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Is Rural Ministry a Priority for God? (w/ John Adams) · Small Town Summits

• Ben Whittinghill: When we show up wherever God has sent us, and we're there because we want to serve the Lord where He sent us. God does amazing things. If we're coming as His servant, letting Him provide the direction, letting Him decide where where we serve, how long we stay, who we interact with, then He does stuff we never would have dreamed of. We couldn't have a strategy. we we don't have the words, we don't have the power, we don't have the ability, but He does. There is no greater joy than to be in the center of God's way. Welcome to the Small Town Summit Podcast. I'm one of your co-hosts, Ben Whittinghill. Today I'm thankful to be joined by John Adams. John is the executive director for Village Missions and served many years as a rural pastor in Oregon. He also contributed a chapter to The God of Small Places titled, Is Rural Ministry a Priority for God? The chapter itself and this conversation are rich with theological vision for small place ministry. And we hope it's a blessing to you. John, it's thrilling to get to have you join us on the podcast. Thank you for your time today, man. How are you? I am great, Ben. Thanks for having me on. Yeah. Well, I'm excited to ⁓ get to highlight some of what you do with Village Missions and the content that we're going to get to today ⁓ is another contribution to this book that we've talked to Glenn Damon about, ⁓ but excited to hear from you. about your contribution to the God of Small Places. But before we get there and talk about small town ministry, I'd love for you to share with everybody just a little bit about yourself, maybe your testimony and ⁓ how you're serving now with Village Missions. Sure. ⁓ I was blessed to have parents who were followers of Christ and my dad was a farmer when I was born. We lived ⁓ on a farm in the mountains of kind of north central Idaho. ⁓ twelve miles on gravel roads, windy gravel roads to any town. And there was a church in our community, Bible teaching church. ⁓ so at earliest memories are going to church, grandma was my Sunday school teacher, ⁓ and hard wooden pews and ⁓ all of the things that just kind of an iconic white chapel, little church. ⁓ I was there until It was time for me to start kindergarten and my parents decided that a one hour bus ride wasn't really what they wanted for their for their firstborn. You know how it is with parents. ⁓ Dad had started doing some teaching, so we ended up moving west of Portland, Oregon to a town that used to be small called Hillsboro. And we lived on the edge of town. ⁓ we had ⁓ horses and cattle across the across the street from us, but started going to a church, more of a city church, ⁓ in in the town, it's a county seat. ⁓ so as as I grew, I worked with ⁓ what is now called in faith. I volunteered with them for Bible camps. ⁓ was American Sunday School Union, then American Missionary Fellowship. So lots of exposure to small churches and kids coming from small churches working in Bible camp, ⁓ just to volunteer there. and when I was a senior in high school, God called me into ministry of some kind. We had a missionary speaker church and And he prayed and at the end of the prayer I knew God was speaking to my heart. So I said yes. That was fall of my senior year. By spring, I'd put that on the back burner and ⁓ decided to go to a state college to become an engineer. and God just threw roadblock after roadblock in the way. It wasn't it wasn't going well. I toughed it out for eighteen months and ⁓ God got my attention there at school and I said, Okay, I'm I'm here on my plan and I'm miserable. What's your plan? And ⁓ called the pastor of my home church and said, you know, here's what I'd run into. And it says, Yeah, I remember that when we prayed for you. ⁓ and and so God used that to redirect me. I ended up finishing a bachelor's degree in marine biology. ⁓ but at that point I'd already made a plan. I'm gonna I'll finish this, I'll go on to graduate school and and went to Western Seminary in Portland. right after I finished my bachelor's degree. So ⁓ became a fisher of fish, kind of did the there's some parallels with Jonah, right? I ran away, became ⁓ a f ⁓ a marine biologist, and then returned to pastoral ministry. ⁓ at colleges where I met the lady who's now my wife, and her father was a village missionary. So I'd never heard of village missions. ⁓ the town we'd moved to, Hillsboro had become more of a city. And I asked my pastor ⁓ from that that church that I'd kind of grown up in sudden second grade, ⁓ how come I'd never heard of village missions? Because he knew five village missionaries. And it, you know, it just never came up. Do you do you talk to people in your congregation about some other church somewhere? And so that was part of God's leading in my life as well. So we ended up joining them in nineteen ninety five and Candy and I've served together just over thirty years. with Village Missions. We served two fields in Oregon, one in the mountains of southern Oregon, ⁓ about