The Rev. Randy Wall is senior pastor of New Covenant United Methodist Church in Mount Holly, N.C. He’s also the chairman of United Methodist Rural Advocates, a group that advocates on behalf of rural and small-membership churches within the denomination.

Brad Roth is pastor at West Zion Mennonite Church in Moundridge, Kansas. He is the author of God’s Country: Faith, Hope and the Future of the Rural Church (2017), which is excerpted here.