On Thursday, September 24, Small Town Summits hosted a Summit in Litchfield, Connecticut and had the privilege of meeting many wonderful laypeople, ministry leaders, and pastors who are pouring out their lives for God’s glory around the state. This was our first in-person Summit during the coronavirus pandemic, and we didn’t know how many people would be willing to participate in a socially-distanced Summit with facemasks. More than 40 people came, and we sang together, ate together, prayed together, and discussed throughout the course of the day the value of small-place ministry and how we can do it more effectively. It felt to us like a very significant day.
Our hearts were stirred as we prayed for the leadership team of one 300-year-old church with a faithful gospel witness and just ten members. We rejoiced with a recent church plant that is thriving during the pandemic. We considered topics such as bi-vocational ministry, church revitalization, leading with vision in small places, and women’s ministry in small-place contexts. One leader later wrote, ‘thank you for such a great summit today! The work you are all doing to encourage and equip pastors and leaders is amazing…we came back to [our town] with full and encouraged hearts! It was a much-needed day…’
We experienced the same thing we have at our other Summits – the deeply encouraging realization that, throughout New England, in towns we’ve not heard of before, God has called and positioned deeply skilled, faithful, godly men and women who are serving him with their whole hearts. We praise Him for this, we rejoice that the gospel is spreading, and we continue to pray that one day soon the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will fill Connecticut – and the whole earth – as the waters cover the sea (Habbakuk 2.14).
