Welcome to Small Town Big God

Speaker: 00:00:00

Welcome to Small Town Big God.

Speaker: 00:00:02

My name is Michael Collins.

Speaker: 00:00:03

I'm the children's pastor at Element Church in Rutherford

Speaker: 00:00:07

County, North Carolina, also known as Small Town Friendly.

Speaker: 00:00:11

In every episode, I'm gonna be bringing you a story that shows how God is at

Speaker: 00:00:16

work right here in Small Town Friendly.

Speaker: 00:00:19

The idea behind this show, really came from another pastor at Element named J.

Speaker: 00:00:23

R.

Speaker: 00:00:24

Blanton.

Speaker: 00:00:24

Welcome to Small Town Friendly.

Speaker: 00:00:24

If you've ever been to Element, you've probably seen someone walking around with

Speaker: 00:00:28

a t shirt that says Small Town Big God.

Speaker: 00:00:31

And this was actually a line from a sermon that JR preached a while back.

Speaker: 00:00:35

But instead of explaining exactly what we mean by that myself, I'm gonna

Speaker: 00:00:40

play you a clip from an interview that I did with JR, where he is helping

Speaker: 00:00:44

tell the story of Hope House Coffee.

Speaker: 00:00:46

But in this clip, he really gets to the heart of what we

Speaker: 00:00:50

mean by Small Town Big God.

JR: 00:00:52

Look at my questions I had written down and I lost it.

JR: 00:01:11

Small town friendly, my entire life.

JR: 00:01:14

Always for about ten years I worked outside of.

JR: 00:01:18

I got up, drove out of the county every day to other larger cities and work there.

JR: 00:01:23

Then I'd come back home in the evenings and be home on the weekends.

JR: 00:01:27

But there's a little bit of a impoverished mindset that is prevalent.

JR: 00:01:32

I think it's probably true in a lot of small towns.

JR: 00:01:35

And you know.

JR: 00:01:36

Something that stirred in us many years ago is, you see

JR: 00:01:40

that in scripture too, right?

JR: 00:01:42

There's a great story in John 1, I think it's Philip.

JR: 00:01:47

He has had an encounter with Jesus and he goes and he finds Nathaniel

JR: 00:01:50

and he goes, man, I found the one come, come see the one it's,

JR: 00:01:56

he's the Messiah without a doubt.

JR: 00:01:59

Come see him.

JR: 00:01:59

And it's, it's Joseph's son from Nazareth and Nathaniel has this

JR: 00:02:05

line, he goes, Nazareth, can anything good come out of Nazareth?

JR: 00:02:11

And that stirred in us many years ago that, man, we.

JR: 00:02:15

And we need to deal with this poverty mindset that we have, that

JR: 00:02:21

nothing good comes from small towns.

JR: 00:02:24

Actually, the entire gospel, Jesus's life is like him doing

JR: 00:02:29

great works in small towns, right?

JR: 00:02:32

And, and, you know, from Bethlehem to Nazareth to all of, you know,

JR: 00:02:37

these little towns and villages.

JR: 00:02:39

scattered throughout Galilee.

JR: 00:02:41

And, and, and so we, we kind of championed this slogan small town, big God.

JR: 00:02:49

Yeah, it's a small town, but we serve a big God.

JR: 00:02:52

When I joined the staff at Element in August of 2023, I had already

JR: 00:02:57

been thinking about a podcast about Rutherford County, but after talking

JR: 00:03:02

with JR about Small Town Big God and the mindset behind that line, I knew that

JR: 00:03:07

that was what the show needed to be.

JR: 00:03:10

So if you're listening to this and you happen to live in small town friendly,

JR: 00:03:14

stick around because this is for you.

JR: 00:03:17

And if you aren't in Rutherford County, well, I hope that you'll enjoy hearing

JR: 00:03:21

about some of the amazing things our big God is doing in a small town.

JR: 00:03:26

Thanks for being a part of Small Town Friendly.