an hour and a half north of the California border, an old logging town. And we're there eight and a half years and then moved to the Oregon coast and served thirteen years before I was asked to to come to administration. I've been in the administration of Village Missions and our our main office happens to be in Oregon. We were founded in Oregon in nineteen forty eight. ⁓ so I've been here In a small town called Dallas, Oregon, for the last decade. Okay. Amazing. So were those assignments, were those pastorates or revitalization work, planting, what would what did that look like? It typically for us is revitalization. We use the term missionary pastor because we're very intentional about being out in the community, building relationships. As you know, and many of your listeners know, credibility for the gospel comes from time spent with people in a small community. And so as people get to know your life, our model is to send a pastor to live in the community. We work with the church and they have some faith support ⁓ to make sure that they can focus on the work of ministry, but live in that community with the people who are there, build connections, build relationship. ⁓ we actually ask them to spend about half their time out in the community connecting with people, whether it's helping a farmer or ⁓ sitting down at the cafe with the guys who are drinking coffee and and doing what old guys do on a Friday morning. ⁓ but just make those connections so that people have an opportunity to interact about spiritual things. And we find that when the pastor's doing that, then the church does that more intentionally. They they see that model. ⁓ I should talk to my friends, my family. So yeah, twenty one twenty one years in that role. That's fantastic. Well, before we get to the content of your chapter in The God of Small Places, if you came out to New England and you were at a summit and you just wanted to share about village missions and what you would want guys in New England, maybe they're already serving or maybe as a guy looking to get into small place ministry and would consider linking up with village missions, what would you want to share with guys that are here? Sure. Our focus as a ministry is to go to To rural places and small towns where there's only one Bible teaching church to revitalize that church and to help them effectively share the gospel with their own community. We do that by sending a missionary pastor and supporting them to focus on the work of ministry full-time. We're serving in 28 states right now, so we are in New England states. If you looked at the map of the U.S., up and down the West Coast and across the northern part of the U.S., clear up into northern Maine. And and that's our focus. We want to go to places where nobody else is going and we're we don't want to duplicate effort. If there's another Bible teaching church, we're not going to form a partnership with a second Bible teaching church. There are just too many communities with only one. So we're serving in about a hundred and fifty communities right now. Okay. So who should reach out listening in if they're like, ⁓ okay, I wonder if I'm a fit. Sure. If they're looking to get into a community that has no Bible church or they they ha there's one and there's opportunity to be part of a revitalization. Like where are people at normally at in the process if they reach out to you? Boy, they come from from all over Ben. We get people who ⁓ retire from a secular career and join us and become a pastor. We get ⁓ experienced pastors ⁓ and then we get folks on the on the beginning end of that spectrum. ⁓ maybe they finish Bible college or maybe they've just put together some training and and we do require a a good handle on scripture and and teaching and shepherding skills, but but we don't require a four year degree necessarily. ⁓ we have ⁓ a one year residency program for somebody who says, I've got academic knowledge but not much experience. So yeah, people who were looking to serve the Lord, willing to go to a rural place or a small town and know that they need a resource. We provide ⁓ coaching and missionary care through that process as well. Fantastic. Well, we're grateful for the work that God has you doing and I'm sure it feels like an honor to you ⁓ to get to spearhead the work after serving in it for so long and ⁓ man we just pray God's blessing on all of it. Yeah, thanks Ben. Yeah, I never imagined I would be in leadership. I was perfectly happy serving as a missionary. Well, it's heavy sometimes to move into that spot, but it a lot of times the Lord will use it to bring about new seasons and new opportunities for For growth for people. And I think people respond well to ⁓ leadership that it that knows and ex has experienced what it's like to be one of them. So Yeah, that's critical. Yeah. Yeah. So let's talk about this book. ⁓ we talked to Glenn a little bit about the idea of the book in general, God of Small Places. Yeah. Your chapter that you contributed is titled, Is Rural Ministry a Priority for God? And so I'm curious, were you Were you asked to write on that