Driving through Texas country roads one autumn day, Jim Graff began to get a glimpse of a dilemma that would ignite a passion in his heart. In small town after small town, great football stadiums, built with the finest materials and engineering skills available, stood as monuments to America's love affair with football. But often, those same communities were filled with struggling churches. This observation helped Jim to embrace God's heart for small town America. A pastor of a small town church himself, Pastor Jim Graff commissioned a survey in the year 2000 to gather research on churches in small and medium sized counties across the nation. Over 2,783 counties with a population under 150,000 were studied. These counties combined represented 90 million people in approximately 15,000 smaller cities and towns. If considered as their own nation, they would be the 13th largest nation on earth.