Book Review: Reflections of a Small Town Pastor by Lee J. Smith

My review of Reflections of a Small Town Pastor is now available at the Next Step Resources blog.

It starts like this:

I am a small town pastor. In fact, our Village of Lanse is so small, it doesn’t even qualify for the title of “town.”

When I was candidating for the role of pastor of Lanse Free Church, I thought the search committee chairman said that Lanse had “thirty four hundred people.” I envisioned a small town with a tree-lined main street, side-walks, a bank, a diner, a hardware store, etc.

What he actually said was, “Lanse has three or four hundred people.” Big difference! Aside from the post-office, Lanse had no businesses when we arrived, just a pleasant little bedroom community.

Lanse is, however, nestled in a somewhat larger context–our school district has 6,500 people in it (people, not students!), and some of our church family drive in from outside of that circle. Regardless, I minister in what Lee J. Smith would call a “smaller place” in his new book Reflections of a Small Town Pastor (Next Step Resources, 2013).

I then go on to evaluate the books strengths and weaknesses and conclude with this recommendation:

I’m glad I read Reflections of a Small Town Pastor, and it would be the first book I would now give to a young seminarian who is thinking about going to a rural or small town church or who has just received their first call to one. It would be especially helpful for someone who has never yet lived in a town of  “thirty four hundred” or “three or four hundred” to find their sea legs. Recommended.

Read the whole thing.

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Thanks, NSR, for the free review copy!