by J O H N M A R K C L I F T O N
I
grew up near the tiny town of Spickard, Missouri—population 487. If you spread out a printed map of the Show Me State on a table, you’d have a tough time picking out Spickard. You won’t find a grocery store, a gas station, or even a stoplight in the town. Yet for decades there was a small Baptist church, where my father served as pastor starting in 1947. Spickard may not have had a fancy department store or a professional baseball team, but it had a faithful gospel witness.
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A few years ago, I got a call from the local director of missions. First Baptist Church was closing down. He wondered if I might want some of the leftover heirlooms from my dad’s era in the church. That day, as I drove the two hours from my home to Spickard, I grieved for the town’s lost gospel witness—and for the loss of hundreds of other churches each year. Unfortunately, the same story is playing out in small towns across America. Among Southern Baptists alone,
