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| "The State of America's City Churches" (Nov-Dec 2003) | ||
| CityVoices readers, With our November-December edition, we offer an assessment on ‘The State of America’s City Church: 2003.’ "Ho-hum," you might be saying; but hold your holiday excitement for just a moment before considering where we are at in city ministry and how several challenging stories may push us off dead center. Joel Kotkin offers a startling assessment on the continued rise of city churches in Los Angeles, the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary’s Metro Urban Institute sets an example for theological/practical coordination meeting practical needs, and the leadership City Presbyterian Church in Denver gives us a comprehensive rationale for urban ministry at this juncture in history. These assessments can only lead to positive action, i.e. – mission. Remember to contact CityVoices for the best in resources for city ministry. "Transforming Power" by Robert Linthicum ($14), "Being Church, Becoming Community," by John Buchanan ($12) and "The Underclass" ($14) by Ken Auletta can all be purchased by calling CityVoices at (773) 477-8163. Also, look through the Bookstore section of the CityVoices website (www.cityvoices.com) for a complete listing of all available resources. God’s grace
and peace today, ******************** "The State of America’s City Churches" (November - December 2003) The picture is as exciting as it has ever been. City churches in America are involved in amazing ministries: transforming lives, healing families, bringing justice and resources to urban communities, and starting new, lively congregations. Consider the examples of: * Chicago’s First Evangelical Free Church where membership has grown to over 500 people worshipping together each Sunday morning in Chicago’s Andersonville community. First Free is mission-driven with Breakthrough Ministries, it’s urban mission partner, putting its staff of more than 20 people to work in both North Side and West Side Chicago communities.
Much is going right in big cities across America. But throughout many city communities, and within altogether too many city churches, ministry has fallen on hard times. Vision has grown tired, financial resources have all but dried up and God’s people are simply walking away from ministries to which they formerly had strong loyalties. What’s wrong? Is it our strategy for church outreach? Is it our commitment? Are we looking to minister in the trendier, "photogenic" urban communities (be they rich or poor), rather than in communities where God may be calling us? In short, after decades of "urban ministry," are we still afraid of the city? The fact that the question can still be asked is grudging proof that the church, while thoroughly embedded in the city, is still not entirely comfortable with its place and role in modern America’s urban center. The cities have grown too fast, too secular, too poor and too rich for a church that still prefers its comfortable, natural values and rhythms. While city churches (of all types and traditions) continue their active worship, work and ministries; they need to be about the business of transforming themselves. Think for a moment: What might the impact be if churches long stuck on city side streets determined to reach a wider community through "branches" (rented or purchased) on busy main streets? The financial investment would be significant for many congregations; the spiritual results could be astounding. What might be the impact if significant numbers of city churches dared to believe that they actually had something to offer public school students by opening their buildings for neighborhood history lessons (immigration stories), musical concerts and such? Violation of church and state? Don’t jump to conclusions. We’d be inviting many people into our "homes" who had never before been inside. Lots more needs to be done. But with the present state of affairs, each of our city congregations must start somewhere. Be ready for change. As we change just a little, many more alterations will inevitably come our way. Praise God for city communities and their people who are continually the lifeblood of the urban church. Contact: Roger Johnson, 1242 W. Addison Street, Chicago, IL 60613, ph: (773) 477-8163, roger@cityvoices.com ******************** Urban Church Rise in Los Angeles (Joel Kotkin is a Senior Fellow at the Davenport Institute for Public Policy at Pepperdine University. A widely acclaimed speaker and futurist, he consults for many leading economic development organizations, private companies, regions and cities. The following piece is excerpted from Kotkin’s recent article "God and the City.") From Los Angeles county’s suburban fringes to the predominately black and Latino wards of South Central, Southern California is experiencing a remarkable and exuberant expansion of churches, mosques, Buddhist temples, and synagogues, many of them designed to serve growing orthodox populations and new