By Kima Jude

For most of us, the thought of rural North America conjures up images of not only what charms-quaint, peaceful villages surrounded by farms or fields-but what detracts, too-the emptiness. The greatest void, however, is not from the lack of people. The same communities that fail to sustain thriving industry, hospitals or malls, also struggle to place God in their midst.

All told, the rural U.S. includes some 50 million people scattered throughout every state and nearly every county, according to Steve Nerger, manager of Strategic Places for the North American Mission Board (NAMB). And 13 million Canadians live in a rural setting, says Dwight Huffman, national church-starting consultant for the Canadian Convention of Southern Baptists. For the most part, they live in unincorporated towns-places where people are willing to trade urban amenities for the tranquility of the rural life but nevertheless huddle for community.

Rural North America makes significant contributions to the rest of the continent, but these are quietly accomplished and often overlooked. Yet these are places and people not forgotten by Southern Baptists, who make an effort to track them through their state conventions and associations, highlighting them on maps, pinpointing their lostness, praying for a presence there-and a strategy that will be effective and lasting. Many of these towns lack Southern Baptist work or an evangelical church of any kind.
"There are towns with no churches, period," Nerger points out. To leave them so terribly vacant is unacceptable. "Every town needs a touch," he says. "We're to reach every town and community with the gospel of Jesus Christ."

A history and a future

Although Southern Baptists can point to rural North America for our origins, it's not just history that drives the emphasis on town and country ministries, says Nerger, but the immense number of people there-a sixth of the U.S. population and about 40 percent of Canadians, lost in its vastness. Their scattered placement works against them to minimize their significance, but not for Nerger. "That's a lot of people, you know." Adds Huffman: "In most rural Canadian communities, the churches that were there 20 to 30 years ago have moved to larger communities, leaving many places with no church at all."

 Indeed, there are lessons to be learned from the denomination's humble, rural beginnings. "You never want to just disregard where you came from," Nerger says. "But the need for churches is what's driving us."

There's no single way to define rural, except through smallness, such as minimal population or scant resources, because rural shows up in many settings. It includes farming and ranching communities, resort towns, even stark wilderness. Although these are especially prevalent in the U.S. Midwest and West-as well as the South-they can be found anywhere, even in the Northeast.

The small-town approach to church

NAMB defines towns with populations of fewer than 2,500 as rural. In such places, fully funded churches with full-time pastors and facilities are probably going to be a rarity rather than the rule. Instead, what strategists look for are bivocational pastors and laity who recognize the need and trust God to make the little they have be enough. "We want to plant a presence of the gospel," explains George Garner, missions and leadership development consultant for the Utah-Idaho Southern Baptist Convention. "I believe no town is too small. But a leadership strategy has to fit that smallness. Let's find a way to reach them, and then do it so it will sustain itself."
Rural North America often suffers next to more populated urban centers, because teeming populations commandeer resources based upon sheer numbers. "But do we forget those other areas?" Garner asks. "We can't. We've got to have some strategies, because Jesus called us to reach all the lost."

Complicating that, rural North America itself may not recognize its own neediness, according to Garner. People living in rural settings aren't necessarily clamoring for church starts. "We need an intentional strategy to look at every pocket of lostness."
Short-term projects like Vacation Bible School may be the "probing activity to find a person of peace or platform" where the gospel can be established, Garner says. "Then, as we do that, God always brings people from other places, too."

While indigenous leaders are key figures in planting churches in the town and country context, Garner defines that term broadly. "Having someone indigenous is significant, but the person may not always be native to that area. He might be someone from another part of the country who loves that setting and can relate to the people there."

Rural church planter Jesse Rust fits those descriptors. Rust is a NAMB missionary working to plant churches in Montana, a state that ranks fourth in the country in land mass but has a population of only a million. Rust grew up on a ranch in western Iowa. His background and seminary training make him uniquely qualified for Town and Country church planting. He is at home in Moccasin, a community of about 20 homes situated 17 miles away from the nearest town of 500.

"We love it here," he says. "We're convinced this is where the Lord has us. We're ready to spend our whole lives here." Since arriving on the field a year ago, Rust has been instrumental in establishing three Bible studies and launching worship services in various locations. Yet as he drives from town to town, he continues to see the urgency of establishing and maintaining God's presence. "It's an area where most denominations have been closing churches for some time."

making an impact on the community

Despite the situation, church planters find their ministry can be effective and their churches can thrive. Bob Pittman has been pastor of Hazen Baptist Fellowship in North Dakota for the past 10 years. Relocating from Houston, he moved to a nearby town to pastor a church that closed its doors shortly after. Meanwhile, however, he realized Hazen, population 2,500, had no evangelical church.
It's not an easygoing life, according to Pittman. Winters turn incredibly cold. But there are benefits. He rarely locks his doors and walks wherever he goes. He knows most people in town.

While rural churches may not be able to boast soaring memberships, they can make significant contributions. Bill Savery has pastored First Baptist Custer, South Dakota, for the past 28 years. The church, the only Southern Baptist congregation in a 40-mile radius, has experienced what Savery describes as consistent growth, but it's still small by most measures-about 125 members.
The congregation cannot afford full financial support for its pastor. Savery has worked a variety of jobs in Custer, population 1,700, including leading seasonal tours in the resort community, substitute teaching, driving a school bus and logging. He turned down
the church's first invitation for him to be their pastor, because he knew it would be difficult to make a living and find adequate housing. Instead, he took a pastorate in Georgia, but returned to South Dakota within a year. Job prospects had not changed, but his heart had. "We knew the whole time we really belonged in Custer."

Because of his long tenure, Savery has become what Myron Grueneich, strategic coordinator for the Dakota Baptist Convention, identifies as key in rural North America. "Our successful church plants have taken the approach that they are the church of the community, and the pastor is the pastor of the community." As such, the pastor often gets involved in every aspect of small-town living. For example, Savery conducts most of the funerals in town. Such pastors are invited to pray at civic affairs. Often they serve on the school board.

While First Baptist Custer is located in a small town with scarce resources, there's nothing small about its ministry. "Our church is very involved in giving." In addition to the Cooperative Program, it supports organizations like Jews for Jesus and Teen Challenge.
The church also owns and operates Camp Volunteer, which hosts groups for retreats in a scenic setting, four months out of the year. "Such a small church doesn't have the resources to run a camp like that, but God is able." Volunteer teams from Tennessee, Kentucky, Kansas, Illinois, Louisiana, Florida and Colorado have helped over the past 10 years.

"That's one of the reasons there's so much joy in Southern Baptist work-you're not trying to do it alone." NAMB offers resources and encourages networking, according to Nerger, so the rural areas of the United States and Canada will never become the places that Southern Baptists forgot. "We need to get off the highways and go where the people live. That's the call of town and country."

Kima Jude is a writer living in Dayton, Ohio.