February 28, 2005

CityVoices readers,

Houston is America's fourth largest city and one of our biggest economic
engines. With an estimated population of 2,167,000; it is also one of the
fastest-growing major cities in the country. Famous for NASA's Mission
Control, it's busy Port of Houston, giant computer companies and equally
giant-sized churches, Houston has been a pace-setter for the rest of
America.

Traditionally a white, male-dominated city, Houston has seen a remarkable
ethnic transfusion in recent years. Nearly 40 percent of the population is
of Hispanic origin, 25 percent African American, and upwards of six percent
Asian, with a growing Vietnamese community.

Houston is America's largest city without zoning laws (yes, that's right!),
and has grown in an unusual manner. Rather than a single "downtown" as the
center of employment, five additional business districts have grown
throughout the "inner city." If these business districts were combined, they
would form the third largest in the U.S.

The future? Houston looks to add 3.6 million people in the next 25 years.
David Crossley, President of Houston's Gulf Coast Institute, points out that
nine major cities (Boston, Baltimore, Cleveland, Denver, San Francisco,
Pittsburgh, Washington DC, Miami and St. Louis) could fit inside Houston.
And their total population exceeds 4.7 million - 2.5 million more than
present-day Houston. Given its present low-density, spread-out design,
Houston looks toward much infill construction in years ahead.

Houston's churches reflect the city's community ethos, and yet surprise the
outside observer. Energy, vision, size and power are all there. Yet, so is a
deep stream of compassion and care for Houston's least and lost. This
month's CityVoices profile focuses upon:
· The Plight of Two Neglected Houston Communities
· Houston in Recent Historical Context
· Energetic Church Planting Work at LINC Houston
· The Passionate Ministry of Impact Church Houston
· The Entrepreneurial Ministry at Brentwood Baptist Church
· And Trivia to Know About Present-day Houston

Before we begin, let me again mention a few of the great books we are
currently featuring at CityVoices:

"Can This Church Live" by Donald H. Matthews ($12)
"Churches, Cities, and Human Community" edited by Clifford J. Green ($15)
"Congregations in Transition: A Guide for Analyzing, Assessing, and Adapting
in Changing Communities," by Carl Dudley and Nancy Ammerman ($17)
"Starting a Nonprofit at Your Church" by Joy Skjegstad ($14)
"How Far Along is Your Church?" by Bob Linthicum ($10)
"Why Some Churches Succeed and Others Don't!" by Bob Linthicum ($10)
"The Biblical Understanding of the World ..." by Bob Linthicum ($10)
"How Struggling Churches Can Cluster for Power" by Bob Linthicum ($10)
and "One to Ones: A Way of Life and Ministry" by Marilyn Stranske ($10)

All of these books are 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.)

Roger Johnson, CityVoices / SCUPE

********************

Neighborhood Failure: Settegast and Acres Homes

The Rev. Samuel Compton has twice seen Settegast (a small northeast Houston
neighborhood pronounced "City Gas" by its residents) change. He first saw
the neighborhood begin flourishing in the 1950s and again when it began
deteriorating 20 years later. "The city didn't respond to the fallout," he
said. "They basically did nothing to upgrade the community." The city is not
alone. Despite years of living with decaying streets, substandard housing
and near-absent storm drainage, most Settings residents have done little to
respond. And barring a major combined effort by the city and the residents
themselves, Settings probably is doomed to remain poor and neglected for the
near future.

Settegast, which is only 2 square miles, began attracting lots of people and
quickly became overcrowded. Although the neighborhood was laid out before
1900, 70 percent of its homes were built between World War II and 1960. Most
are modest one-story frame houses. During segregation, Settegast was
self-sustained, like many black neighborhoods at the time. Residents raised
hogs and chickens and grew greens and potatoes. They went to Mr. Sidney's,
Mr. Ruby Ross' or Mr. Roaches' corner stores for necessities like milk, rice
and ice. If they needed clothes, they rode to the wards on the Pioneer Bus,
which linked Houston's black neighborhoods to the rest of the city.

In the 1960s, integration began and the community hit a downward spiral.
Black Houstonians moved from Settegast to surrounding neighborhoods like
Kashmere Gardens and Scenic Woods. "They left dad and mom in the community
and went crosstown," Compton said. "After mom and dad died, they never came
back." Houses began rotting, and many were taken over by drug dealers. The
area became rundown and remains so today.

