The United States Census Bureau released a report in 2020 that provided a striking reminder about who we are as a nation. In a report titled “America: A Nation of Small Towns,” they noted that about 76% of all incorporated places—nearly 19,500 of them—have fewer than 5,000 residents. Even more astonishing, almost 42% of incorporated places have populations under 500.
That means the overwhelming majority of American communities are small. While our cultural attention often focuses on the big cities, the small towns and rural areas form the backbone of the nation’s geography—and, for generations, the backbone of its spiritual life. Yet these are the very places where the church’s presence is now most fragile.
The data underscores an urgent truth: if we do not intentionally strengthen, plant, and support smaller churches, the majority of American communities will have little or no access to a local, gospel-centered congregation.
The majority of communities are small.
The numbers are not just statistics; they tell a story of spiritual geography. When 76% of incorporated towns are under 5,000 in population, it means the typical American community is not urban—it’s small, local, and often overlooked. Yet church leaders, networks, and denominations tend to concentrate resources where the population is densest. The result is a growing imbalance: a strong church presence in metropolitan areas and a weakening presence across the vast landscape of small towns.
To reach America, we must reach small-town America. The Great Commission does not draw city limits. Every place—no matter its size—deserves a gospel witness.
A massive mission field exists in small places.
Nearly half of America’s towns have fewer than 500 residents. In many of these communities, there is no school, no hospital, and increasingly, no church. A generation ago, nearly every town had a congregation on Main Street. Today, many of those sanctuaries sit empty or serve as historical landmarks rather than living ministries.
This is not just a nostalgic problem—it’s a missional crisis. The smaller the town, the less likely it is to draw attention from church planters or denominational leaders. Yet these are precisely the places where the gospel can transform lives through personal connection and presence. The mission field of the small town is vast, and it is open.
Larger churches cannot reach them all.
Large and megachurches have remarkable influence, but their reach has natural limits. They cluster in metropolitan corridors where the population supports a complex staff and extensive facilities. No matter how many campuses or online services they develop, they cannot physically plant themselves in every small community across America.
Smaller churches fit the scale, culture, and rhythms of their context. They can thrive on volunteer leadership, modest facilities, and a relational approach to ministry that larger models can’t easily duplicate. The future of ministry in small-town America depends not on replication of megachurch models but on the revitalization of small churches.
Small churches offer deep relational ministry.
In a culture that often feels impersonal and transactional, smaller congregations provide what sociologists call “high-touch” community. People know one another by name. They notice when someone is missing. They share meals, burdens, and celebrations together.
This kind of ministry is not secondary—it is essential. Jesus built His church on relationships, not programs. In smaller churches, evangelism is personal, discipleship is intentional, and pastoral care happens naturally through proximity. The intimacy of small-church life mirrors the early church more closely than many other models.
The future of church presence depends on small congregations.
As larger churches consolidate and some denominations shrink, the local presence of the church is increasingly dependent on smaller congregations. When a small church closes, there is often no other church within miles to fill the void. Multiply that reality by thousands of communities, and the result is a vanishing gospel presence across entire regions.
The future of Christian witness in America is not only urban; it is rural, local, and small. The sustainability of ministry in these areas depends on a new generation of pastors willing to serve faithfully in congregations of 50, 75, or 150. These pastors are not “less than”—they are frontline missionaries to the heart of America.
Smaller churches anchor community identity.
For many small towns, the local church is more than a spiritual gathering—it is the heartbeat of community life. It hosts the food pantry, the funeral meals, and the Christmas programs. When it disappears, something irreplaceable vanishes from the town’s identity.
Sociologists often describe rural churches as “social glue.” They hold communities together through shared memory and moral grounding. When the church declines, the community’s cohesion declines with it. Preserving and strengthening these churches is not merely a matter of religious concern; it is a matter of social health.
Strategic investment in small churches has exponential reach.
Investing in small churches yields disproportionate impact. A single revitalized church in a rural county can influence dozens of surrounding communities. Its pastor becomes a connector, its members become witnesses, and its ministry becomes a hub of hope in a region that might otherwise feel forgotten.
Supporting small churches—through coaching, funding, and prayer—is one of the most effective strategies for gospel multiplication in North America. It may not generate headlines, but it changes lives at the most personal level.
The future of the American church will not be determined only in the megacities but also in the small towns and rural crossroads scattered across the nation. The Census Bureau’s data should not merely inform us—it should compel us.
If nearly three-quarters of our communities are small, then the mission strategy of the church must be small-minded in the best possible way: focused, faithful, and rooted in the places most people overlook.
In the kingdom of God, there are no small churches—only small communities waiting for someone to bring them the hope of Christ.
Posted on November 17, 2025
With nearly 40 years of ministry experience, Thom Rainer has spent a lifetime committed to the growth and health of local churches across North America.