topic, or was that something that was just like, hey, if you contributed a chapter, I would love to write on this? Like how did you arrive at that? You got the first slot, so it's important. You're the leadoff hitter in the book. Yeah. They gave you the slot. People are deciding whether or not they want to keep reading. That's true. Okay. And they put you in the leadoff hitter slot. So I loved it. But how did you settle on that? ⁓ before we Yeah, it was a conversation ⁓ with With Glenn Damon and Jeff Clark and myself. ⁓ the the the general idea of does a rural place matter to God was was kind of top of mind for them, but it's certainly been something close to my heart. you know, I I shared in my story, seminary is part of my experience, ⁓ living in a small town that became really a city. ⁓ and over those years and 30 years, I've heard lots of people say, Well, you know, why would God want want to send somebody to a small place, isn't that for those who aren't effective in ministry or or ⁓ if if you're good at what you do, then your church is going to grow and it's gonna reach thousands. and and so I've just heard and seen and I've seen the fallout for very effective small church pastors who were discouraged because they went somewhere and they heard from somebody who's serving in a much bigger place. This is what matters. This is your this is what your goal should be. ⁓ and I went, that just doesn't square with what I see in scripture. ⁓ and it doesn't square with my experience. I would love for you to speak into that because I think some of the reasons why people feel like ⁓ small town ministry would not be a priority for God, a lot of that we would think would come from people that are in urban areas. Sure. But I think we could find surprisingly that small town ministers feel that way. Or that's the lies that they're tempted to believe. So when you're thinking about combating some of that, what are some of the things that you've run into even from your place of leadership and looking out over village missionaries? Why would this topic be a particular encouragement to small town pastors or workers? Well, we we live in the culture we were raised in and so a part of our culture in the West is bigger is always better. ⁓ and that that's kind of in the air we breathe. So it's easy for us to to just assume that must be true, but that assumption is built on we have somehow attained a place where we can evaluate what matters to God and And I'm convinced that's not that's not the reality. ⁓ God does often work in in ways that are different than we might have anticipated. ⁓ I sometimes hear people say, well, ⁓ ministry to the cities is much more strategic. And from a human perspective, sure, there's lots of people, ⁓ cultural influencers are there, ⁓ but that's not that's not other than A few exceptions, like the Apostle Paul. ⁓ that's not how I see God working in scripture. ⁓ he's he intentionally selected Israel as an unstrategic group. ⁓ he sent Jesus to a small town to spend almost 30 years of his life in the village of Nazareth. And we don't even know what happened other than that he grew in wisdom wisdom and stature and favor with God and man. That's that's it. ⁓ that's a long time for the Son of God to what was he doing? ⁓ and then he then he's in towns and villages. So easy for us to to arrive at a place that that really is driven by cultural ideas and not by a theological perspective. And so part of the purpose of this chapter was to say, People are saying this, but what do we see in scripture? And of course it's not a survey of everything scripture teaches. It's It's just one chapter, but ⁓ but I really tried to unpack how do we see God working and so I I kinda started with his selection of Israel and the Jesus coming and and how Jesus did ministry, his selection of disciples. he didn't choose people who would be a good fit for ministry in Jerusalem. ⁓ he picked people who would be much more comfortable in the countryside or in a small town. So It is astounding, you know, and I I'd love to dive into this a little bit. My next question was, and you're getting at it, how the gospel itself dignifies or commends rural ministry, lessons we can glean from the life ⁓ and ministry of our Lord Jesus. Something that stood out to me about what you just now said is all those hidden years where the the Lord did so much ministry, we have no idea about it. Yeah. And I think that's one of the fears or the things that we feel so often is like the ministry that we're doing. If we're are we seeing any fruit from it or is there any visible evidence of it? And there's like a parable there of sorts where he did a lot of invisible ministry. Right. And surely it mattered. So I yeah, I'd love for you to keep like kind of draw on ⁓ what was it? What was the Pulsing heartbeat of the gospel are different illustrations in the life and ministry of Jesus that you think inform rural ministry that would be really stirring up sincere hearts by way of reminder, you know? That's what we need. Right. Well, so many times we read Jesus saw someone with a problem, right? And and