Last year, I visited a Methodist church in Colebrook, New Hampshire, a small town of about 2,000 people. On a typical Sunday, around 20 people attended the service at the Trinity United Methodist church, and that’s if nobody was sick. Most were in their 80s. Back in the 1950s, the congregation numbered roughly 200.

Despite the decline, the church managed to stay open, in part by sharing its building with a congregation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which rents the space from the Methodists for services. The arrangement has helped cover heating costs and fund necessary repairs. (You can read the story here .)

The Colebrook church has faced the same challenges that rural and small-town churches are facing across America: aging and shrinking congregations, limited re

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