STRASBURG – The population of the town of Strasburg is 107, according to the last census. There are a lot of small towns in Missouri that are similar size. But the Strasburg Baptist Church has more people attending on a given Sunday than the population of the town.
Pastor Stephan Albin said there are about 80 adults and around 130 children and teens in the pews most Sundays. That is nearly double the town population.
He feels the Lord has blessed them in the past several years. And their approach to being friendly and supportive to families with children is a key to the recent growth.
They have many families who home school their children, and the church provides a lot of support for that. They also stress that each home should have family worship on a regular basis. They offer resources to help families do daily Bible reading, sing together and have a catechism (question-and-answer learning time).
Pastor Stephan Albin and his wife, Rebekah, with their children (from oldest to youngest): Theodore, Martyn, Sadie, Fredrick and Edward.
The pastor and his wife, Rebekah, use a classical model of homeschooling, which integrates many disciplines with a biblical understanding. For instance, science, history and geography lessons will all be rolled together and learning is not “blocked” off into separate classes. They teach with a holistic educational methodology. Many of the families in the church do likewise, and they offer training to parents on how to homeschool effectively.
The Albins have five children, four boys and one girl. They range from a newborn to nine years old. And, not surprisingly, many other families in the church have several children. A church full of kids tends to attract other families with children and teens.
One might think there are lots of kids ministry and youth ministry activities being planned. Maybe there is a youth pastor working alongside the pastor. But the approach of the church is a little different. Pastor Albin said they believe families should take the lead in discipling and leading their families, rather than the church doing it for them.
So they don’t have a a lot of activities for the parents to drop off their kids—rather they train and empower their families to teach and recreate together. Sometimes families join up with others to do fun things. They emphasize the parents teaching their children at home.
They do offer children’s Sunday school classes where the whole story of the Bible is covered in three year cycles. Then for teenagers the church offers a “youth academy” where classes cover Bible doctrines, church history, applied theology and shaping a worldview. They feel a young adult, coming through this experience, will be able to choose to follow God and make their way into the world.
Albin referred to their ministry style as a “family-integrated church.” It seems to be working.
He has served the church for seven years. They went through the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020, and they bounced back pretty quickly, he said. They were closed for a few months but then kind of just resumed normal life.
They are trying to shape their church and community culture in such a way that people can live economically in a rural town, a little distance from Lee’s Summit and Kansas City. Many people work in the city and suburbs, but they like the rural feel of Strasburg.
One thing they have done quite successfully is have occasional “Maker’s Fairs.” Albin said “We try to create a parallel economy where we can support each other by buying, bartering and trading with others in the community.” A community fair with tents and booths offers a place for vendors to trade with and sell to others.
Some examples of the traded goods are: homemade soaps, natural method medicines, books, leather craft items, blankets and the like. Albin likes to smoke meats and make beef jerky and hot sauces. Everyone in the community seems to like the self-sustaining marketplace. Less trips into town to the big box stores is a plus.
Albin graduated from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City. He is especially fond of Dr. Tom Johnston, professor of evangelism. They do a podcast together on a regular basis. It’s called “1689 Evangelism,” and its focus is on Biblical evangelism. It can be found on Google Podcasts.
He practices expository preaching. His leadership of the church promotes healthy families and being frugal, obedient and faithful to the Lord.
Asked if a family were to attend that didn’t look like the ideal family, would they be received well? Albin said, “Even if a single parent or a broken home family attended we would still equip them with tools to minister to their family.” There is a community effort involved in this process he explained. Families join together to help raise the children and teach them about the Lord.
So in the small western Missouri community of Strasburg, people can find a growing church loaded with families, lots of children and teenagers. They are seeing children being led to faith in Christ by their parents. They baptize a lot of children and they are attracting people to the church from the community.
Albin said when he arrived he wasn’t sure they could make it work, but they just cast their vision, were faithful and stood on their convictions. They trusted the Lord and He has been faithful to them.