I love small towns and rural communities. I grew up in Blairsville, Georgia, a town in the Appalachian Mountains whose population has remained steadily around 500 for at least the past 30 years. When I was a kid, it was even smaller. When we got our first stoplight in 1987, the local newspaper put it above the fold with a headline in 70-point type. Our first fast-food restaurant came around the same time. Though I’ve not lived there but a couple years since graduating from high school, it remains home in my heart and the place where I feel the greatest liberty to be myself.

Blairsville is populated by small churches and many have pastors who have shepherded them faithfully for decades. Ministry in my hometown is not the pathway to book contracts or the conference speaking circuit. But it is a vital place in God’s economy, a mission field populated by sinners who need the gospel and saints who need patient, loving spiritual leadership.

In his new article at TGC, Daniel Stegeman paints a beautiful picture of the unique and surprising glories of shepherding a congregation in a place no one has ever heard of. Maybe you are a pastor in such a place. If so, read and be encouraged to press on in loving and leading. If not, read and be reminded that small town/rural ministers are not the pastoral JV team—they are doing vital kingdom work, often in hard places, for God’s glory. Above all, pray for these brothers that God will grant them faithful endurance in their community over the long haul—because Jesus, who hailed from a tiny town of no reputation, laid down his life for people in those places.