Almost 4,900 people lived in Settegast in 1990. By 1997, the population had
fallen below 4,100 -- a 16 percent drop. According to the city, only 37
percent of its residents are employed. Settegast is not an easily
identifiable neighborhood. Few powerful Houstonians ever called it home, and
none consider it a crucial political constituency. While many neglected
areas long for such basic services as curbs and stormwater drains, Settegast
residents face more immediate needs, like survival.

Acres Homes, once considered the South's largest unincorporated black
community, is ten miles northwest of downtown Houston. It developed its name
around World War I when landholders sold off home sites by the acre and not
by the lot. The first settlers came from rural areas, attracted by the
community's inexpensive land, low taxes, and the absence of city building
standards. Residents dug wells and built sanitary facilities, but conditions
in the settlement subsequently declined.

When the city of Houston approved a plan to annex the area and install water
and sewer lines, Acres Homes was a 12½-square-mile, heavily wooded,
dispersed slum settlement without transportation or educational facilities.
Though 90 percent of the residents were homeowners, most housing was
substandard.

Fairly or not, Acres Homes became synonymous with "urban blight" in Houston.
Visitors and residents to the northwest Houston neighborhood were welcomed
by stretches of shotgun houses, often rented from long-absent landlords.
Acres of land sat ignored and empty, a blatant contradiction to the
community's name. If there is a poster child for neglect in Houston, it was
Acres Homes. "There's no reason this community ought to look like this,"
said resident Cleo Glenn-Johnson in 2002. "Acres Homes is as impoverished
today as it was 10 years ago."

Acres Homes originally was marketed as one of the few places in the area
where black Houstonians could own homes and land instead of being crammed
into more urban environments. But larger properties were subdivided and
sectioned off. Horses roped up next to cannibalized cars became commonplace.
In fact, Acres Homes can best be described as a bit schizophrenic. Parts of
the area boast large, comfortable homes; most sport small, ramshackle
wood-frame houses.

The end of Acres Homes' "country" appeal came in 1971, when the city of
Houston began annexing the community. Although the city installed water and
sewer lines for the area, some surrounding neighborhoods remain without city
services, leaving the job to private companies. Beulah Shephard, the
matriarch of Acres Homes, has lived there since 1948 and says residents got
better service under Harris County, before annexation. "The city just has
never given real good service," she said. "I know they haven't taken care of
us. We have to plead and beg to get things done."

(Parts of the above article are excerpted from "Acres Homes as Impoverished
Today as 10 Years Ago," and "Settegast Spirals Into Deterioration," both by
Kristen Mack, Houston Chronicle, September 19 & 21, 2003.)

********************

Houston: The Historical Context

(Excerpted from Dr. Stephen L. Klineberg's "2002 Houston Area
Survey." Since 1982, Dr.Klingberg and researchers at Houston's
Rice University have conducted an annual survey of the Houston area,
exploring public responses to changing trends. In addition, Klingberg
has conducted extensive additional research in Harris County's ethnic
communities and written widely.)

During most of the twentieth century, and particularly in the 1960s and
1970s, Houston was America's quintessential "boomtown." While the rest of
the country was languishing in the long national recession of the
"stagflating seventies," this city's prime industrial products were becoming
several times more valuable with no lessening of world demand. The price of
a barrel of Texas oil rose from $3.39 in 1971, to $31.77 in 1981. The value
of foreign trade through the Port of Houston increased ten-fold during this
period, local bank deposits tripled in value, and Houston led the nation in
housing starts, real estate investments, and the growth of manufacturing.

Houston was world-famous for having imposed perhaps the fewest regulations
and restrictions on development of any city in the Western world This was to
be a metropolis built almost entirely by developers' decisions. The city's
conception of the "good business climate" included weak unions, cheap labor,
low taxes, deliberately ineffective land-use controls, and minimal municipal
services. So strong was the opposition to government social programs that,
until the mid 1960s, the Houston school board even refused to accept federal
funds to provide free lunches to indigent children, on the grounds that this
would sap self-reliance and lead to a welfare state.

