But as he was drawn into leading the staff and keeping a large church running, he found himself less involved in the pastoral duties he most loved. Eventually, he made an unusual career decision. He sought a smaller church farther from the city and embraced the tasks of preaching, praying, and visitation within a small congregation.

As the Puritan Richard Sibbes wrote, “It is Christ that raises the worth of little and mean places and persons. Bethlehem was the least . . . and yet not the least; the least in itself, not the least in respect that Christ was born there.”

Loneliness. Ministry in small places can be lonely.

Seminary graduates minister there in order to prepare for what they really want to do: be a lead pastor in a bigger church in a bigger place.

we’re told that Jesus visited all the towns and villages of Galilee

But Thomas Robinson has recently offered a major and convincing critique of the urban thesis, showing an early Christian presence in the countryside before the year AD 250.

Did he focus exclusively on cities during that period, or might he have done some mission work in small towns (as perhaps indicated by Acts 26:20)? For much of that period we simply don’t know.

And Patrick Carr and Maria Kefalas highlight the ironic reality that rural teachers, parents, and leaders often participate in the demise of their own small places by “[investing in] the young people destined to leave and [ignoring] the ones most likely to stay or return.”

One of the most precious things about the gospel is that it often seems so unstrategic by worldly metrics.