immigrants. Amidst hard economic times that have slowed the construction of things like museums and office buildings, Los Angeles is witnessing a boom in new religious construction. The building program is remarkably varied, extending from the new 1,600- seat Korean Christian Presbyterian Church in suburban Porter Ranch, to the sprawling Hindu Temple in Malibu, to the Faithful Central Bible Church (which occupies the 17,000-seat site of The Forum, the one-time sports palace in Inglewood). According to one recent survey, there were over 400 more places of worship in greater Los Angeles in 2000 than had been there a decade earlier. This expansion of religious building reflects a deeper, and more important, growth of faith-based activity throughout the region— demonstrated by a 24 percent increase in regional church membership during the 1990s, a rate of growth twice that of the region’s overall population. In large swaths of urban America, church membership and religious attendance have been dropping for decades, a trend that now appears to be stabilizing. Not only in Los Angeles, but also in cities like Chicago, New York, and Miami, religious participation is actually on the rise at a faster pace than the national trend. As befits a dynamic and changing society such as the United States, this urban religious renewal expresses itself in both highly traditional and fairly unconventional ways. Like the city itself, Los Angeles’ religious revival is greatly dispersed and fragmented, more a blooming archipelago of worship than any well-organized, coordinated effort. In Los Angeles and many other heavily Hispanic cities there is both a burgeoning of the traditional Catholic faith of Spanish speakers (including a tendency toward a more conservative liturgy), and also a significant flow toward the more evangelical Protestant churches, which attract the formerly faithless and many previously Catholic or mainstream Protestant worshippers. Though the Catholic Church has been the biggest beneficiary of the new immigrant-driven urban religious revival, the Church’s recent sex scandals could prove damaging. National polls show a strong drop in the confidence of Americans in the Catholic Church— equal numbers of Catholics are dissatisfied and satisfied at present. Meanwhile, the credibility of Protestant churches seems to be only marginally dented by the scandal. It would be too facile, however, to see in the current troubles the long-term demise of a church that, after all, has survived two millennia of periodic crises. The simple fact in Los Angeles is that Catholic church attendance is on the rise, in virtually all parishes. (Contact: Joel Kotkin at http://www.joelkotkin.com/) ******************** Pittsburgh Theological Seminary’s Metro Urban Institute Offers a Model for Future Effectiveness (As adapted from The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, www.post-gazette.com/neigh_city, Ervin Dyer, staff writer.) An expansion of the Metro Urban Institute at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, the Office of Applied Religion, or OAR, wants to chase the devil out of inner city Pittsburgh. More than 70 people showed up last night at its official opening to give it their blessing to do so. There are important reasons for the OAR to exist, said the Rev. Ronald Peters, head of the office and director of the Metro Urban Institute. Inner-city residents are in a moral and economic crisis. They are hammered with rampant violence, job layoffs, incarcerations and out-of-wedlock births. There are negative health statistics on AIDS, diabetes and cardiovascular issues. Yet, on every corner, he said, there is a church, a synagogue or a mosque. "Working with congregations, we can change cities and change the face of urban life." Using a partnership
of 71 churches, big and small, dozens of community institutions and scores
of men and women trained in the gospel of urban outreach, the office is
set to tackle addiction, violence and alienation bred from poverty, welfare
and unemployment. There are challenges in the city, said Peters, but it
is worth being saved. Over time, more
than 40 graduates went out. They sowed seeds as preachers, housing experts,
health care facilitators, youth workers. They went outside of the church
doors to ply their knowledge in the urban context. ******************** Why Should Christians Minister in the City? (Adapted from City Presbyterian Church of Denver, ph (720) 946-1783, info@citypres.org) God is a City Builder "For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose builder and maker is God." (Hebrews 11:10) God began history in a Garden, but is ending it in a city (Revelation 21). God tells Adam to multiply and develop a civilization that will glorify him (Genesis1: 27-28). Adam fails, and God through the second Adam, Jesus Christ does get a civilization that glorifies him, but Hebrews and Revelation 21 show us that this world he desires is urban. The Bride of the Lamb is a beautiful city, shining with the glory of God (Revelation 21:10-11).
