Rural Ministry Matters

While in college training for ministry, God placed a burden on my heart for rural America through the testimony of Mark Lawrence. Mark was a faithful layman in a rural town and a big supporter of West Coast Baptist College. His prayer was that God would raise up young men who would go into rural towns like the one he lived in to start churches. God used that prayer and that burden to awaken me to the need that exists in rural places.

The US Census Bureau defines rural as any population, housing or territory that is not in an urban area. Ironically, rural places are defined more by what they aren't than by what they are. This is true in more than one way. There is a general tendency to belittle the need for ministry in rural places. Though 75 percent of towns in America are rural, many of the least reached regions in our country are in rural places. Yet, though these places are largely overlooked, they are filled with some of the most wonderful people, fascinating cultures and beautiful scenery in all of America.

Having now ministered in a rural town for the past decade (Cortez, CO), my burden for rural ministry has only grown. All throughout our country are these forgotten places with people who desperately need someone to care enough to preach the gospel to them and to pastor them. These are places you drive through without even thinking about them almost every day. God has placed a burden on my heart to make this need known to the men whom God might call to go to such places.

In Acts 1:8 we hear these familiar words from the Lord, "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." (Acts 1:8) In some of the last words Jesus spoke to us before He left this earth, He gave us the promise of the power of His Spirit to declare the gospel to this world. In these words, Jesus included both urban Jerusalem and the rural "uttermost parts." He used the Greek ἔσχατος to describe "the last places, the lowest places or (we could say) the forgotten places." The point is, Jesus' mandate extends to rural places.

All this reiterates the fact that rural ministry matters. Many well-intentioned spiritual leaders, in emphasizing the need in the major cities across our nation, belittle the need that exists in rural places. While we must also acknowledge there is a great need in the urban areas of America, we cannot in doing so deemphasize or ignore the need of gospel ministry in rural places. So, if God has called you to a rural ministry, be encouraged that your work is needed and it is significant. And if you have fallen prey to the mindset of belittling the need in such places, let me challenge you to make a change in your perspective and begin to support and encourage men who are called to rural places.

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