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| "Making City Ministry Go" | ||
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December 27, 2004
CityVoices readers, A belated Christmas blessing, for joy and peace to each of you. As you are using this yearend week to take stoke stock on 2004 and plan ahead for 2005, CityVoices presents to you a variety of aids, tools and bits of wisdom for urban ministry. Some are inspirational, others biblical, some practical and others technical. You’re bound to find something here that meets your everyday needs in ministry at this juncture of the calendar. If education and training is what you’re looking for, pay attention to our announcements of several upcoming courses taking place here at the Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education here in Chicago, as well as Compassion Works Urban Youth Workers Convention, also here in Chicago in late January. If biblical / theological strength is what you’re looking for, pay closer attention to pieces culled from the works of Bob Linthicum, William Stringfellow, as well as a Bible sourcebook piece from International Urban Associates. If inspirational items meet your yearend needs, then you’ll want to look closely at pieces on an urban hymn we’ve highlighted, as well as worship and well being in the city. I’d urge each of you to read, and pay attention to our article on the work of Emmanuel Gospel Center’s Research Review. Though a relatively new urban resource piece, our friends and colleagues at EGC Research Review in Boston are doing some fine work in areas quite different than CityVoices tackles. Let me also mention a few new urban literature bargains. CityVoices now carries: “Starting a Nonprofit at Your Church” by Joy Skjegstad ($14) All of these books are newly issued, and filled with creative ideas for making urban ministry happen with strength and power. To purchase single editions (or multiple copies) contact the CityVoices office at (312) 726-1200, or roger@cityvoices.com. (VISA and MC are accepted.) Please browse our Bookstore section (http://www.gospelcom.net/cv/pages/cvshop.html) for a listing of other great CityVoices resources. Roger Johnson, CityVoices / SCUPE ******************** Six Marks for Urban Ministry Effectiveness 1) Maintain a vibrant relationship with Christ. Effective urban ministers recognize that the regular practice of spiritual disciplines and an ongoing development of faith are the most important things in their ministry. 2) Maintain a learning posture throughout life. Try learning from various sources. Effective city ministers seem to have a sharp eye and an insatiable curiosity about God’s work in their city. 3) Have multiple urban mentors. (Experts suggest that over a lifetime, fifteen is not too many.) Effective city ministers have sought and continue to seek mentors for various areas of their ministry. 4) Have a dynamic and changing philosophy of ministry. Effective urban ministers recognize that there's more than one way to do ministry. They’re continually looking for the most effective styles to meet new situations. 5) Set leadership development as a high priority. The effective urban pastor knows that healthy ministry is not a one-person show. Instead, it consists of a network of ministry relationships all making for effectiveness. 6) Seek a long-term ministry. Most urban pastors are just beginning to understand their congregation after five years, and just beginning to really be effective at the eight-year mark. ******************** CompassionWorks Urban Workers Conference Chicago, Marriot, O’Hare – January 28-30, 2005 Tough as it is, reaching city kids can and should be the most exciting,
fulfilling ministry in the world. It’s your chance to meet and be encouraged by urban youth workers from all over America. Come and experience CompassionWorks. You will be refreshed and renewed. You will increase your knowledge, understanding, and skills. And you will have fun! If you want to get or stay on the cutting edge, CompassionWorks is for you. Be there! Individual Registration Costs: Online registration at: http://www.youthpartnersnet.org/compassion-works/index.html ******************** Urban Theology and Ministry Offerings: As a pastor or a lay person in active ministry, are you looking to deepen your Bible study? Refine and develop your urban skills? Make your theology more streetwise? SCUPE offers a wide range of courses, accessible to those with working schedules – offered as weekend, and week-long intensives. Consider courses such as: Dimensions and Dynamics of Urban Ministry Jan 3-7, 10-14 (9am-5pm) This course, taught by Yvonne Delk, concentrates on particular neighborhoods and the ministries at work within them, demonstrates a variety of approaches to gospel in the city. Urban Principalities and the Spirit of the City Feb 4-5, 11-12, 18-19 (Fri 1-9pm; Sat 9-5pm) Seeks to understand the city, its systems, and its ministries by understanding the "principalities and powers." Taught by Bill Wylie-Kellerman. Christology and Culture Mar 4-5, 11-12, 18-19 (Fridays 1-9pm; Saturdays 9-5pm) James Perkinson employs a narrative hermeneutic to introduce Christology from a global, cultural, and liberational perspective – including its significance for urban missiology. Urban Preaching Intensive April 1-2, 8-10 (9am-5pm) Led by Dave Frenchak, this course takes a