Greg Gosnell (right) and James Livingston talk about the essence of a thriving ministry and why Horton Baptist Church has an attendance of 130 in a community of 50 people. Their secret? It’s not the building. Or programs.
Next Sunday morning in Horton, Iowa, Horton Baptist Church will be filled with people from a thirty-mile radius—small towns like Plainfield, Frederika, and Nashua. Many of these places could not sustain a church on their own, but somehow Horton Baptist has flourished, despite what is written about dwindling small-town churches.
First, the stereotypes: with a population of 25,000, the people in Bremer County are vastly outnumbered by pigs (population 230,000, according to the USDA). And true to form, a cornfield sits just north of Horton Baptist, giving a “Field of Dreams” vibe in August. If you build it, they will come, and in this case, the church gathers in a building constructed in 1869.
Pastor Greg Gosnell quickly corrects the typecasting: “We have a wide variety of ages, occupations, backgrounds. We have an eclectic group—lifestyles of rural agricultural, medical professionals, and engineers at John Deere. We have families who live close by and have been here for four or five generations. And then we have people who drive twenty to thirty miles, because there’s no gospel preaching churches in the small towns where they live.”
- You have reached the end of this article preview. This article was published in the Summer 2024 Baptist Bulletin. Subscribe to the Baptist Bulletin or purchase a gift subscription. If you already subscribe to the print edition, sign up for free digital access.
Kevin Mungons is a Chicago-based writer and editor. Darrell Goemaat is photography director for Regular Baptist Ministries.