and so he's he's he's traveling at a walking pace, he's encountering people. Yes, he's teaching, and yes, there are groups that. that come, but over and over, an individual may be in the crowd or approaches Jesus and he sees them and he has time for them. ⁓ so that's that's not a it's not the way large group ministry works. It doesn't matter where you are, if your group is large, it's really tough for you as the teacher to take time to see and interact with that person. Jesus does that over and over and over again. ⁓ and and he does things he doesn't have to do, right? As the lepers come, he doesn't have to touch them, but he does. So he's he's ministering to them as a person whom he loves even before they respond. ⁓ and and he so he he takes that time. ⁓ and and his disciples around him, we see that with the the blind beggar in Jericho, we see that with his interaction with little kids. ⁓ Those those are not wasted interactions to Jesus, but even his own twelve disciples think, What are you doing? This isn't how you're supposed to do it. You're a rabbi. So in all those cases, like the ministry opportunities seem insignificant. Right. They seem like small or unimportant people. Yeah. He was he was dealing with fringe or outcast. Yeah. The the ministry among the leper wasn't exactly like ministering in the royal courts. No. No, He wasn't the John Owen of his day, like in the royal court of Yeah no. No. ⁓ yeah, and and then you also said, you know, the Lord is ⁓ small minist small place ministry affords us opportunities like this. Like I you could probably work really hard to see people or to s ⁓ to make time for the individual. Past pastors in urban context do an amazing job of this all the time, I'm sure. But this is like a little small town ministry cheat code because it really does afford for a a kind of I don't know, more natural habitat for individual pastoral care. Right. And I think we need to look for f things to enjoy about small place ministry as easily as guys find things that are maybe hard. Sure. Yeah. we find frustrating, difficult, or discouraging. ⁓ it requires a little effort to say, how am I being blessed and how am I a blessing to others? Aaron That is encouraging and helpful. So ⁓ you have a section in your chapter that's titled, Change Comes from the Margins. And I'd love for you to unpack that a little bit for us. What do you mean by change comes from the margins? Aaron Well it's it's an observation of what we see in life in lots of places. ⁓ but we see it in a in the spiritual sense as well. So let me give you the kind of the twenty first century illustration. ⁓ you know, IBM used to be the the company that produced the the the vast majority of all computers. ⁓ but they were comfortable with what they had. And it was Apple that innovated and you know, started in a garage, began to disrupt the industry, and it and it happens over and over and over again. That same principle applies in in spiritual change and in communities. ⁓ when someone's in the center of a system that is working for them, they're not motivated to make the changes necessary. ⁓ So rural churches are in a in a setting where they're marginalized by the culture around us. ⁓ you know, they don't they don't refer to New York City or Los Angeles as flyover city. It's the destination. it's where people are headed. But a lot of the places that pastors serve in rural places are referred to as flyover country. ⁓ why would you go there? And hanging on to the truth And living out the truth and doing effective ministry as a shepherd is is a skill I don't see being replicated across the country the way it could be. and it's still necessary in cities, it's still necessary in the suburbs, but the dynamics of ministry sometimes push against being a shepherd who has time for people, ⁓ who's unhurried and unanxious. ⁓ and it could show up and invest several hours with somebody who's struggling. ⁓ and and and doesn't have to call ahead and cancel a bunch of appointments because they'd scheduled themselves really tightly. Yeah, I'd love for you to I mean, I think these last two questions feel connected on this front, but I'd love for you to lean into that a little bit because I found I think when I was first starting, okay, and I'm I came to Brattleboro from the suburbs of Atlanta. And I was a discipleship pastor of a church plant. And we were a bunch of young guys in our twenties who had really good intentions and were just learning a lot on the fly. Sure. And I had never been part of like a healthy elder team with guys full of a lot of experience that really gave me good habits on visiting people and counseling and discipleship. and all these different things. But I think somehow I had maybe it's part of that growing up in America, you talked about like bigger is better. And also I I just had this kind of idea of there were things that the pastor and leader should do and be doing, and there's things that you shouldn't be doing. And if you can have leadership development enough and systems enough and you can build that out and you're you're equipping the saints for the work of