I’ve seldom seen people sense a call to invest in a small place because of charts or graphs. I have, however, seen people catch a vision for what a flourishing, interconnected life in a small town can look like by getting caught up in a story. When we send students to work alongside small-town pastors and lay leaders, more often than not the students come back with a new appreciation for what is possible. They have learned a profession at college, but the people they encounter are what will make them amateurs (which means lovers) in the best sense of the word. We need more impassioned professionals and amateurs in small places everywhere.

When a dentist forgoes better pay to devote his life to the rural community he was born into, the benefits ripple outward.