The Brain Drain and the Church

I grew up primarily in small towns.  I love small towns.  There is just something special about those small communities where the same families have grown up together for generations.  The glue binding many of these communities is their small but traditionally strong institutions; churches, schools and civic organizations.  In the historical, American small town, a handful of churches of differing denominations (depending on the region: Lutheran and Presbyterian in the Midwest; Baptist and Methodist in the South etc.) have been important cultural and communal centers, providing not only religious but also artistic and social outlets for relatively homogeneous populations.  Thus church attendance and financial support was expected for all upstanding citizens.  Basically, everyone who was anyone in a small town went to church.

But check it out, Toto.  We're not in Kansas anymore.  Or at least, not as many people are in Kansas anymore. Sociologists, Patrick J. Carr and Maria J. Kefalas have published a new book called Hollowing Out the Middle: The Rural Brain Drain and What it Means for America. I've not read it, but I plan to.  When I do get around to reading it, my question will be, "What does this mean for the church?"

I live in Arkansas, a very rural state.  And I'm on staff at a Southern Baptist Church, a traditionally rural denomination.  What impact does this "Brain Drain" have on those with whom I work and live.  My church is located in what could properly be designated as a micropolitan area.  Not urban, but large enough to attract industry and education.  I would not call our church rural, but you don't have to go far to find many rural churches and small towns.

One doesn't need to look very hard to find anecdotal evidence for "brain drain" in these small towns.  Churches that once would have attracted a cream-of-the-crop young seminary graduate are now struggling to find qualified pastors.  Many of the young guys who in earlier generations would have found their way into these churches are instead moving directly to urban or suburban locations to plant new churches.

I don't have any statistics, and after a very brief search I couldn't find any.  But I'm guessing that lostness is growing in rural America faster than the rest of the country.  You just can't find a good statistician when you need one.



Newsweek Article about the book.