NAMB Seeks ‘Huge’ Impact in Small Towns

Elk City, Oklahoma Image by iStock.com/ehrlif

BY DAVID ROACH

If you think the North American Mission Board (NAMB) only ministers in trendy urban centers, a trip to western Oklahoma’s Great Plains Baptist Association might be in order. With fifty-seven churches scattered over 150 miles just east of the Texas Panhandle, the association’s largest city is Altus, population eighteen thousand. Hardly an urban center.

But NAMB’s presence is strong. One of the association’s three evangelism trailers came from NAMB, a bargain purchase three years ago; churches there have access to online resources for rural churches through NAMB; and Mark Clifton, senior director of NAMB’s church replant team, encourages area congregations. When he spoke at last November’s associational annual meeting, leaders from a fifteen-member church recorded the message on a smart phone and played it for their entire congregation.

Mark Clifton preaches at Linwood Baptist Church. Image Courtesy of Linwood Baptist Church

Mark Clifton, senior director of NAMB’s church replant team, encourages area congregations. When he spoke at last November’s associational annual meeting, leaders from a fifteen-member church recorded the message on a smart phone and played it for their entire congregation.

“People have a misconception that the North American Mission Board is only reaching thirty-two Send Cities,” said Danny Ringer, associational mission strategist for the Great Plains Association. “That is absolutely false.”

Indeed, NAMB resources, plants, consults with, and encourages rural churches to help them fulfill the Great Commission.

That’s no small task. Though most Americans live in and around cities, rural America is growing—contrary to the stereotype purveyed in media outlets and coffee shops. Approximately sixty million people, one in five Americans, live in a rural area. The US rural population increased eleven percent from 1970–2010, according to the Aspen Institute, a Colorado-based think tank. About half of the nation’s two thousand rural counties grew in population between 2016 and 2018. What’s more, a whopping ninety-seven percent of America’s landmass is rural.

Those realities left NAMB asking whether a strategy could be developed to blanket that land with Gospel witness.

Their answer was yes, and Clifton played a major role in that answer. After growing up in rural America, Clifton planted churches in Atlanta, Montreal, and Kansas City before receiving a call in 2020 from Linwood (Kansas) Baptist Church, a

congregation between Kansas City and Lawrence with three members. The town has five hundred people. He agreed to become their pastor for free, and over the ensuing two years, God moved.

Today, Linwood runs forty to fifty in worship and baptized five people last year. “That’s huge!” Clifton said. Their outreach efforts have included helping with the town Christmas tree lighting, providing breakfast for parents at the local school’s drop-off line, and pouring new sidewalks for the city.

The experience reminded Clifton of the need for churches in rural America, the challenges there (like rising crime and drug use), and that rural churches can make an oversized impact on their communities. He began to lead NAMB’s replant team in a focus on rural areas last year.

The definition of a church revitalization is “creating a church that makes disciples that make disciples, that results in that community being noticeably better,” Clifton said. “That’s not necessarily tied to large numbers. I don’t have to have 150 people show up to do that. I can do that with two or three people.”

Clifton encourages pastors to consider serving in rural churches and looks for opportunities to replant and revitalize congregations in rural communities. He also urges each suburban church to find a rural area within a three- or fourhour drive and pour Gospel witness into it. Despite the strong presence of conservative values and politics in rural America, it can be a “Gospel desert,” he said.

Andy Addis comprises another piece of NAMB’s rural strategy. Nearly two decades ago, he accepted a call to pastor Westbrook Baptist Church in Hutchinson, Kansas. The day Addis was called, the church had 127 in worship. They grew to four hundred and realized buying a nearby auto parts store was cheaper than constructing a new building, so they started a Saturday evening service in that facility. One thing led to

Community outreach event in Linwood, Kansas. Image Courtesy of Linwood Baptist Church

Worship team during a Christmas service in Linwood, Kansas. Image Courtesy of Linwood Baptist Church

In the spring of 2022, NAMB plans to launch The Replant Hub. It is an online portal offering free resources to any rural church that signs up. The resources include video sermons, downloadable notes, small group materials, graphics packages, children’s ministry helps, and worship videos—all from multisite churches that want to lend a hand to rural congregations.

We want to be contextual and plant a church that succeeds in its community. We need more church plants in rural areas, but first, we need more planters. We have the best assessments, training, coaching, and care in the world, but we are dependent on churches to raise up the next generation of church planters.”

Kevin Ezell, president

North American Mission Board

another, and now the church—known as CrossPoint Church—has twelve locations across rural Kansas with 2,500 weekly attendees.

Through that journey, Addis realized resources were a key to expanding rural ministry. So he is helping NAMB launch The Replant Hub this spring, an online portal offering free resources to any rural church that signs up. The resources include video sermons, downloadable notes, small group materials, graphics packages, children’s ministry helps, and worship videos—all from multisite churches that want to lend a hand to rural congregations.

“Imagine you’re a deacon body in the middle of very rural Iowa,” said Addis, NAMB’s volunteer rural strategist for the replant team. “You don’t know up or down. You just know you haven’t had a pastor in a year and half and you have a group of people that still want to do church. We can be a part of this. They can use resources [from The Replant Hub] and know that they’re trusted.”

State conventions and Baptist associations, Addis said, will help publicize The Replant Hub, which will launch in March at NAMB’s AMS Replant Lab in Atlanta.

NAMB President Kevin Ezell underscored the board’s commitment to partner with churches in reaching rural America for Christ.

“We help Southern Baptists plant churches everywhere for everyone, but we don’t have a cookie cutter approach,” Ezell said. “Most of the time a rural church planter will need to be bivocational. That looks different than in San Francisco.

“We want to be contextual and plant a church that succeeds in its community,” he noted. “We need more church plants in rural areas, but first, we need more planters. We have the best assessments, training, coaching, and care in the world, but we are dependent on churches to raise up the next generation of church planters.”

DAVID ROACH is a writer and senior pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church in Saraland, Alabama.