LOUISIANA, Mo — There is a rather depressing narrative surrounding Small Town, USA. It sounds something like this,

“We used to have ______, but now it’s gone. We used to do ______, but those days are over. Everything is shutting down. Everyone is packing up shop. And our community’s best and brightest young folk are all moving away. Nothing is quite the way it used to be, the “glory days” are over, and there’s not much hope of things getting any better.”

This is the narrative being told about small towns all over America. And sadly, it’s the narrative that many residents of small towns are telling themselves about the places where they live. But what if, though different, though not the way it “used to be,” what if the future of small towns is bright and their best days are yet to come not through competing with larger communities, but rather by accentuating the unique offerings of small town life and the sense of pride and community that are almost intrinsic to life in a small place? What if there was a better story to be told about Small Town, USA and a better story for the people who live there to believe? That would be a message of hope for any small town wouldn’t it? Well, that’s the heart behind the effort to start a new church in Louisiana, MO.

“We’ve not given up on small towns and rural communities, because God hasn’t given up on them” says Sam Byers, pastor of the Elsberry First Baptist Church (firstbaptistelsberry.com), who is spearheading the effort to start a new church in town. “Church planting or starting new churches is a major emphasis among many Christian denominations or groups right now because the number of Americans who have given up on Christianity, those considered “nones” (indicating no religious affiliation), is growing at a rate like no other point in the past 150+ years. So, these groups are trying to start new churches to connect with people outside the church and their focus is primarily on major cities and suburbs: places where there’s growth and development. But God loves people and that includes small town people. After all, when the Son of God became man, it wasn’t Rome or Jerusalem or Athens that he was raised in and identified with throughout his life, but it was the small, seemingly obscure town of Nazareth that Jesus hailed from and continues to be associated with to this day (Acts 2:22). We believe that God can do big things in small places and that God’s best is yet to come in small towns all throughout the country, places just like Elsberry and Louisiana.”

The Louisiana church plant is the result of five years of prayer and planning for the church in Elsberry. “We had a sign in our church foyer that said ‘Where will we go and who will we send?” encouraging us all to remember to pray about starting a new, Gospel-centered church in one of seven communities within roughly 30 minutes of our building” said Byers. “As we continued in prayer, my heart in particular was drawn repeatedly to the city of Louisiana. At first I thought it was because of similarities between Louisiana and Hannibal where we had planted Believers Church (bchannibal.com) back in 2007. But the more we prayed and the more time I spent in the community, I began to believe that God was putting a burden on our hearts for this community and starting a church here that would reach people who are not currently attending a church in Louisiana.”

The name of this new, non-denominational church is Community Bible Church and its motto is “In the city, for the city.” Byers said that the new church would not only be located physically in Louisiana, but would be committed to the good of the city of Louisiana and the people of Louisiana. An early expression of this was providing lunch recently for the city’s employees. The new church start is also hosting some community cookouts in town throughout the summer along with some interest meetings for people to find out more and get connected. For more information on the dates and locations of these events, visit them online at facebook.com/cbclouisiana or at cbclouisiana.com.