Mission to North America has appointed Corey Pelton as director of a new initiative, MNA Rural Church Planting Ministry. Pelton will advise and support church planting efforts in rural communities across North America, a mission field in which he has considerable experience.
Pelton and his wife Holly have ministered throughout the South for over two decades. Currently he serves as an evangelist called by Tennessee Valley Presbytery to lead its Rural Church Development in three counties of Southeast Tennessee and North Georgia, a ministry that mirrors the circuit-riding model of preachers of old.
“I don’t have a horse, but I’ve got a truck,” Pelton said. “The idea is to go from place to place to develop relationships, which has developed my heart for small towns and neglected places.”
Pelton’s goal is not ultimately to pastor the churches in his care, but rather to come alongside and equip pastors in their midst. “I’m just starting the seed works and finding somebody to actually be the pastor,” Pelton said. Despite a robust PCA presence in some areas of Tennessee, 17 counties within the presbytery do not have a PCA church.
Pelton will continue in his evangelist role, and the new role at MNA will help to expand the ministry’s scope to rural communities throughout North America. He believes rural churches are an important component in helping achieve MNA’s goal of increasing PCA churches from 1,932 to 3,000 by 2030.
Chris Vogel, church planting and vitality coordinator for MNA, notes, “The past generation has witnessed the focus on cities as key places for the gospel. While that need remains, today it is more common to find small towns to be the gospel deserts in need of churches proclaiming the gospel.”
Defining a rural community can be tricky. Using population size to define “rural” – a community with under 50,000 residents, for instance – might lump in some suburbs of big cities. Instead, Pelton believes a community’s proximity and access to resources, or lack thereof, ultimately determines his focus.
“I’ve always had a curiosity and a heart for these communities,” he said. In Pelton’s experience these communities often face issues like addiction, drug abuse, and single parenting, in addition to the lack of access to sufficient health care and education. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, affordable housing has also become an issue as people moving to the country have driven up home prices.
The dearth of resources goes beyond education and healthcare to theological scarcity. “There’s a real under-resourcing of theological education and pastors who have any training,” Pelton said. Often a works-driven understanding of salvation pervades rural towns, and struggling believers can find themselves spiritually homeless.
“If you’ve been in your little tiny rural church and grew up in it, and you screw up – you get pregnant, you struggle with addiction – it could be really easy just to be kicked out, and you don’t have a place to land, to come back to.”
Despite the lack of resources, many of these regions have deep roots of faith, a heritage that comes across even in the local culture. It’s not unusual for Christian music to be playing over the radio in stores, or to see people gathering in public for Bible studies.
Rather than taking over or co-opting existing churches, Pelton seeks to be a resource and to encourage theological education within the existing churches, equipping pastors from within the community. His approach to building trust in the community has been guided by consistency, proximity and longevity. By spending time in the same places, he becomes a reliable and accessible presence, choosing to write his sermon in a local laundromat, for example.
“I never want to talk against the other pastors. We work together, having the long view to have an impact in the culture… building that trust. If I just came in and put up a placard and said, ‘Reformed Presbyterian church is starting in this town – we’re the right theology,’ I’d be gone…run out.”
The increased access to remote seminary classes has helped local pastors stay in the community while furthering their education. Pelton notes that a student leaving a small town to attend seminary is unlikely to return. Thanks to programs like Reformed Theological Seminary’s global campus or the flexibility of LAMP Theological Seminary, rural pastors can further their education while staying in their local churches.
What advice does Pelton have for someone feeling called to this type of ministry? “Know that God is already at work there. That can really help guard against the temptation to think ‘I’ve got the truth, and I’m the one bringing God to this community.’ Also being willing to partner with people of other denominations and having the curiosity,” he said. “I think curiosity is huge for moving into a small town.”
Learn more at the MNA Rural Church Ministries website.