ministry and that looks like you not having to do all these little things. Then that was like a win. That was a a notch on your belt. That was you were successful in ministry. And that I thought as we're looking for ways of measuring success, that is a good thing, like raising up people, passing off ministry, giving it away. But by the same token, I I started to, I think intrinsically feel like there were some things that if I was having to do them, Then I had failed on raising up people, developing people. ⁓ you know, or I'll I'll almost try to justify myself like, well, I I never had a pastor do X. Right. But all my pastors were in suburban Atlanta. So of course I ne I never had a pastor I didn't reach out to me for fill in the blank, you know what I mean? Right. I had a small group leader or a a deacon or whatever, you know. So my and those pastors were great, but it just different settings. It is. So I want to lean into that a little bit because there is a way that small town ministry affords for you to not have to, but get to do things that maybe pastors in a larger suburban or urban area they wouldn't even dream of being able to do it. And in our minds, maybe we feel like, I don't I don't want to have to do that. But I'd love to kick that around a little bit because you're talking about these margins and how small place ministry, small town ministry affords for a kind of pastoral care that maybe small town pastors begrudge a little bit because they think, well, I my you know, I got a lot of peers that wouldn't even have to dream about doing this, you know. Right. Mowing the grass and modeling service for the church. Like where are my deacons? Where's the, you know? So can you speak into that a little bit? ⁓ like the the pre ⁓ let's say privilege, the pleasure of getting to serve Or do pastoral care what are s what are some ways that guys might do that? Well, we have a number of missionaries, I experienced it myself, ⁓ but other missionaries the same story. If they're in a community where there is kind of a town, in some places we're serving, there's not even really a town, it's more of a ranching area. But to just walk around town at a time when people tend to be home. So ⁓ of course not in the middle of winter, but spring, summer, fall. ⁓ walk around town and just interact with people as they're outdoors, ⁓ opens up pastoral care was opportunities you'd never consider. and and I found people would talk to me as the pastor in town across their fence with a conversation they'd never have, ⁓ you know, if even if I invited them to my office, they weren't coming there. ⁓ But they they did have a question. ⁓ Pastor John, you're walking by. I this is on my mind. Can we talk? And ⁓ the first town I served, it's a half mile in diameter. There's four hundred and twenty five people in town. It was not uncommon for that walk to take two hours. Because fifteen minutes here, twenty minutes there, half hour conversation there. and my wife learned ⁓ if John's John's out walking around town, I don't know when he'll be back, probably by dark. Yeah, no, that's a beautiful example. So even just thinking, I'm gonna put this this sermon down, I'm gonna put this book down, and I'm gonna intentionally go for a walk in my small town. Yeah. Which is something that i it's it's gonna feel way different if you're just in suburban Atlanta. Right. You know, like going for a walk. I'm not gonna see anybody, you know. Do you have other illustrations of of ways that small place ministry might afford opportunities like that? Sure. ⁓ my wife and I would would make a practice of visiting widows and are connected with the church or in the community. And I learned I always needed to take a multi tool, ⁓ because every widow has some project. And then and initially they wouldn't even ask me. ⁓ we'd walk into a room and I'd hit a light switch. ⁓ that one doesn't work. ⁓ okay. I bet I could fix that. and, you know, my my father, when he moved from farming, he became a shop teacher. So I I was gifted with a a variety of skills, ⁓ just by who I grew up with. But ⁓ yeah, lots of lots of opportunities to just not only provide spiritual care, but maybe some physical care or to identify something. Hey, I could get a couple of guys from the church or we could come take care of this issue for you. A number of missionaries find that during harvest season, ⁓ there's always there's always an extra hand needed, whether it's driving a grain truck or ⁓ you know, swinging by the farmhouse and picking up a couple of big jugs of water and taking out to the cruise or whatever. There's there's a way you can be helpful, engage people while they're busy because they're they may even miss Sunday service because the window to harvest is pretty tight. ⁓ but a lot of opportunities. One of our missionaries in Northern California, first two people he led to to Christ were ⁓ the local cafe owner because he just made a practice of going and having breakfast once a week at the cafe and visiting with people. ⁓ and then the garbage truck driver and it takes almost all day to to drive the route and he just asked