Rural Life
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July 9th, 2025 – On Food Insecurity in Rural Places
This post was originally published on my Facebook on July 9th, 2025 Now, a word on cuts in food assistance. One thing we need to be reminded of when we talk about food insecurity in rural spaces is that rural does not equal agrarian. The assumption that all rural people can or know how to Continue reading
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July 8th, 2025 – Healthcare and Hope
This was originally posted on my Facebook on July 8th, 2025 Alright, now that we’ve acknowledged the realities of passing of the Trump administration’s Big Beautiful Bill, let’s talk about our role in what comes next with the realities at play. While the “Big Beautiful Bill” doesn’t outright target rural communities, we know that rural Continue reading
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On the Passing of “One Big Beautiful Bill”
This was originally published on Facebook July 3, 2025. The day the bill passed the House. We are doing the very thing the prophets warned us against and failing to heed the warning of Christ’s prophecy of the “sheep and the goats.” This is sin. The pedestal of the statue of Liberty has a plaque Continue reading
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Gun Violence and Rural Life (A brief exploration)
The gun rights/ownership debate continues to be an interesting one for me. I grew up rural, learned how to use guns, how to respect them, and what they were used for, and how to store them. If you grew up rural, guns were mostly for hunting, recreation (target, skeet, making noise), and protecting the animals Continue reading
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Bless this Land
Bless this land to which we’re boundBy gravity of joyful soundFeed the hearth and feed the herdHope must stand on every word -Emily Scott Robinson “Men and Moons” This song lyric spoke to me as it closed out the concert I attended last Friday. Emily Scott Robinson wrote the song “Men and Moons” as an Continue reading
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Rural recognizes Rural
(This post originally appeared on my Facebook – facebook.com/j.lemastersmith on February 16, 2023) A friend and I went to a concert last night. It was a smaller venue, but it was a sold out crowd. The opener was from Oklahoma, and the main performer, Charles Wesley Godwin was from West Virginia. The feeling I got Continue reading
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Missions in the Rural Church
One rural reality that seems to be overlooked is mission and service. Often, denominational bodies continue to push mission as this singular thing a church does. For a while it was going on a mission trip, and then “big event” missions, and then it is regular service as a group in the community. However, if Continue reading
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Hospitals and the Rural Community
(An older version of this post first appeared on my Facebook – facebook.com/j.lemastersmith on March 2, 2021) The combination of my current reading, my current experiences, and the articles talking about the pandemic impact on rural healthcare is weighing on me today. Rural healthcare systems are already strained and many communities have lost hospitals and Continue reading
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Rural Ash Wednesday and Lent
I’m a fan of Ash Wednesday and Lent, I truly am. But, rural folks don’t need a reminder that we are going die, and the Lenten disciplines, including fasts, photo-a-day challenges, special studies, extra readings, often feel like adding to the noise. Instead, we need an Ash Wednesday and that reminds us that some seasons Continue reading
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Rural is not the Same as Agricultural
One thing that continues to be an issue in the church responding to rural issues and creating resources for rural communities is the conflating of rural and agricultural. Yes, quite a few people in rural communities are involved in agriculture directly or indirectly. Essentially, unless we are only hunter/gatherers, we are all indirectly involved with Continue reading
Jonathan LeMaster-Smith 