Here in McDowell County NC, we have a population of about 40,000 people (in 440 square miles). The phone book lists about 30 retaurants and 87 churches. And there are a bunch of churches that don't have phones, so they aren't listed. The congregations are usually so small that they cannot afford to pay a pastor full time. In some cases five or six churches will support one minister, but in others the minister has a full time job. My neighbor two houses up is a house painter during the week and runs a service on Sundays. (And yes, he knows the story about "repaint and thin no more.")
He had originally lived in Florida, where he had worked in an orange grove. His job was to pick out the very finest oranges, which were then hand-squeezed to provide orange juice for the White House. He told me that one of his parishioners walked into the sorting shed and noticed him, "Pastor Jim, why are you not out doing the Lord's work," he was asked. Jim replied that this was certainly the Lord's work, "After all, many are culled but few are squozen."
