The Great
Escape—Americans Moving to Small Towns
The December 8, 1997, issue of Time magazine (pp. 52-65) includes an article by Eric Pooley
entitled "The Great Escape." Americans are fleeing suburbia for small towns. Do their new lives
equal their dreams?" Though the article does not directly address smaller churches, it does deal
with issues related to churches in rural and small town settings. And many small towns have the
same difficulty accepting newcomers that smaller churches have.
Pooley does a series of case studies on persons who have moved to Wilmington, a town of
13,000 in southwestern Ohio. Wilmington has grown by nearly 20% since 1990, due largely to
Airborne Express locating its national hub at a decommissioned Air Force base near the town in
1980. Employment by Airborne has grown from 300 to 7,000, cutting the local unemployment
rate from 9.8% to less than 3%. They also have a broad range of persons commuting from great
distances.
Pooley also highlights some of the changes that have taken place in the community due to the
influx of new people and the clash of interests that has resulted.
Of broad based interest are some statistics that Pooley mentions, particularly, the following:
"Rural America has enjoyed a net inflow of 2 million Americans this decade--that is, 2
million more people have moved from metropolitan centers to rural areas than have gone
the traditional small-town-to-big-city route. (In the 1980s, by contrast, rural areas suffered
a net loss of 1.4 million people.) Thanks to the newcomers, 75% of the nation's rural
counties are growing again after years of decline" (p. 54).
One of my, students, Annalee Hoover, made these observations (among others) on the article:
- Church planters should look at rapidly growing small towns as well as large cities for new
church sites.
- Churches currently in small towns should expect, plan for, and target new people in their
community and make them feel welcome."
Click here to read the article online. In addition to reading the full article, but sure to read the
two sidebar/box articles.
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