Can Big Things Happen in Small Towns?

I am a church planter in a small town. Where I’m from people don’t normally start churches unless someone makes them mad. I wanted to start a church for years because I thought we could touch some hard to reach people.

One Wednesday night back in early 2010, I had a person, that I loved and trusted, tear down my dream of starting a church purposefully designed to reach people who don’t go to church. As I shared my dream/vision to reach the thousands of unreached people in our region the person said,

“I know that there are churches that are doing this – you’ve taken me and shown me – I’ve seen it with my own eyes. But Mike, THIS IS LITTLE LUMBERTON! Man, you know I support you but I just don’t know if what you see can happen in a small town like this.”

What Do YOU See?

Some people can see the very same things that rocked your world and for whatever reason can’t see what you see. We see a similar thing in the Gospels when Jesus was meeting the men who would soon become His apostles:

“Can anything good come out of (little) Nazareth?” Nathanael asked, about to meet the Savior. I love Phillip’s response: “Come and see”. The problem with most people is that “they” can’t see what you see:

• “They” don’t see your vision because they don’t have the ability to see it – maybe that’s why God didn’t give it to them. They don’t have your calling or spiritual insight. Thank Jesus that He gave it to you.
• “They” don’t see the potential you do because they cannot see beyond that which they have always known. They don’t see the problems that you have solutions for. They are seeing the same thing that they have always seen - You are seeing what GOD has always seen. Thank Him for giving you eyes to see the potential.
• “They” see nonsense from you because they think that you are believing in a pipe dream. You are in fact living a dream - GOD’S dream that His Gospel would be powerful and that His presence would be evident in that region. Don’t you let them talk “sense” into you. Thank God for entrusting you with His dream.

What that person said to me broke my heart because I really thought that they “got” it. It may have broken my heart but it didn’t break my spirit. You see, in the end I KNEW what I felt Jesus calling me to and was willing to trust Him to the end. That was hundreds of lives changed by Jesus ago. Hallelujah!

Can big things happen for God in little towns? You bet they can! Don’t ever let the things “they” say tell you any different. Your town may be little but your God isn’t.