Planting Hillbilly Churches

There are many lessons for us to learn from the 2016 election. One of these lessons is the great chasm that exists between rural America and the metropolitan areas. I said shortly after the election that if you want to understand why Trump won read Hillbilly Elegy. I know that it is an overly simplistic answer but there is a good deal of truth to this.

Rural folk feel very disconnected from what is taking place in Washington. That’s putting it mildly. Many rural folk are flat out ticked off about the things big city people are forcing us to do. They feel left out and ignored. (I’m never sure if I should say “we” or “they” because sometimes I can relate and sometimes I cannot). Hillbillies aren’t going down without a fight. Donald Trump was able to tap into that feeling of disconnect and give them a voice. This, I’m convinced, is the chief reason he won the Rust Belt and was able to get enough votes to carry the electoral college.

Why Are There No Church Plants In My Association?

These might just be the ramblings of a small and uninformed pastor, so take them for what you will. I’m not big city so I’m certain I’m missing something from “the other side”. But I’m convinced that what we saw on the grand scale in the presidential election we are also seeing within the SBC. (The election of small church pastor, Dave Miller, as the Pastor’s Conference President, who ran on the platform of giving smaller church guys a voice, might be exhibit A to what I’m saying).

Those of us out here in rural America feel very disconnected. And if I’m being blunt we often feel ignored and treated like we don’t actually know how to do church. To many it feels like the big city folk just need us for attending their conferences (to tell us what we are doing wrong), buying their books (to tell us what we are doing wrong), and to keep sending those cooperative program dollars.

I know those are overstatements. I’ve learned a great deal and have benefited from many conferences and books. I know that the heart of so many of these men is to help and not to simply sell a book. But permit me for a bit to speak things from the perspective of a discouraged hillbilly pastor who’d love to encourage his church to plant other churches but finds it a very difficult sell because of the disconnect between NAMB strategy and life here in the cornfields.

In Missouri, I am hearing that they will not be planting churches in places without a population over 20,000 people. (I could be off a little on the details). If that number is true that leaves zero communities in our association which could plant a church through traditional SBC funding. Of the thirty plus pastors/churches in our association only two (me being one of them) said they were interested in church planting. I wonder why that is?

An Imperfect Analogy of Our Disconnect

We are disconnected. Yes, we want to be great commission people. We want to be able to be motivated by the fact that there are so many lost people in the big cities and that 83% of the population now lives in metro areas. We hear things like “reach the cities and you reach the nations” and we get it. But we also wonder “what about us?” We’ve got brokenness all around us. And for many the big city feels about as foreign as the majestic Oz did to little Dorothy Gayle from Kansas.

So what you are really saying to us is, “I know you’ve got poverty and brokenness and a ton of lostness and this terrible plague of cultural Christianity, but 83%!!!!! So, ignore for a moment the plight of Auntie Em’ and funnel all your resources to planting a church here to reach the lollipop guild.” I know it seems incredibly narrow minded and not gospel-central. But we know Auntie Em’ , we see her, and if we are being honest she isn’t okay, either. And isn’t it a bit narrow minded on the other end to ignore the very real plight of Auntie Em’.

I really do understand that 83% of the population now lives in metro areas. I understand why we are putting so much money into the cities. We need to do this. I will fully support the SEND mission and want to encourage our people to grow in the way we look at the world. I want to be passionate about doing missions “back home” and I want to be a church that sends missionaries to places and people that look nothing like us.

But let’s be honest with one another. You really are saying something akin to, “The heck with the hillbillies”. I know you don’t think you are and that you likely don’t mean to. But the emphasis and the funding structure is turning its back on rural America. And I don’t believe we’ve really counted that cost. Or maybe we have, and are just now feeling what we knew it would cost us.

Conclusion

I suppose I’m attempting to do two things here. First, to acknowledge that there really isn’t a trickle down effect. We often don’t give a rip what is going on in the big cities. And most of the material you send us just flat out doesn’t work here. If nothing else the Trump presidency and books like Hillbilly Elegy show us that there is a huge chasm betwixt us. So, what I’m trying to say is that if you really don’t want to turn your back on rural America then you’ve got to do a better job of both/and ministry.

We have to work together to develop strategies for reaching hillbilly culture. We have to measure it upon a different grid, with different goals, and different markers for success. You cannot pull funding on a rural church that doesn’t have 100 people in attendance after only a year. Things are different. But we also need to think through different levels and ways of doing funding. What works in the big city isn’t going to work out here. That’s both good and bad.

Secondly, I’m speaking to my fellow hillbilly pastors and saying lets face the fact that we aren’t going to be getting much help for awhile. That’s okay. Let’s not pout and give up and pretend like we need the big cities to do ministry anyways. Let’s think through our own ways to do funding and to plant our hillbilly churches.

There is so much brokenness around us. We are swallowed up by poverty and porn and pills. But the gospel is bigger. No matter if your brokenness is a hillbilly brokenness or big city brokenness. Jesus is the answer, so let’s not wait for big city folk to understand us, let’s just put our hand to the plow and do what we do best—get to work.

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I pray that my tone here is correct. If in anyway it seems as if I’m being overly-critical of NAMB or unthankful for the great gospel work being done, then chalk it up to my inadequacies in communicating and not the passion of my heart. I love NAMB. I have a ton of respect for their leadership and am appreciative of the way things are going. I’m simply trying to say that in my limited mind and experience I think we are missing something important.

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