God’s Big Work in Small Towns

As I write these words, I am sitting in one of the small towns of our country. The wonderful church where I am preaching is located in a community of about four hundred. The pastor lives in a neighboring village that numbers about a hundred. We are staying in the largest town, the county seat, which boasts a population of about 2,000. It is a beautiful region, dotted with rural communities.

But, like all places, there is much more here spiritually than meets the eye. There are needy families, hurting souls, sin-broken lives, and hungry hearts in need of the gospel. As I left the church today, I rejoiced that this area has a strong gospel witness and was reminded that every small town in the world needs a local church holding up the truth and loving people.

Scripture is replete with examples of God’s big work in small towns.

God does not bless a place because of its size. Many of the large cities and urban centers have historically been the first to corrupt themselves and lead the downward spiral of sin in a nation. This does not mean that they should be neglected. The Old and New Testaments reveal the Lord sending His messengers to the Nineveh’s of the world to call them to repentance. But if we are not careful, we will begin to imagine that great spiritual awakenings can only happen in prominent places.

We must never limit God by our thinking. God’s Word repeatedly demonstrates the Lord using the minority, not the majority, and working in small places to accomplish His great purposes. Our mighty God can work anywhere, anytime, through anyone who will trust and obey. He is not limited by geography or human resources. The only thing that limits Him is our unbelief and disobedience (Mark 6:5-6). Jonathan expressed this truth well when he said, “…there is no restraint to the LORD to save by many or by few” (1 Samuel 14:6).

Victory and blessing do not come because we are big, but because He is. God often does His most significant work in seemingly insignificant places, for it is there that He alone receives the glory. And it is a reminder that no place and no people are insignificant to the Saviour.

Jesus loved small towns.

Our Lord Jesus was not born in the metropolis of Rome or the bustling activity of Jerusalem. The sovereign God did not choose to place His Son in the political or religious capitals of the day. Instead, He was sent to a town of what was estimated to be less than 500 residents.

The Life of Jesus

“But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” (Micah 5:2).

Bethlehem may have been a speck on the map, but it was the birthplace of the Saviour of the world! It is mentioned 20 times in 11 books of the Bible – a memorial to the significance of what God did in the small town.

Christ grew up in an even smaller place. Nazareth was an out-of-the-way, agricultural village. Experts suggest that during the childhood of Jesus there were perhaps 50 houses and a couple of hundred people. No wonder Nathaniel asked, “Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46) We now know the answer: yes! God came through Nazareth.

In our culture of “bigger is better,” it is often lost on us how God chooses to use little things for His glory. The prophet understood this principle when he asked, “For who hath despised the day of small things?” (Zechariah 4:10).

Capernaum was much larger than Bethlehem or Nazareth. Yet when Jesus made that fishing town of 1,500 his ministry headquarters, they rejected the light and condemned themselves (Matthew 11:23-25). In the work of Christ, the key is not location, location, location – it is heart.

The Heart of Jesus

Follow the footsteps of Jesus and you will see no prejudice in the preaching of the gospel – He loved and labored to reach both rich and poor, Jew and Gentile, large multitudes and little villages. Matthew 11:1 declares that He went “to teach and to preach in their cities.” The cities of every land need the preaching of the gospel of Christ. Begin with the masses, but do not stop there! Matthew 9:35 says, “And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom…”

Don’t neglect the villages! They may be less than a town or city, but they are not less to God. Here are eternal souls for whom Jesus died. In some untouched corner, there is a sinner waiting for light.

History records that many of the most far-reaching revivals began in small places.

Places like the Isle of Lewis in the New Hebrides Islands, and a hundred little hamlets in Wales, have served as the epicenter for some of the mightiest moves of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps providentially chosen to demonstrate the limitless power of God and to reveal the limited wisdom of man. Or perhaps because in those places the Lord found a remnant of sincere believers who were seeking Him alone and desired to see what he could do.

Where are the “great places” to serve the Lord? Only our great God can truly say where the great works are happening, and only the judgment seat of Christ will reveal the whole story. It may not be exactly where we think the biggest work is being accomplished. My longtime pastor and mentor, Clarence Sexton, was fond of saying, “The great place is the place of God’s choosing.” Wherever the Lord has placed you, wherever the Spirit has called you, that is the great place.

All places need a church because all people need the gospel. I am occasionally asked why I go to preach in small churches and little towns. The question misses the reality of God’s omnipresent work. I have seen some of the greatest spiritual moves in places no one has ever heard of, but God is there! Obscure places are needy too and may be a grand opportunity to witness the Lord at work.

What can we do?

Consider this. Gospel work is not only about what can be accomplished, but about what can be set in motion. A small village pastor in Scotland reported that in one year, only one boy had come to Christ, “wee Bobby Moffatt.” But Robert Moffat would serve Christ and win souls in Africa for 52 years. Beware of judging results; it takes time to grow fruit.

The church where I have just preached has sent out another wonderful missionary family to serve in Africa. The measurement of a church is not in the breadth of its programs but in the length to which they extend the gospel, the depth to which they disciple believers, and the height to which they bring glory to God.

Most churches will never be megachurches, but the mark of a strong church is not largeness but faithfulness. God’s big work is being carried on in small towns, and we are privileged to serve in it. Whatever the size of your “Jerusalem” you can be used of God there and you can touch “the uttermost parts of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

Pray

Pray for small and sometimes struggling churches in little communities. Intercede for faithful pastors who may have to be bi-vocational to make ends meet. These men, like the Apostle Paul, are tentmakers for the gospel’s sake. They carry on two full-time jobs to impact a region for Christ. Ask the Lord to raise up an army of new laborers, young preachers who will desire to take an area of the harvest that others may neglect. New churches need to be started, and dying churches need to be revived these days.

Go

Perhaps the Lord will lead you to a little-known place. Off-the-beaten-path? Christ has already walked those roads. The Holy Spirit will go with you. God wants to do His big work in small towns.

If you are in a small town, seek to help your church become everything Christ died for it to become. Encourage your pastor and find a way to serve. Seek the salvation of the lost. We are on the greatest work crew in the world and Christ is the Foreman. He is building His church in every place…even in the small towns.

“After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come. Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest” (Luke 10:1-2).