the garbage truck driver one time, Hey, we're we're gonna know each other a bit. Could I do you ever do ride alongs? And the truck driver said, Why would you want to ride along? No one's ever asked me. ⁓ second ride along and they weren't Two days in a row, ⁓ second right along, he led the garbage truck driver to faith in Christ. And within a couple of months the the cafe owners put his trust in Christ. ⁓ and it was really that. I've got time for you, I care about you, you're an important you're important to God. And so yes, I'm a pastor, but part of my reason of being here is to engage you as a person. Yeah, and I think the connection between all this that you've you've talked about is these people are important to God. Yeah. We know that. But sometimes we might be tempted to feel like our life is too important or our calling is too we want it to be bigger than this place. But everything that you're saying is like God sees them and his way of seeing them and calling them so himself is sending you so that you'll see them. Yeah. And you'll be his hands and feet and be a means of of loving him and there's a way that small town ministry really affords or creates space for really loving people well if you'll open your eyes and your heart to see it. Right. And ⁓ I'm curious, I I I laugh at this quip that David Pinckney, one of our co founders, says Paul went to cities, but Jesus went to small towns. If you want to be like Jesus, then go to small towns like Jesus. Right. ⁓ and you already referenced, I mean there are people that look at Paul's missionary strategy and say like, well, it does seem like he tried to go to urban areas and then ⁓ and then moved on. And so ⁓ how would you how would you speak to that in terms of people claiming, hey, good missionary strategy, be like Paul, go to urban areas as a universal approach to Well, ⁓ as as Davidney mentioned, Jesus seemed to have almost avoided the urban areas except for Jerusalem. And interestingly, ⁓ Sephorus is just four miles from Nazareth, but no record of Jesus ever going to Sephorus. He's around some other other large cities in in Jerus in ⁓ Israel in his day. ⁓ and and he's outside the city, but we don't read about him going in. ⁓ and then he does a lot of in fact there are a number of words used for the towns and villages and rural places where Jesus does interact with people. Even the apostle Paul, we have record of him mostly going to cities, the way he got there, except for the boat ride, was to walk across the countryside, to walk through rural places, to walk down the road and encounter people. and in the first century, you're you're walking at the best pace, five miles an hour, three miles an hour, whatever that is, you're gonna need to stay somewhere, and most of the time Because the ends weren't reputable, pastors, missionaries would stay with families if they could. And and I can't see Paul bottling up the message, no, I'm only sharing this in the city. I'm gonna tell you about the Jesus I know. This is I I'm on my way to this next town, this next village. ⁓ we do have the book of Colossians. ⁓ we don't no record that Paul went there, but he has a heart for this what has become a smaller town. used to be a metropolis, they they moved the Roman road and Colossians began to decline as everybody moved over towards Laodicea. But he cares about those people. He's he's heard that they've heard the gospel from somebody he evangelized. And so he writes them a letter out of his compassion, his concern for them. ⁓ so I'm not sure it's completely accurate to say Paul's o only interest was in the big cities. ⁓ and he certainly cared about rural areas and other people ⁓ that he led to Christ went out to those places. So they they picked up on a concern that was part of God's heart and part of Paul's heart as he interacted with people in the first century. Yeah, I love that Colossians example because it wasn't like Colossae was small but up and coming. Right. It was always on the way out, you know? Yeah. And so I I think that's a beautiful example and ⁓ So much that Paul says about God's heart being for the foolish and the small things, the way that God uses the second things. Right. ⁓ yeah, chooses the younger rather than the older in a lot of his heart. He goes it feels like he goes out of his way. Even like what you mentioned, Jesus going to small towns, everything he did so purposeful. It wasn't that the big places weren't important to him, but I think he's communicating something to us about these individuals and this right small out of the way poor places or things. ⁓ so what are some implications, if you think, kind of a a roll-up of, all right, is rural ministry a priority for God and some of the things that we've talked about? How would you press that into the day-to-day lives of people listening in? It could be pastors or a faithful member leading discipleship groups or a stay-at-home mom. I mean, how do you press this in? Yeah. Well, one of the one of the key passages that I looked at and and I would encourage Small town, small place pastors to reflect on is 1 Corinthians 1, verses 