biblical approach, acknowledging the diverse rhythms and styles of city congregations, with particular attention to the prophets and Jesus as Spirit preachers. Restoring Urban Communities April 29-30, May 6-7, 13-14 (Fri 1-9pm; Sat 9-5pm) Mary Nelson introduces the principles and practices of church-based community development. This course presents the relationship between biblical faith and development practice through site visits to effective. Christian Traditions and Community Development May 23-27 (9 am - 5pm) This course, led by Dave Frenchak, gives participants an appreciation of the rich resources within a variety of Christian traditions that can form a foundation and rationale for community revitalization. Cross Cultural Ministry Intensive June 6-10, 13-17 (9am-5pm) This two-week intensive, taught by Cynthia Milsap, engages students in study of the early church's struggle with cultural barriers, and exposes students to a variety of ministries in diverse cultural settings. Find yourself at the table with an ecumenical mix of seminarians and active ministers. As a pastor, this can be a fruitful investment in your lay ministry team. Cost to audit: $250 per 3 credit course. Call Bill Wylie-Kellermann or Dody Finch at (312) 726-1200 or visit www.scupe.com. ******************** Our Cities Cry to You, O God Our cities cry to you, O God, from out their pain and strife; Yet still you walk our streets, O Christ! We know your presence here Your people are your hands and feet to serve your world today, O healing Savior, Prince of Peace, salvation’s Source and Sum,
Words: Margaret Clarkson ******************** Emmanuel Research Review: Don’t Be Without It! The Emmanuel Research Review is a publication of the Emmanuel Gospel Center. The Review features articles, papers, resources and information that we believe are helpful and relevant to urban pastors, leaders, and community members in their efforts to effectively serve their communities. In this month’s lead article on dysfunctional churches, Emmanuel President Dr. Doug Hall writes: “In a contemporary society lacking relational culture, churches are becoming dysfunctional at an alarming rate. Our society’s mental models teach us how to get things done without relationships. Earlier cultures enabled us to operate in a more relational manner, but in our day, while churches work hard to help people relate to God, many have forgotten how to help them relate to each other. “In the New Testament Book of Revelation, in chapter 3, John speaks of the need of the Laodicean church to apply “eye salve” to see the dysfunctionality that was going on in his day. The text implies that the problem of dysfunctionality often exists in more affluent settings, and also that the people closest to the problem don’t recognize its significance. “You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.” (Rev. 3:17b NIV) It is difficult for leaders to see the dysfunctionality of their organizations, much less deal with their systemic problems.” Read on by contacting the Emmanuel Gospel Center website (http://www.egc.org), scroll down to the “newsletter sign-up” section, enter your email and request the Emmanuel Research Review. You’ll then receive this fine new publication on a regular basis. Researched and edited by the Emmanuel team of Jay Broadnax, Brian Corcoran, Rudy Mitchell and Steve Daman, the Review appears by email periodically and covers a wide variety of topics impacting most any city church or ministry. Other 2004 editions have focused on “Serving the Homeless,” “Unity in Diversity,” and “Reaching the Second Generation.” ******************** The Bible as Sourcebook for Urban Ministry The world of the Bible was far more urban than many people realize. More than 100 cities are mentioned in the Old and New Testaments, and the word "city" occurs 1,250 times; 1,090 times in the Old Testament and 160 times in the New Testament. In the New Testament, it is clear that the gospel conquered the Roman world by penetrating its major cities. While the Bible begins in a garden, it ends in a city. History itself presses forward toward the vision of the new Jerusalem in Revelation. The Bible has much to say about urban ministry. Nehemiah, author of the most practical urban handbook in Scripture, looms large as an urban ministry mentor. He was a lay man who caught a vision for rebuilding his city. When the time was right, he asked his boss (the King) for a leave of absence and a government grant. He mobilized a volunteer service project and rebuilt the city of Jerusalem in fifty-two days. Almost every aspect of city ministry is included in his practical book: politics, safety, labor issues, financing, decision-making, self-interest of the volunteers, the role of the church and Scripture, commerce, trade and credit policies. Moses, the son of a “welfare mother,” was classically educated
and then spent 40 years in the desert tending sheep in preparation for
leading a nation. He was a partner in a bi-racial marriage and needed
his father-in-law's advice on how best to manage his affairs. Moses also
made the decision early in life to turn his back on privilege and to identify
with his own people in slavery and poverty. His model is one of moral
courage and long apprenticeship on the way to becoming an effective leader
who practiced community development with poverty-level migrant people.
