The church wasn’t ready for many of those steps, however, and before long, he and the congregation split. Hasty had a vision to bring in those who stayed away from church by demonstrating the love of God to them through the congregation.
He wanted to bring in volunteers to fix up homes in the community, tutor kids, and start a food pantry. Not long after Hasty started as pastor, his church fell into turmoil when the youth pastor admitted to an inappropriate relationship with a church member and quit.Īnd as a new pastor, Hasty pushed too hard on his dreams of doing outreach in the community. Life inside the church walls had problems as well. It’s a place where people die alone in the prime of life and, as The Washington Post recently put it, so-called “deaths of despair” are commonplace. In recent years, the death rate for middle-aged white women in McCreary County has gone up by 75 percent. Median household income was $30,000 less than the national average. Once the thriving home of the famed Blue Heron coal mine, the county had fallen on hard times. Hasty and his wife, Gina, moved to McCreary County in 2008 so he could pastor a small church. Not long ago, none of this seemed possible. “We are just meeting people where they are,” says Hasty. Their next project: The Light Community, where people recovering from addictions and other troubles can live while they get back on their feet.
Volunteers have even run a Bible study at a laundromat where they wash people’s clothes for free. The learning center-where the church worships on Sundays-also has hosted a tutoring program, held backpack giveaways, and housed volunteers each summer who repair homes in the community. The café is also home to weekly clothing and grocery giveaways, with a beauty salon and gardens out back. Still, the church is committed to reaching its neighbors.Īlong with the annual Thanksgiving dinner, Crossroads’ Lord’s Café serves more than 200 free home-cooked meals every week during the school year and 900 a week during the summer. “On a low Sunday, we will have as few as six people show up.” “On a good Sunday, we’ll go as high as 60 people,” says Hasty. A church of 150 would be a megachurch in McCreary County. That leaves about three-quarters of the population in this Bible belt county unchurched.Īnd many of the congregations are small. The 26 local congregations draw fewer than 4,000 people, according to the 2010 U.S. Most people here in McCreary County-which has 17,000 residents-believe in God, says Hasty. And it’s a sign that small churches still matter-especially in a county where churches are few and far between.Īs America becomes more secular, even the Bible belt is changing.
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