When David Pinckney and I first met up in October 2016 to dream about what it might look like to encourage small-town New England churches and pastors, we had no idea what God was going to do. Sitting there on the upper level of Buckley’s Bakery in Merrimack, New Hampshire, getting to know each other, expressing our mutual desire to see the gospel flourish in all the nooks and crannies of New England, we didn’t know that God would build a core leadership team of dear friends, establish life-giving partnerships with pastors around New England (including our STS Partners), birth the STS Podcast, STS Articles, women’s training events, one-to-one discipleship training gatherings, and allow us to host multiple one-day Summits in each of the New England states. We certainly didn’t know how much fun we were going to have.

Since the first Summit in November 2017, God has used Small Town Summits to encourage hundreds of pastors and churches in New England and around the world. Our Leadership Team and STS Partners have worked very hard, but we’re in no doubt about who gets the credit. We’ve done something and God has done everything.

2023 has been an especially significant year for Small Town Summits. Thanks to our Executive Director Ben Ruhl and our newly-formed team of STS Partners, we’re hosting more Summits this year than ever before – one in each of the six New England states. So, it seems like a good time to share and celebrate some of the guiding principles that have, from the beginning, defined and directed us. I hope these principles will continue to remain central to the culture and mission of Small Town Summits.

1. Valuing the “small town” in “Small Town Summits”

As a ministry, we care deeply about valuing small places and the eternal souls who live in them, because we believe God himself does so. Hosting our events in small churches in small towns has been central to our aim of honoring small towns and small-town ministry, and it has allowed us to be deeply contextualized for small places. One of our earliest and most pivotal decisions was to have the speakers at our gatherings be local practitioners rather than celebrities. Because we didn’t need to cover airfare and a substantial speakers’ fee, we didn’t feel pressure to boost numbers and revenue. We could keep the Summits small, flexible, affordable, reproducible, local, one-day events. As importantly, we weren’t drawing people with the promise of a big name. They were coming to hear their peers and colleagues in ministry, and to share their own wisdom. That’s closely related to a second guiding principle.

2. Valuing the “summits” in “Small Town Summits”

Our first gathering in Loudon, New Hampshire was a “Small Town Seminar.” But we soon changed the name to “Small Town Summits,” because we liked the collaborative ethos embodied in the term “Summit.” A summit isn’t one expert teaching everyone else. It’s a gathering of leaders who share knowledge and experience in order to make decisions together. One key way of honoring small-town pastors is actually believing that they have much to offer – that their experience is valuable and worth sharing. In our Summits, we seek to learn from one another. We aim to be local. We interview small-town pastors on the STS Podcast and invite small-town pastors to write STS Articles. This valuing of local knowledge also leads us to focus on New England – we don’t aspire to be a national or international ministry. People from around the country (and the world) have approached us about hosting Summits in their area. Our response has been to seek to encourage and equip them to do it themselves; we’ve run a training session and we provide a manual that helps people create their own local version of Summits.

3. Being theologically-rooted

From the very beginning, we’ve sought to think biblically and theologically – not just pragmatically – about small-place ministry. In particular, we’ve rooted our ministry approach in the character of God and the gospel. That theological vision is expressed in my book A Big Gospel in Small Places and it pervades the events we host and the materials we produce (check out some of the recent theological vision roundtables on the STS Podcast). All of our 2023 Summits feature expositions of 2 Corinthians that help pastors and laypeople consider the gift of weakness in ministry. This theological and biblical rootedness has provided a rich depth to Small Town Summits that has been deeply encouraging and sustaining for pastors and churches.

4. Establishing outside partnerships

In the first six years of Small Town Summits, we’ve learned much about the value and importance of partnering with others. An attorney friend donated his time early on to help us establish a 501(c)3. We may never have gotten off the ground without the partnership of a generous, kingdom-minded, New England-loving funding body that underwrote many of our early expenses, allowing us to host Summits at an affordable registration cost. Partnering with The Gospel Coalition New England has provided theological unity among our leaders and credibility for those who had never heard of Small Town Summits but recognized TGC-NE. Numerous friends and churches now give regularly to STS, often amazing us with their generosity. We’ve partnered with organizations such as the Moody Center, Restore: New England, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and The Gospel Coalition to host events around New England and beyond.

5. Building a ministry team

Several values and habits have been significant as we’ve built the STS Leadership Team and the STS Partner team.

First, we’ve sought to be doctrinally robust at the leadership level, and wide open in event participation. Our Leadership Team, Partners, breakout presenters, article contributors, and church hosts are in agreement with The Gospel Coalition Confessional Statement. Anyone can participate in the Summits and trainings, and many do.
Second, we’ve pursued and enjoyed diverse giftings on the Leadership Team. Tim Counts is our pastoral and writing genius, blessed with a ready pen and a shepherd’s heart. Ben Whittinghill is our organizational genius, incredibly efficient. Ben Ruhl is our creative genius – a human Swiss army knife who can do graphics, audio editing, event-planning, and whatever else needs figured out. David Pinckney is our relational genius, as purely extroverted a guy as you’ll ever meet. We are all good friends. We’ve visited each other’s homes and churches, gotten to know each other’s families. We’ve shared meals together and preached in one another’s churches. Tim and I (and our wives) traveled to Israel last year thanks to a connection Ben Whittinghill made for us!
Third, we’ve been deliberate in selecting our Partners. We know it’s far easier to invite someone onto a team than to remove them. So we’ve invited folks we trust and respect, who resonate with the vision of STS and are humble, godly team players. Together as a Leadership Team and Partner team, we get away for an extended retreat once a year to pray and go deep in relationship

In the first six years of Small Town Summits’ existence, we’ve been all over New England. We’ve been in towns most people have never heard of. We’ve met hundreds of laypeople and pastors. And we’ve been amazed and encouraged to see what God is doing. He has called gifted, creative, intelligent, passionate Jesus-lovers to serve him in New England small places, from southern Connecticut to northern Maine. We want to do what we can to encourage and equip these laypeople, pastors, and churches. We long to see all the small places of New England filled with gospel-centered, community-engaged churches and Christian workers, for the glory of God.