Contact: “Transforming The City: From Dream to Reality,” International Urban Associates, http://www.telchar.com/telchar/theocity.htm ******************** In Looking at the City… (The following is an excerpt from William Stringfellow’s short book, “Instead of Death,” originally published in 1963 by The Seabury Press. [This book, along with more Stringfellow writings, is now available Wipf & Stock Publishers, Eugene, Oregon.] Stringfellow was a practicing attorney and prominent Episcopalian laymen who wrote for both legal and theological journals. After studies at Harvard Law School, he practiced some years in the East Harlem community of New York City. He continued as a visiting lecturer at law schools and seminaries until his death in 1985.) Today the city is the place where all the forces, purposes, powers, and factors dispersed throughout society have converged and been brought into radical, complex, and delicate juxtaposition with one another. You do not escape the issues of modern American urban life by living in Bangor, San Jose, or a farm in Iowa; and you certainly do not mitigate them by moving out of New York to Darien or Scarsdale. You cannot even hide from the same issues in Magnolia, Mississippi. The issues of urban life permeate the whole society and culture of the United States. The question is not whether they can be avoided or whether you can somehow hide from them, but how you or I or anyone else come to terms with them and confront them with intelligence and frankness. Moreover, you need not live in Manhattan or Detroit rather than Evanston or Amherst to recognize the common problems of human life. In the slums and in the suburbs, among both poor and rich, … the lives of people encompass buying and selling, fighting and forgiving, working and playing, illness and health, hate and love – living for awhile in all these ways and then dying and, after a time, being forgotten. … Although these issues are present and as serious outside the city as within the city, they are more obvious and open in the city; perhaps more exaggerated, more dramatized there. Certainly in the city they are evident in a magnitude, scope, and concentration that makes it impossible to ignore them or to pretend that they are not there. Hence, by looking at the city, one glimpses the whole American scene so far as the ordinary human issues are concerned. ******************** Three Essential Elements in a Transformed City (Excerpted from City View newsletter, City Transformation Ministries, http://www.cityrestoration.org/, article by Paul Dozeman) A transformed city will certainly have many changes, but if we focus on changing three essential elements, our cities will be noticeably different as transformation occurs. Those three elements are (1) compassionate people (2) living in real community with (3) justice for all. Think of living in your neighborhood or city as compassionate people are living in real community with justice for all. Compassion is the ability to suffer with others, to open our hearts to the point of doing something to relieve others’ suffering. This requires us to be a part of the situation and not count ourselves as better or above the person(s) we come into contact with. Compassionate people respond to the needs of others out of a realization that the good of many is related to their own good. We are all involved in some way to serve one another in our community, and that activity heightens the well being of our community. Community is one of our basic needs. We are to love God with our whole being, and we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. We, as individuals, are designed by God to live in community that serves us physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Authentic community requires a common purpose, shares a common place, has common possessions, and eliminates isolation. While compassion can be a personal thing, justice applies to everyone. Injustice can be caused by people ignoring existing laws or failing to provide fair legislation. Injustice happens when human rights or fairness are not addressed but should be. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gave eight statements of blessing about people who take his words seriously and try to put them into practice. Among those beatitudes Jesus mentioned one important trait twice – righteousness. Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6). And a bit later he said, “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:10). Contact: Paul Dozeman, City Restoration Ministries, PO Box 193, Hudsonville,
MI 49426, ******************** Well-being and the City “And if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire
of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom
will become like midday. And the LORD will continually guide you, and
satisfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones;
and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose
waters do not fail. Those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins;
you will raise up the age-old foundations; and you will be called the
repairer of the breach, the restorer of the streets in which to dwell.” Our own well being is connected to what we do to show compassion and seek justice within our city. When we seek these things God guides and satisfies us and makes us strong. The fact is that God does take our own well being very seriously, even though we may at times feel He knows little of what we are going through for His sake. God knows, God cares, God guides us. God satisfies our needs – and desires – even in those “scorched places” of life. The result: we become like never-ending springs of water, always sustaining ourselves, always sustaining others. We become imaginative re-builders of all that had long ago been torn down around us. We restore the city, we restore our own city. All, because God is concerned for our well being. ******************** People, Programs and Urban Ministry (Excerpted from Chapter 9 “Godly Ways of Community Ministries,” in Dr. Robert Linthicum’s classic “City of God, City of Satan: A Biblical Theology of the Urban Church,” Zondervan, 1991. Linthicum, now director of the Los Angeles’ based Partners in Urban Transformation, offers us some the best in both theological thinking and practical strategizing for urban churches.) When most churches decide to minister to the