resources: 

• Counties with NO Southern Baptist church
• Rural Church Planting (PPT)
• Rural Associations (Excel)
• Rural By the Numbers (Word)
• Helpful Web sites (Excel)
• No Little Places (PPT based on the book by Ron Klassen)