Winning Again

Rural congregations, the author argues, have been losing ground for roughly three decades, but that decline can be reversed. Kevin Ver Hoeven, who has pastored churches in small communities for nearly four decades, contends that churches in small towns can regain their footing and start winning again.

The book names the sins most common in small-town life and explains what churches and individual believers can do to improve. Its guidance centers on three aims: flourishing spiritually, rejecting the unbelief that holds people back, and sharing God's message with others.

Ver Hoeven also reflects on the many times he has watched young families move from small towns to larger cities, and on the friends and fellow believers he has had to bid farewell, people who might have become pillars of their church and community had they stayed. His central message is that God is as invested in building his kingdom in small towns as in big cities, so no one should assume that living in a modest place means worshiping a modest God.