This month we continue to explore the impact of denominational initiatives on behalf of urban ministry. Some initiatives have been with us for several years, others are quite new. What are these nation-wide efforts accomplishing? How do their basic goals differ? What are they telling us about the need for greater intentional commitment to our cities?

Our June installment presented interviews with national urban ministry executives from both the United Methodist Church and the Free Methodist Church. This month we present two more comprehensive interviews with urban leaders from the Evangelical Free Church in America and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. As you read these revealing pieces, we hope that you can find something that resonates with your own role or your church’s role in God’s greater mission for urban America.

Dr. Mike Snow’s thesis “A Model for Transition of Ministry in Declining Congregations,” continues to interest and capture the attention of readers throughout America. If you haven’t yet purchased your copy, contact CityVoices at (773) 477-8163. The thesis sells for $10.

God’s grace and peace today,

Roger Johnson, Editor – CityVoices

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Free Church’s “Urban and Intercultural Mission” – Training and Preparing City Missionaries

(Rev. Dan Reeve is Director of Urban Ministries for the Evangelical Free Church’s Urban and Intercultural Mission. His agency is committed to starting new urban congregations, or helping re-start older, declining ministries within urban areas. The Evangelical Free Church is made up of some 1,400 churches nationally, 263 of which are considered urban or intercultural.)

Dan, how long has Urban-Intercultural Mission been in place, and how long have you been involved?

I have been working with this mission for 12 years, but it was just three years ago that we became a separate division of the Free Church. A couple things drove that decision, including the desire to have a person of color on our national leadership team, Rev. Enrique Fernandez. He is now our executive director and one of the vice-presidents of the Evangelical Free Church nationally. Also, the Free Church home ministries didn’t feel that enough attention could be given to urban and intercultural missions under our old structure. Our church now believes that a separate division will put a stronger focus on urban and ethnic America.

Have you found local churches benefiting from ideas and connections that you can provide, or are churches simply interested in coming to you for money?

Most people don’t come to us for money because we’re structured as an association, much like the Baptist General Conference or the Conservative Baptists. We have little in the way of a “national pot” of money or centralized funding. What most people come to us for is pastoral care, encouragement and support, training, coaching and consultation. This includes resourcing people to the point that we recruit, train and do provide some fund-raising help for church planters.

We have a program started 12 years ago with a gift provided by our movement’s Women’s Ministries called ICA (Intercultural Advance). It’s been used for start-up grants of up to $20,000 for mission planters to move on to their mission site and begin raising their support. They literally become a missionary under our mission. As urban missionaries raise their support, a percentage of their support goes back into this fund. So it keeps recycling. We also have a few denominational financial resources and grants for church planting that our Urban and Intercultural ministers can take advantage of. The ICA program is a small fund that’s worked very, very well. It has grown so that we’ve been able to add more missionaries. And it’s enough to put people over the edge to say, “Okay, I’m willing to go try a plant, because you’re going to help move me there and help me raise my support.”

As you see it Dan, what are some of the basic purposes of Urban-Intercultural Mission?

Our mission statement is “to multiply healthy churches among all people.” Our initiatives are three-fold:
First, we work to recruit and train missionaries. We conduct “boot-camps.” We coach them. We help them raise their support. We help deploy them onto their site. We connect them with other networks in the city where they are going to plant a church.

Tell me about your urban missionary “boot-camps.”

Boot camps are a five-day process for the urban church planter. The first day-and-a-half deals with the spiritual life of a church planter and behavioral assessments. “Natural Church Development” is a big component. The third and fourth days focus on planting preparation, heading toward church launch; working on your vision, mission and values. The fifth day’s focus is on the launch date and growth. In between are workshops on contextualized evangelism or evangelism to the poor.

The second big initiative of Urban Intercultural Mission is in helping the urban mission advance through church “re-starts.” Three times each year I conduct a “re-start” clinic for five days, kind of like a boot-camp. Churches that express some confession that they are in decline and are now irrelevant to their communities will contact me and have their pastor and at least two members of their leadership team come for the five-day clinic. We’ll work through issues of change and urban transition, and then the whole process of moving from a declining church with a remnant to a new church with newcomers. Restarts of old ministries have been really tremendous. Sometimes churches do close, but in general we are able to help churches re-contextualize and thrive again.

The third thing our office does is accomplished through Bridging Urban Mission Projects (also known as BUMPs). This summer we have 650 students in seven cities working with both re-starts and church plants. They will do anything that a church plant needs for investing into its community. These students conduct sports clinics, Vacation Bible Schools, block parties, community surveys, even building and painting. The benefit is obvious for the students (also giving UIM a larger pool for future missionaries). Then, we’re also connecting suburban and rural churches with urban church plants. The average church plant will usually gain four to five new supporting churches from one summer “BUMPs.”

