I’ve come to realize that ministry is ministry, no matter where you go. Just like any town or church, there are many challenges, but at the heart of it all is this: People need the Lord. Snow Shoe is a small town, but there are still many unregenerate people. Much work remains. If the Lord calls you to pastor a small-town church, expect to be blessed.

While I was in seminary, I attended a church-planting conference put on by Acts 29. One of my main takeaways was the strategic importance of planting urban churches and reaching big cities with the gospel. This all resonated with me. Ministry is about going where the people are, and increasingly, people are in the cities.

As I continued my studies, I started to make plans to plant a church in Vancouver, British Columbia (population 2 million), where I was attending seminary. I could see the massive need for gospel witness in that city, and I reasoned there was no point in moving elsewhere.

In God’s providence, I moved to rural Ohio.

There and Back Again

God opened the door for me to pastor a small country church in the town of Sulphur Springs (population 194). I served four years there before being called to another church Waverly, New York (population 4,444). Though still a small town, this community had a different vibe to it. The neighboring town even had a Walmart.

After about three years, my wife and I sensed God was calling us elsewhere. Having cut our teeth on small-town, small-church ministry, we thought it was maybe time to make the jump to urban ministry. Perhaps not as big as Vancouver, but at least a city we had actually heard of before.

To make a long story short, we were called to serve in Snow Shoe, Pennsylvania (population 765).

Snow Shoe is an old coal-mining town situated on a mountain just off I-80 in central Pennsylvania. When we first moved to Snow Shoe, there wasn’t much housing inventory to choose from, so we rented until a suitable house came on the market.

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