As thousands of refugees stream into Europe from the worn-torn Middle East, a handful of Americans has proposed a solution to the crisis: Send them to St. Louis, Missouri.

Greg Johnson has been watching the refugee crisis unfold for a long time. A Presbyterian pastor in St. Louis, Johnson said he has every Christian church in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon mapped on his phone. He spoke enthusiastically of the region's ancient congregations and confluence of cultures, and was alarmed by the advance of ISIS and the Syrian government "barrel bombing it's own people."

So on Friday, he pitched the idea of bringing the refugees to St. Louis.

"We can take at least 60,000," he wrote in a post for Next STL.

In a conversation Saturday with BuzzFeed News, Johnson expanded on the idea, arguing that after considerable population loss St. Louis' economy and neighborhoods would benefit from an influx of people.

"It's in the middle of the country and cities in the middle of the country don't get immigration very much," Johnson added.

Johnson isn't the only person in St. Louis who wants to open the doors to Syrian refugees.

On Facebook, an event called "Bring Them Here March: Syrian Refugees" was designed to "put pressure on our government to bring Syrian refugees to the U.S. and especially STL." The event's organizer did not reply to emails from BuzzFeed News Saturday evening, but 648 people had confirmed that they were going to the Sept. 13 march.