Does your office have some “hot locations” where you may always be interested in working?

Our mission is focused on five cities right now: Miami, New York, Denver, Los Angeles and Dallas. We also have a high commitment to Chicago, but there’s quite a bit going on in Chicago already.

Based on your experience, does the Urban-Intercultural Mission demonstrate a continuing need for all denominations to make an intentional commitment to urban missions?

For associations like ours, yes, this demonstrates the need for urban and ethnic America when you don’t have a lot of centralized funding. Every one of our churches is autonomous; every one of our districts is autonomous. All the national office can do is to be a service agency to districts and local congregations.

Any financial or staff obstacles within your church that limit Urban-Intercultural Mission?

The obstacle, as I’ve said, is autonomy. The fact that every church and every district is autonomous means that it’s very difficult to put together national ministry financial pools. We have a couple, but they’ve been unable to secure additional funds from any of our districts or local congregations. Our roots come out of (rebellion from) the Scandinavian State church and we still avoid any centrality.

How do you get local churches to share in ownership of a national urban agenda?

The vision and mission trips that I conduct personally, along with building new networks are most effective.

Contact: Rev. Dan Reeve, Evangelical Free Church, Urban Intercultural Mission, 901 East 78th Street, Minneapolis, MN 55420, (800) 745-2202, dreeve@efca.org, http://www.efca.org/urban/

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In the City for Good: Throwing More than Money at Urban Needs

(Rev. Dave Daubert, Executive for Renewal of Congregations with the Division of Outreach of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, serves on the coordinating team for his denomination’s “In the City for Good” initiative, established in 1997. Rev. Daubert has been in the unique positions of being both a recipient of “In the City for Good’s” grants, as an urban pastor, and now as a coordinator for the initiative from the ELCA’s Chicago offices. The ELCA includes approximately 10,800 churches nationally, countless numbers of those churches ministering in urban / ethnic environments.)

Dave, point us to an effective or encouraging result of the entire initiative.

The simple existence of the program is encouraging. The visibility it has created for urban ministry, along with the title, logo and symbolism have been effective. We’ve raised up an awareness for urban ministry, and that by far has been most effective. The other thing is that the awareness that ministry is about transformation has spilled over into other contexts. The transformation of urban settings has been recognized as a modus operandi of the church as opposed to a specific interest of just city churches. It has helped us engage our ministry context, wherever that may be.

Have you found local churches benefiting from ideas and connections you provide, or are churches coming to you looking for finances?

Honestly, the majority of our congregations have been looking for finances. Now, that’s not the benefit that we have identified as most useful. In the City for Good is not that large financially that it can accomplish much in the way of requests. Last year we had $2.2 million in requests and only $350,000 that we could give away. Most people who come to us with a financial request are getting a “no” rather than a “yes.”

Are churches starting to understand that they’re probably not going to get their grant request?

I don’t know. This year has been our largest year yet when it comes to grant requests. But we’re not going to fund any requests next year. In a capitalist culture, people’s instincts are that it’s better to have money than to not have money. That’s a deceptive truth when it comes to good ministry. It’s one part of a lot of things that add up to good ministry. Some of the best ministries a church can do won’t cost anything. Good ministry is commitment, passion, mindset, faith and a whole host of things, of which money may be a part, particularly the stewardship of our gifts. But when congregations look primarily outside themselves for a grant to provide something, they often disengage how they can contribute themselves, which is far more important than anything we can give them. Next year we’re going to raise awareness, build a stronger financial base for the future, and do a lot of training on the mindset of what In the City for Good is all about: evangelism, community development, asset-based development, prayer and Bible study.

In the City for Good has always been governed by a team of people. How many are on that team right now?

We have seven on the Urban Team that does the consultations and fourteen on the team that oversees the funding of projects. Some people are on both teams. It has expanded from our beginnings back in 1997.

Dave, what are some of the basic purposes of In the City for Good?

The program’s primary focus is to heighten awareness of urban ministry within the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. Second, we’re out to create a vision for urban ministry that is transformational in nature, and involves the transformation of individual lives, congregations and communities. A third emphasis is the engagement of participatory decision-making, and involvement of those who are outside the church in shaping the church, so that the church is changed by our ministry with the community as much as the community is changed by its contact with the church. That’s the risk of transformation. If we’re engaging our communities with the gospel of Jesus Christ, then they will become a real part of our church with their gifts and experiences as part of the body of Christ. We dare not only to change them, but to also be changed by them, understanding that all of this is under the guidance of the Spirit. Ultimately, it’s God who is doing the changing. Transformation is an important piece.

Are you making an attempt at this point to convene urban churches on a annual, semi-annual or some regular basis around the In the City for Good purposes?