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22 Comments
This is such a thought-provoking and heartfelt post. I love how you articulate the unique strengths of smaller congregations from fostering deeper relationships and personal accountability to enabling faster adaptation to community needs. Your reflections highlight that smaller churches often provide intimacy, spiritual care, and participation opportunities that larger organizations struggle to achieve, making them crucial for building meaningful community. Reading this made me think about the importance of presence, connection, and shared mission, and it’s a reminder that impactful ministry isn’t measured by size, but by authenticity, care, and relational depth.
The purpose and nature of the Church can ONLY be carried out in small numbers, that’s the way Jesus designed it. For one anothering, participation by all, by gifting, discipline, accountability, community. The issue, I find, in these small Churches that have been conditioned by tradition, want a seminary bred, degreed, man, instead of men who qualify biblically. They have been brainwashed. God has a design for His family, just like He has a design for the human family. We have denounced that for bigger and better like all good American institutions. I’d love to Pastor a small Church, and have, but I don’t have the credentials most are looking for.
This is so true, but the question is how are you going to get Pastors for all of these small churches? We have been searching for a Pastor for about 2 years and currently have no candidates. We are in the liberal northeast and many we have talked to want the southern regions. Churches are shutting down because they can’t find Pastors willing to serve in small places. We have a wonderful church, zero debt, great facilities and loving congregation, and we pay our Pastor FT. Yet, no takers. Until more men honor the call to ministry and have a heart for the small and not the mega just how will these small churches survive?
Thomas –
I certainly do not know the specifics of your church, but let me share with you what we’ve learned from other churches that say they pay their pastor full-time. Sometimes the pay is simple not competitive. At other times, we find that the church counts the “package” as the salary. So, if the package is $45,000, that might include $10,000 toward health insurance preminums, and $5,000 toward retirement. In that case, the pastor is really making $30,000. Once a church finds out it really cannot pay full-time, they can start getting creative with co-vocational options.
“Supporting small churches—through coaching, funding, and prayer—is one of the most effective strategies for gospel multiplication in North America.”
This is true, and we just want to add that coaching should also include how to work alongside other local churches as part of the unified Body of Christ. Too often, churches adopt an ‘us versus them’ mindset—fueled by differences in social and religious culture, and all too frequently by political beliefs—which undermines their ability to function collectively and effectively in evangelizing, discipling, and serving a large and diverse community.
Thank you for this thoughtful post on The Urgent Need for Smaller Churches. Your call for a close-knit community, shared accountability, and genuine relationships really hits home. As someone who’s lived with cerebral palsy since I was six months old, and once told I might never walk, I understand how powerful a small church can be: a place where people truly see you, support you, and help you grow. Your perspective affirms my own journey of overcoming isolation and seeking a faith family that’s not just big, but close, caring, and real.
Thank you so much, Jimmy.
Thank you for this article on the importance of small churches in small communities. So much of the literature available on ministry management and development was written for churches that are large enough to have staff; therefore, students coming out of seminaries seem to have this expectation that this is normal. They, like me, are woefully unprepared to minister in the context of a single staff model. Serving as the pastor of a small church in a small community requires a very different skill set from a suburban or urban setting. I wish our Bible colleges and seminaries would devote more time to intentionally preparing church leaders for this reality, and I would love to see more conference speakers who represented this setting.
Thank you, Joshua. May your numbers increase.
I think it terribly ironic to read an article entitled “The Urgent Need for Smaller Churches”. In 2000, I planted a small church in Worcester, MA that drew in people from the neighboring communities. For a while we were the fastest growing non-ethnic church in that area with a church population of 40 at our peak. Then “Send Cities” was initiated and all focus went to Boston, including attention and resources for other parts of the state. We dried up within a year of that program launch, unable to get any help because we weren’t designated a “send city”.
David –
I don’t understand the irony of my article. We are not connected to Send, and the need for smaller churches is still real. Am I missing something?
Thom,
It’s less about your article, per se, and more about how the SBC in general has a hard time with “both/and”. Data shows urban renewal, so let’s send all our resources to the cities, neglecting the smaller towns (that’s where my story fits). Now data shows there is a lack of rural churches, so maybe that will be the focus now. Is it possible we’re exacerbating the problem when we develop big programs or emphases that focuses on one at the expense of the other since that’s where the funds flow? As for your article, I don’t disagree with it at all. I know there is the need. I just wonder what the answer will be. Thanks for engaging.
David
The challenges described in the blog are true in many parts of rural Australia. There is a rapid decline in church numbers taking place in small towns throughout my state of New South Wales. It’s as though denominations that were established in an era of religious prosperity do not know how to respond to the crisis before them. They watch and don’t act, and often the only gospel presence in a small town has closed or is on the brink of closure.