But in May 1982, the oil boom collapsed. The price of Texas crude fell from
approximately $32 per barrel in early 1982 to less than $28 at the end of
1983. Houston had been building and borrowing in the expectation of $50 oil.
Within 18 months, a region that for more than a century had known only
growing prosperity recorded a net loss of nearly 100,000 jobs. When the
price of oil hit bottom at less than $12 per barrel in late 1986, the
recession had spread from the energy sector to the entire economy. One out
of every seven jobs that were in Houston in 1982 had disappeared by early
1987, marking this as the worst regional downturn in any part of the country
at any time since World War II.

By 1990 the city had recovered from the recession to find itself in the
midst of a restructured economy and a demographic revolution. Houston
today is confronting important societal changes of our time. The "resource
economy" of the Industrial Age has receded into history, replaced by a
new knowledge-based economic system. Long-neglected quality-of-life
issues have become critical determinants of Houston's success in the
twenty-first century.

********************

LINC Houston - Covering the City with God's Kingdom

(Rev. Mark Junkans has been Executive Director of Lutheran Inter-City
Network Coalition (LINC) since May 2002. He previously served as pastor at
Centro de Fe y Esperanza Lutheran Church, a Hispanic congregation in
Houston. As an urban missionary, Junkans' roll is to organize and equip
churches and individuals for urban and ethnic ministry across the Houston
metro area.)

Tell us how you came to Houston and how LINC Houston was started.

I came here in 1990 to study sociology at the University of Houston. I felt
a call to serve God and my pastor at that time asked me if I wouldn't help
out a Hispanic mission with their worship. That led to our Texas District
(Lutheran Church Missouri Synod) commissioning me to do ministry there. I
moved in to the neighborhood with a Mexican family, worked as a plumbers'
apprentice and gained a full exposure to the Hispanic culture.

Soon, God drove me to think beyond my one parish, to think about ministry to
the entire city of Houston. I started raising money to bring in my successor
from Panama, while I was going out to start another Hispanic ministry. From
there, some of our churches started meeting to figure out how to expand the
kingdom of God in urban Houston. That's where the idea of LINC (Lutheran
Inter-City Network Coalition) Houston was born. A similar LINC Dallas
ministry had been started about two years prior, with great success. (see
http://www.lincdfw.org/ )

Mark, summarize your own mission in directing the ministry of LINC Houston.

As executive director, I'm concerned with planting new urban churches and
involving existing churches in those new church plants. Our first goal is to
plant, nurture, and equip groups of new believers among our culturally
unique communities in Houston. Our second goal is to do ministry that meets
felt needs on a community-wide level. That includes job training, help with
taxes, and immigration procedures. Our third focus is raising up and
empowering leaders for our new churches.

We're a coalition of local churches with no membership fees. Congregations
join with us as they feel led. Right now we've got 42 local Lutheran
churches involved in LINC. We are committed to plant LCMS missions in our
city.

You've described a city-wide ministry. Yet are there some Houston
neighborhoods upon which you've focused your particular attention?

Initially we needed a few pilot projects. We focused on the small mission
church where I was at and we started a community center right alongside it.
That meant ESL classes, computer training classes, summer camps, soccer
leagues, and sewing classes. Now, that mission church, Centro de Fe y
Esperanza Lutheran Church, handles the whole budget and all the volunteers
come from within their community. Within a short period of time, complete
ownership of the center has been turned over to the church which now has
about 120 people attending weekly services on Houston's near east side.

We're also working in the east side Denver Harbor neighborhood, an entryway
Hispanic neighborhood along I-10, just inside the I-610 loop. The people
didn't have a place to really form community. We centered on becoming a hub
of activities for the community, where they could begin to take ownership.
The strategy has been to empower local leaders to teach their own classes.
Again, all the volunteers are coming from the community. We've also
established church planting ministries among Houston's Korean, Chinese,
Ethiopian, Eritrean, Nigerian, Tanzanian, Indian, and Pakistani communities.

Who works with you in the LINC Houston effort?

We have a paid staff of six, most of whom are part-time. We have 14
missionary leaders - all non-Anglo. They each have their own set of leaders
whom they are work with. Our concept is to partner by focusing energy,
resources, gifts and talents alongside our mission planters so they can make
the biggest impact on their communities. Most mission leaders are
bi-vocational. We partner them together for training, and we even have a
common worship service quarterly. We also partner the church-at-large with
our mission sites.