Early this year we conducted an urban summit in Miami. We had urban practicioners, bishops and their staffs present to talk about mid-course corrections for In the City for Good, and share ideas about current urban ministry. That was our first major event of that variety, done in that way. In the future we’re hoping to see more regional and synodical meetings “bubbling up” in a grass-roots way. Some national things will happen, like the Miami event, but we’re hoping for smaller events where we can network and coordinate with people. I don’t know that this an area where we’ve got a great strategy.

Dave, how has the In the City for Good initiative demonstrated, to you, the continuing need for denominations to make an intentional commitment to urban missions?

One of the reasons we’re putting financial grants on hold for the upcoming year is that if urban ministry in the ELCA is going to change, we can’t simply continue to fund programs. We had to begin to actually create a movement. One way we’re doing that is by creating an Urban Ministry Leaders Institute in connection with both SCUPE (Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education) and the Reformed Church in America. We’ll bring 50 of our leaders who have already received grants through In the City for Good to come and go through a week-long focus on “Training for Urban Ministry.” We’ll look at theology of urban ministry, leadership development and congregational development.

Some of our churches are “charity-ing” themselves to death. We have soup kitchens, pantries and all sorts of things that we do; and our members participate in these charities without building relationships with the people they serve. The charity system actually emphasizes the difference between those serving and those being served. Church members can go home feeling good about themselves, without really changing anything (including themselves), and probably perpetuate the poverty system. We haven’t evangelized, we haven’t invited, we haven’t engaged ourselves with new people. We’re still us, and they’re still them.

I think that points up a major role for denominations: not only about urban missions, but about the way we do urban missions. Some world views for urban ministry are destructive, some are constructive. Denominations must lift up a bigger vision.

How do you get local churches to buy into what you’re trying to do with In the City for Good?

In the City for Good has given the church a forum to think for itself as a whole on what is our mission for urban ministry. In order to get more “buy-in” national churches can communicate clearly up-front and not throw money at things too soon. As soon as you start throwing money at things, the money becomes the focus and the message gets lost. If a denomination were to spend the first three years of a national initiative on regional gatherings, conversations, training and working together with synods, regions and city coalitions to figure out what it is that’s most important about urban ministry within their denomination; then out of those conversations develop a funding program, everyone would be further ahead in the end. A national church can foster conversation. The local church can’t do that by itself.

What’s on the horizon for In the City for Good?

Our pilot training program with SCUPE and the Reformed Church in America starts this August. In the future, all of our grant recipients will receive urban training as part of the grant. That’s a major change for us. We’ve come to the conclusion that you don’t fund urban congregations. This is the thing we’ve learned the most. In the end, we’re funding urban leadership.

We know that good ministry happens when congregations know their purpose in God’s plan, have open hearts to change what they are about in order to be faithful to God’s call, have pastors who can lead the congregation to discerning God’s purpose -- and make things happen.

Contact: Rev. Dave Daubert, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Division for Outreach, 8765 West Higgins Road, Chicago, IL 60631, (773) 380-2667, david_daubert@elca.org

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Worth Reading!

Effective Small Churches in the Twenty-first Century, by Carl Dudley, Abingdon Press, Nashville, 2003.

If the title and subject sound familiar, that’s because Carl Dudley has given us a new and improved version his 1978 classic, “Making the Small Church Effective,” a small volume that helped many pastors and lay leaders within both urban and rural churches understand that size doesn’t equal value in the emerging church scene. Now, Dudley has capped off his teaching career at Hartford Seminary with this updated and expanded version bringing fresh insights, particularly helpful to pastors of small urban churches.

Why do we have so many small urban churches? Dudley leaves each one of us to answer that. But he does provide rather helpful clues as to the religious sociology that makes up our small families of faith in American cities. Hence, he helps us in first understanding our congregational landscapes and then in traversing them with some wisdom and agility.

While not a decidedly “urban” book, “Effective Small Churches” provides more help in terms of image and confidence than most urban ministry books can pretend to offer.

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Thanks for reading CityVoices!

By now you’re perhaps gaining some perspective on how denominations can be of greater help to their urban congregations nationwide. If you have questions, or better yet suggestions, jot them down in an email toward either CityVoices or one our interview subjects. Next month, we bring you an interview with Dr. Ray Bakke – catching up on his worldwide teaching ministry with International Urban Associates.

Remember, contact us to purchase your copy of Mike Snow’s thesis, “A Model for Transition of Ministry in Declining Congregations.” It’s a piece that churches in many different settings are currently finding most helpful. Also contact us for some of the most helpful books by Ray Bakke, Bob Linthicum of Partners in Urban Transformation and Curtiss DeYoung of the Gateway Project in the Twin Cities. You’ll enjoy any and all of these additions to your summer reading!

To place orders on any resource materials we offer, call CityVoices at (773) 477-8163, or email roger@cityvoices.com

Thank You!

Roger Johnson – Editor, CityVoices (Chicago)