Why God Builds Cities 1. A place of shelter for the weak and different. Under God, the city was invented as a place of refuge from criminals, animals, and marauders. By its nature, the city is a place where minorities can cluster for support in an alien land, where refugees can find shelter and where the poor can better eke out an existence. The city is always a more merciful place for minorities of all kinds. The dominant majorities often dislike cities, but the weak and powerless need them. Under sin: the city becomes a refuge from God, where people with deviant lifestyles can run and hide because of the natural tolerance the city breeds toward those who are different. Also, under sin the diversity of the city breeds anger, tension and violence between the different groups. 2. A cultural and human development center. Under God, the city stimulates and focuses the gifts, capacities, and talents of people; the deep potentialities in the human heart. It does so by bringing you into contact with very diverse people. The concentration of human talent, both by competition and cooperation, produces greater works of art, science, technology and culture. The city moves you to reach down and press toward excellence. Under sin, the city is exhausting, leading to burn out. Selfishness, pride, and arrogance are magnified in the city. 3. A place of spiritual searching and temple building. Under God, the city is the place where God dwells in the center - in the earthly city of Jerusalem, the temple stood as the central integrating point of the city's architecture, and as the apex of its art, science and technology. Even now, the city's intensity makes people religious seekers. Under sin, as in ancient times, when the city was built around a ziggurat, ("landing pad") for the god of the city, so today people are drawn into skyscraper temples worshipping the self, success and money. Cities are hotbeds of religious cults, idols, and false gods. Since cities breed spiritual seekers, when Christians abandon the cities the seekers fall into the hands of idols and heresies. Summary: In every earthly city there are two "cities" vying for control: the "City of Man" and the "City of God." Though the fight between these two kingdoms happens everywhere in the world, earthly cities are the flashpoints on the battle lines, the places where the fighting is most intense, and where victories are the most strategic. The city is the most crucial place to minister. Implications for Urban Churches Three key groups who can only be reached in the city. If the Christian church wants to really change the country and culture, it must go into the cities to reach three kinds of persons who exert a tremendous influence on our society, and we cannot be reached in the suburbs. They are: the "elites" who control the culture and who are becoming increasingly secularized, the masses of new immigrants who will move out into the mainstream of society over the next 30 years, and the poor, whose dilemmas are deepening rapidly and affecting the whole country. Why we can best reach them in the city. Wayne Meeks of Yale in "The First Urban Christians" points out that Paul's missionary work was urban-centered. He went to the population centers, and ignored small towns and the countryside. Christianity spread better in the urban Roman Empire than in the countryside. Why? People in the city are less conservative, more open to new ideas. Christian evangelists found that in the city the gospel could spread faster into the influence centers -- law, politics, arts, etc. -- and into diverse national groups. By the year 300 AD, over half of the urban populations of the Empire were Christian while the countryside was pagan. The early church was urban. Contact: Rev. Sam Downing, City Presbyterian Church of Denver, 910 16th St., Suite 209, Denver, CO 80202, ph: (720) 946-1783, info@citypres.org ******************** Christians Talk Too Much (Adapted from Gordon MacDonald, Leadership editor at large.) "The modern Christianity I know is far too wordy. We talk about what we should do and lash ourselves for what we're not doing. We talk about what we are doing and why we're doing it (or why we think we're doing it). And then, when it's all over, we talk about what we did and what significance we think it had. Oh, and we talk an awful lot about what the "the world" is or shouldn't be doing. I fear that I am a major donor to this palaver."
Contact: Leadership Journal, http://www.christianitytoday.com/leaders/ ******************** Coming Events: Crowns of Beauty III -- Planting Urban Churches February 12-13, 2004, Van Nuys, California. The third annual urban church planting conference hosted by World Impact at The Church on the Way in Van Nuys, California promises to provide more great resources for city pastors and city missionaries everywhere. Once again, World Impact’s key resource people (Keith Phillips, Don David, Terry Cornett, Al Ewert) will bring their wisdom and experience together with speakers such as John Perkins, Jack Hayford, Jesse Miranda, Scott Bauer and Phil Alessi to focus on the subject of planting churches cross-culturally among poor and disenfranchised urban peoples. Register online at: http://www.worldimpactla.org/cob/ or call World Impact at (323) 735-1137. Samuel DeWitt Proctor Pastor Conference February 10-12, 2004, Atlanta, Georgia. Progressive and relevant, this conference will engage you in and others in honest dialogue around real church issues, while pushing you beyond the comfort zone. Foci include: homiletics and stewardship, church growth and management, justice and community mobilization. Conveners include: Rev. Dr. Charles Adams, Bishop Charles Blake, Rev. Dr. James Forbes and Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright. Register online at: http://www.sdpconference.info/. The Future of the Church in a Globalized World April 1-3, 2004, Charlottesville, Virginia. This conference will explore what contemporary missions scholars and Christian church historians have reported: that the center of Christianity has shifted from the global North—North American and Europe—to the global South—Asia, Latin America, and Africa. How will this impact the church in the global North? Plenary speakers include: Plenary Speakers include: D.G. Hart (Intercollegiate Studies Institute), Philip Jenkins (Pennsylvania State University), Lamin Sanneh (Yale University) and Andrew Walls (University of Edinburgh). Registration: contact Carl Briggs at carl@studycenter.net. ******************** Thanks for Reading CityVoices! Our best wishes for a blessed Christmas season as you take time from year-end busyness to simply enjoy the presence of Jesus Christ in your heart, in your home and in your city. Next month we begin a new year’s line-up of urban and city ministry topics that you’ll find captivating and helpful.
Thank You! |
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