26 through 29. And I won't read the whole thing, but it Paul's talking about you in the Corinthian church. Remember, not very many of you were wise or powerful or wealthy, and God called you instead. God chose the things the world considers foolish, the things that he considers the world considers powerless, and those the world despise. And I think a piece of that theologically is. God doesn't need a strategic place. He doesn't need an exceptionally influential individual to do his work. ⁓ he uses ordinary people. And ⁓ from that verse, at least in the ⁓ for the Corinthian church, you're just ordinary people, and look what God is going to do as you trust him and you serve him. And for Most pastors, we're relatively ordinary people, and we've been sent to another group of ordinary people who need Jesus. And so we bring the message. ⁓ so God uses people others might consider weak or marginalized or maybe not the ⁓ you know, the head of your class. ⁓ and yet it's more about the heart and the faithfulness than it is the skill set, because the Lord works by his spirit. ⁓ to draw people to himself. ⁓ I I I take comfort in the fact that much of Jesus' ministry was to rural people and to those on the fringes of society. He saw them, he cared for them, he ministered to them personally. And you know, he's he is the king of the universe. He could have started anywhere he wanted. ⁓ and he did. ⁓ he picked a rural place. He picked small place and and people in rural communities and along the way and along the roads. ⁓ Jesus entrusted the future of the church to rural disciples. ⁓ he didn't he didn't have anybody from the from the synagogue, he didn't have anybody from the temple, ⁓ he didn't have anybody from the Sanhedrin in that group of twelve. ⁓ others joined in, but he began with people who were relatively rural, not theologically educated, he taught them himself. And then he said, All right, now you're gonna go plant the church, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, ends of the earth. ⁓ and And they did. Yeah. And here we're still going. Yeah, the world was changed. Yeah. Yeah. Amen. Well, that's that's amazingly encouraging right there. You have any kind of parting word of encouragement to share with anybody listening in? maybe some specific thing the Lord's laid on your heart. I'd love to give you the last word. When we show up wherever God has sent us, small town, suburbia, urban place, when we show up And we're there because we want to serve the Lord where He sent us. God does amazing things. if we're coming as His servant, letting Him provide the direction, letting Him decide where, where we serve, how long we stay, who we interact with, ⁓ if we can start our day with Lord, what do you want me to do today? And and who do you want me to engage with? And we let Him, to the degree it's humanly possible, we let Him decide what our schedule looks like. And who we're going interact with and what we say, then he does stuff we never would have dreamed of. He touches hearts and lives that we couldn't have a strategy. ⁓ We don't have the words, we don't have the power, we don't have the ability, but he does. And so we get to join in exactly what God intends to accomplish in the place he's placed us. ⁓ And there's no greater joy than to be in the center of God's will. Nothing nothing the world offers compares with that. Amen to that. Yeah, it can make the smallest task in the world seem like the biggest thing if you know that God's in it. It's what God wants you to do. You couldn't do anything bigger than that. Absolutely. No matter how small task. So awesome. Well John, thank you so much for your time. Thank you, Bill. We're thankful for you and for Village Missions and the way that God's using you all over the country. And ⁓ I'm so blessed by that heart to see Christ named where he's not. And yeah not just seeking to l build on other people's foundations. It's ⁓ very Pauline in a rural context of you. So we admire you for it, brother, and ⁓ Lord bless you and we'll pray this ⁓ contribution in the God of Small Places gets a wide reading. ⁓ thank you for that labor of love. It's a blessing. It was a blessing to me and I know it will be to everybody else who gets their hands on it. Good. Well, thanks for taking time to to talk about that with me and it's been great to get to know you a bit. Thanks, brother. Thank you again for listening to the Small Town Summit Podcast. We hope that it was a blessing to you, and if you are interested in learning more about the Small Town Summit Ministry, check out our website, smalltownsummits.com. We also want to let you know about an exciting opportunity to join us, the Rural Home Missionary Association, and Desiring God, at a new England wide conference October 5th through the 6th in Newberry Port, Massachusetts. Our speakers, Dave Mathis and Scott Hubbard of Desiring God, We'll be helping small town pastors and ministry leaders remember that Christ is our treasure and goal in gospel ministry. For more information, visit STSfallconference.com. Again, that is STSfallconference.com. We hope to see you there.