February 11, 2025 -- Christopher Osterbrock
Why would a pastor take his young family on a boat up-river to middle-of-nowhere Maine? Not only did Jeremiah Chaplin (1776–1841) answer a call for much needed pastoral education in a rural community, but he answered a call from the Lord to reignite the work of ministry in declining churches. For the president of what would much later become Colby College in Waterville, Chaplin observed two needs: education of ministers and revival of gospel churches, especially in the forgotten villages of northern New England.
Chaplin’s Ministry
Theological education was close to Chaplin’s heart. While serving at Brown University and pastoring in urban areas, Chaplin began sensing a greater need. Men in the northeast sought pastoral and theological education and resources to plant churches, but opportunities were not available in their region [see Earl Smith, Mayflower Hill (2006), 7]. As a Baptist of the long-eighteenth-century, Chaplin saw the world as a mission field where the harvest was plentiful and the workers few [see Chaplin, “Introductory Essay,” in Eustace Cary, Memoir of William Carey (1837), 18]. While he wrote of the enormous undertaking of men like William Carey and Adoniram Judson, he looked at rural America as an equally difficult mission field. When the call came for a minister to serve in education in that distant land of Maine, Chaplin’s family answered—by faith—by sloop up the Kennebec River.
Rural Renewal
Chaplin’s philosophy of education was not to make polished statues for the ivory tower. Nor was his desire to make congregations look and act like Puritans—though he loved the rich spiritual truths contained in their books. Chaplin’s mission was to reverse the decline of religious affections in the villages of the northeast. One of his few published writings is an address on religious decline in America. Herein, he speaks of the need to get the Word of God to the heart of lost people [see Chaplin, Religious Declension (1837), 18]. Not only lost people in foreign lands with foreign tongues, but lost people in villages and boroughs who starve while the bread of life sits upon a dusty pulpit. May it never be!
Leaders within the churches across the north must grow more dependent on Scripture and deeper in affection for Christ. Chaplin not only taught the doctrine of the Word, but walked his students through biblical meditation so that their hearts would be full as they serve God’s people. Rural communities need educated men who will speak God’s truth from the heart, in this work revival may come.
Equipping Pastors
Chaplin teaches us to see the mission’s movement just as necessary in Waterville, Maine as it is in Calcutta. Midatlantic communities are often overlooked, yet these villages and boroughs have just as many lost folks as any other land that has not heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. As Chaplin purposed in ministry education, we may find hope through the pursuit of training up godly men to rekindle the fire of revival by discovering such revival beginning in themselves as they learn and are equipped within a pastoral community.
Overtime, the Waterville community began to see the necessity of the seminary work.
Chaplin for all his labor and sacrifice resigned before he perceived the fruit of his calling—even his peers note in his eulogy that he carried a false impression of his influence [see R.E. Pattison, Eulogy on Jeremiah Chaplin (1843), 12, 15]. However, rural pastors, whether full-time, part-time, or volunteer, understand that your work is often more a revival work than you realize. If there is to be education for rural pastors, it is that Christ may be glorified right in the villages and boroughs where the Shepherd saw fit to collect His sheep. Spiritually fruitful church leaders will bring up spiritually fruitful disciples in the pews, this is why equipping pastors will equip the work of revival. The blessing of fruit is the work of the Holy Spirit—even if it takes decades.
Resolution
Chaplin’s story is one out of so many that teach us of the importance of ministry education. May we be resolved to serve into the challenges we face as those pastoring in rural communities. May we be resolved to encourage the education of rural pastors and the reviving work of ministry in overlooked communities. Chaplin’s ministry was, more often than not, a challenging one. But such is the challenge in any mission field. Rural pastor, remember, you are the means God has chosen to revive the affections of His saints in the villages and boroughs of your community. Why would a comfortable pastor drag his family up the Kennebec River into rural Maine? Because the prize is worth the challenge. Godly affections spoken over a warm, Bible-anchored pulpit serve the Lord in reviving His church. Let us grow in this work of revival by encouraging the education of rural church leaders.
Christopher Ellis Osterbrock (DEdMin. in Biblical Spirituality, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; PhD Student in Historical Theology, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary) is senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Wellsboro, PA. He is author of What is Saving Faith? (March, 2022), contributor to various journals, and editor of several reprints. Christopher is married to Emily, both Cincinnati natives, and they share the joy of raising their three daughters in wonderful, rural Pennsylvania.
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