If you are inclined to use words like “depressed,” “declining,” or “disappearing” to describe the state of rural churches today, you will find hope in reading this booklet. Brad Roth, himself a pastor in small-town Moundridge, Kansas, believes it is time to take a new look at the rural church reality. “In a lot of ways,” he writes, “the question is not can it grow, but where is it growing” (p. 1).
Roth is not unrealistic about the challenges rural churches face. But he is hopeful. Ultimately, he says, the growth of the church is about our “becoming more authentically Christ-like, and in that becoming, offering ourselves to the world” (p. 20). This is sound counsel for faith communities everywhere … including those in rural settings.