The social and religious fabric of city and rural churches are so different, but city-centric denominations haven’t cottoned onto this fact. Rural churches can have extraordinarily long- pastoral vacancies, some will never again see a paid pastor. I think a change in mindset is needed. Let’s not send traditionally trained pastors, but let’s get our mission organizations to send missionaries into our rural areas to plant or replant churches, and treat these locations as if we were going to another country. I’m sure if this approach would work, but a solution is needed urgently.
Your insights and solutions are on on-target, Mark. Thank you for your wisdom.
Thom, I read your Urgent Need post today with identification and tears. I worked with Village Missions for 40 years in a small incorporated town in Iowa and then in an open-country church in Indiana. My wife and I continue to serve in our retirement at the Indiana church in a no-name location, fitting in with the pastor and elders. Thank you for speaking into a vacuum of vision for the rural and small church. I have a book presently being printed called 8 Traits of the Effective Rural Pastor: Going “Nowhere Slowly,” Serving “Insignificant People in Insignificant Places.” Your understanding of small church ministry being relational by necessity is so on target. Thank you for your work. Allen Sparks
Allen –
I am incredibly grateful for your faithfulness. You are truly one of the heroes of the faith.
Thom,
You are spot on with everything you say in this article.
I’d like to offer some thoughts, especially since I currently pastor 2 small churches in small towns.
First, you are on target to say church planters and denominational leaders often overlook small towns, specifically those in rural areas where population is sparse and even in decline. This mistake most likely is an unexpected outcome of the church growth movement of the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s, during which the mega church phenomenon emerged. As a result, the strategical mindset was to market church plants within a geographically highly populated area. Thus, the small church was essentially ignored and left on the wayside.
Second, you are also on target about the inability of small churches to attract effective clergy leadership. Again, during the Church Growth Movement, explosive growth became the dream of potential church planters, especially those who were freshly minted seminary graduates. Small churches were not on their radar simply because mega churches had become the standard of success. In some cases, these budding planters accepted (though not necessarily embraced) the possibility of starting out in a small church, but they saw it only as the bottom rung of a ladder they would eventually climb,. And as long as they showed some success and fruitfulness, they would ascend that ladder with the blessing of judicatory officials.
Finally, a lack of understanding the nature and atmosphere of small churches prevented, or at least hindered any interest from prospective clergy, church planters, or denominational leaders to ever serve them. On one hand, a lack of knowledge about the social anthropology of small towns/rural areas contributed to this lack of understanding. Even more so, a broad caricaturization of small towns, themselves, led to a misunderstanding of the people who live there. Many times the towns were caricatured as “Mayberrys,” or “Podunks,” where you have to drive a half hour for a hamburger or a Walmart (although in some cases that may be true). The people in these towns have also been caricatured as uneducated, backwards thinking “hicks,” and as people who could neither understand nor relate to seminary trained clergy. Thus, there are no lines of people champing at the bit to come serve these churches.
How do we address this issue? First, I think we need significant training and resources in small town/rural ministry that goes beyond traditional/conventional church growth strategies. It would be helpful if a contextual cultural anthropology could be a part of that training. Knowing how the people you serve think, what their core values are, and generally what makes them “tick” would be invaluable for prospective small church pastors. Second, we need a “rebranding” of the small church and pastor. As I often say to my people in both churches, just because we are a small church doesn’t mean we are small time. Perhaps one of the most liberating moments for me came when I realized that ministry in a small church in a small town was just as important to the Kingdom as an urban megachurch or a suburban campus of a multi-site church. Finally, when ministering in small churches, we need to move from a mindset of church growth to a mindset of church health. I know that goes against the grain for some people, and it seems counterintuitive coming out of the church growth movement. But as one who is a product of that movement, I’ve discovered that is the most effective mindset to be in too effectively in a small church. And it may be helpful to those of us who are church consultants or church revitalizers, or both, to take this mindset with us as we work with churches who reach out to us for help.
Thanks for letting me offer this response.
Larry Teasley
Larry –
That is a great and detailed response. Thank you for the contribution.
Appreciate the article. As a pastor and association missions Director in primarily communities of this size most of my life, I completely agree with your summary, challenges and suggestions for the smaller churches in rural communities.
Thanks so much, James.
All of the things you say are true. However, this is where the rubber hits the road. Most of those churches are going to have to hire bi-vocational pastors. Having spent the first 6 1/2 years of my ministry in a rural town in Kansas, I know the challenges. My wife drove 108 miles a day for work. That took a huge toll on our marriage and it almost cost us our marriage. I also lived with the constant frustration of church members who complained that we were not growing. People in our community chose to drive 20-40 miles away to churches where there were more things offered for new people to plug into. They had youth groups and children’s ministries which had more to offer those families. My wife and I got into credit card debt because my pay was pathetic to say the least. Yes, rural churches need their churches to be strong and vibrant. How that happens will require people who are called from within their community. I serve in Indiana in the ABC USA denomination and most of the openings that we have are bi-vocational positions that we cannot fill. The challenge before us is a difficult one.
Good word, William.