people of their community, the members take it upon themselves to study that community and determine its primary issues and needs. Then, based on their findings, the church selects and determines the project or program needed to solve that problem or address that need. Once the church has decided what the solution needs to be, it goes ahead and implements, operates and maintains that program. Such an approach to community ministry is destined to fail! In this scheme, the ownership of the problem, the solution, and the program to implement that solution lies in the church – not in the people. It is the church’s program. The people of the community have no ownership in it. They may attend it and participate in it, but they will always be spectators and clients, never participants and goal-owners. … The fate of the program is inevitable. It will function successfully as long as the church is willing to commit its people, money, materials, and building to make it successful. But it will eventually “burn out.” Once programmatic exhaustion has occurred and the well-intentioned pastor can no longer get sufficient volunteers or money or resources to maintain the program, that program will die. As I look back on twenty-five years of ministry in the cities of Milwaukee, Rockford, Chicago, and Detroit, I realize that my churches and I probably created hundreds of programs for the communities surrounding our churches. Not one of those programs continues today! But in Rockford, Chicago, and Detroit, I was involved in the development of community organizations. Every one of those organizations – developed between 1967 and 1982 – thrives today and remains an outstanding voice for the poor and marginalized in its community. It is the destructive tendency of the church to do ministry for a neighborhood’s people, particularly the poor. But who then is in control? When we do ministry for the poor, the church is in control. The church decides what the people’s problem is, what the solution should be, and what the project should be to implement that solution. The church is deciding everything…. What then should the church do in the city? How should it address issues of health care, longevity and infant mortality, stress, environmental pollution housing, economic development, advocacy, empowerment, stewardship of the city, relationship with God, and shalom with the neighbor? Let it follow the example of Nehemiah. Let it follow the example of Paul. Do not do things for people! Do not come into Jerusalem with all the king’s workers, money, materials, and supplies and rebuild the walls for them. Instead say to them, “Let us rebuild the walls together,” and join with the people as they collectively take charge of their own situation and rebuild the walls themselves.” Contact: Dr. Robert Linthicum, Partners in Urban Transformation, 1236 Fairway Circle, Upland, CA 91784, (909) 982-3676, rlinthicum@surfbest.net ******************** Urban Life Observed A city sidewalk by itself is nothing. It is an abstraction. It means
something only in conjunction with the buildings and other uses that border
it, or border other sidewalks very near it. The same might be said of
streets, in the sense that they serve other purposes besides carrying
wheeled traffic in their middles. Streets and their sidewalks, the main
public places of a city, are its most vital organs. Think of a city and
what comes to mind? Its streets. If a city’s streets look interesting,
the city looks interesting; if they look dull, the city looks dull. Many people work the street. There are the regulars: cops, postmen, sanitation
men, traffic directors, doormen, bus dispatchers. There supervisors: transit
authority people checking on bus dispatchers, traffic officials on traffic
directors. There is even a man to check that the grate cleaners are doing
their job. … The irregulars are the most numerous: handbill passers,
pushcart food vendors, merchandise vendors, messengers, entertainers,
palmists, solicitors for religious causes, blood pressure takers. …
The underlife of the street has a rich cast too. There the beggars, the
phony pitchmen for causes, the three-card-monte players and their shills,
the whores and their pimps, the male prostitutes and their Murphy Men,
the dope dealers, and worst of all, the muggers in their white sneakers. As the sympathetic historians tell the story of the ghetto it is an amazing
record of the tragedies and the adventures of a people. The history of
the ghetto is full of human interest, with its peaks of heroism, its miraculous
tales of escape, and its frequent and depressing depths of pathos and
despair. To tell the full story of the ghetto in all its uniqueness is
the legitimate function of the artist and the historian. But the sociologist
sees in the ghetto more than the experiences of a given people in a specific
historical setting. To him the ghetto is more than a chapter in the cultural
history of man. The ghetto represents a study in human nature. It reveals
the varied and subtle motives that lead men to act as they do. …
The ghetto is not only a physical fact; it is also a state of mind. ******************** Thanks for Reading CityVoices CityVoices’ starts off January with a search for understanding the role that community development plays (or can play) in a wider urban ministry. We’ll look educational components pioneered by SCUPE’s Master of Arts in Community Development Program, the annual (and pioneering efforts of the Christian Community Development Association, and we’ll focus on the practical efforts in Christian community development taking place in Chicago and other cities. We’ll try to measure how these efforts really work, how they offer hope to once destroyed lives, and where community organizing might be the better answer. If you think your church could benefit from involvement in a community development program, look forward to January’s CityVoices. Remember to contact CityVoices for all your urban ministry literature needs. We continue to offer Ray Bakke, Bob Linthicum, and Curtiss De Young texts at competitive prices, as well as many other new titles, including: “Starting a Nonprofit at Your Church” by Joy Skjegstad ($14) We look forward to hearing from you and meeting any of your ministry needs that we can in the coming year. New Year’s blessings, |
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