Mark, people think of big churches in Houston. As you look at your city,
will needs be met by these huge churches, or what other kind of churches do
you see God raising up?

In five years, we want to start 100 new churches. Now we could spend a lot
of time trying to raise up one large multicultural church, and there's
probably some benefit to that. But I think that for the most part a Lakewood
Church is an anomaly. A great anomaly, but I think that if that's what we're
shooting for, we're going to spend a lot of energy, a lot of time, and a lot
of money.

We count 19 church ministries among LINC Houston right now, plus another 20
house groups that are meeting after two-and-a-half years. That totals are:
close to a 1,000 in worship, over 300 volunteers in ministry city-wide, and
over 2,000 people served in various community ministries. If we can continue
to multiply the groups and the leaders we have, pretty soon we'll be
covering the city. A mega-church may be like a big ice block dropped in a
tank of water. Now, if you can crush the ice block, it will cover far more
surface area and cool the water faster. That's our philosophy on how to
begin covering Houston with God's kingdom.

What are Houston's gifts? How is God enabling your city?

We've got such vast resources: financial resources and faithful church
people. As in most places, the Lutheran church (and the church in general)
has grown by accident, more than by purpose. Our people have never really
seen a true missionary movement. But we're starting to see people wake up to
what that could look like.

Houston has so many groups, agencies, and organizations doing good work. But
there's nobody to really bring them together in coordinated fashion. If our
churches can gain a concept of collaboration for a common vision, and begin
to work with other agencies, there are many untapped resources that we could
begin to make use of.

Contact: Rev. Mark Junkans, LINC Houston, 737 East 12 ½ Street, Houston, TX
77008, (713) 426-2451, mjunkans@linchouston.org , http://www.linchouston.org

********************

Ron Sellers: Making an Impact in Houston

(Ron Sellers is one of three ministers who brought a vision of compassion to
inner city Houston in the 1980s. Out of the Spirit's work, Impact Houston
Church of Christ began in 1987 with sixty-seven people gathered at the near
north side's Lee Elementary School. Since then, Sellers has continued as a
minister and elder at Impact Church and God's Spirit has brought about an
impact unimaginable eighteen years ago.)

Ron, as you and your colleagues began in the 1980s, did you have a "sense"
that you were building a non-traditional kind of ministry?

Definitely. It was scary and it wasn't all planned out. Our abilities and
resources were small. God was great! We knew we had a call to go to the
poor. The call of God was strong and the cry of the masses was suddenly
loud.

Impact's ministry has always been close to center city Houston, correct?

Yes, briefly, we even met at the downtown YMCA. We started knocking on doors
in our near north side neighborhood, and held our first services at a school
near two homeless shelters. Charlie Middlebrook, Doug Willliams
(co-founders) and I had big families and big responsibilities at home, but
we knew that we were doing the right thing. Some people didn't understand.
Responses weren't always positive.

From the first, we took Luke 14:12-14, very seriously, providing lunch for
people from the highways and byways. We've done that now, every Sunday, for
18 years. Our Sunday common meal has melted us together into a common
purpose. In fact, that's how sister churches first got involved with us.
Curious Christians would come down to visit. Somebody would say, "You know,
we could help you with this meal!" Soon, various churches were bringing the
meal, and there wasn't a date left for us. Today, 25 churches continue to
rotate supplying and serving our Sunday meal. It's a non-threatening entry
point for God's children to be introduced to his priorities for his family.

This has helped build the support base for our ministry staff. Early on a
suburban church decided to support our bilingual minister. Later, other
congregations began support of their own city missionaries here.
Occasionally, someone from a suburban church, with a special gift or
calling, would come and be part of the journey. Others have kept their home
church closely connected with our common mission in the city.

What have Sunday mornings grown to be like at Impact Church?

About 500 assemble on Sunday morning. Now that we've been going this long,
we've raised up children as part of our fellowship. Last Sunday a young man,
who grew up in the worst of Houston's ghettos, gave our greeting. He said,
"I came here in the third grade, and I now have Christian friends all over
the country. It happened through God moving in my life, in my neighborhood,
through this church, 18 years ago." We're now getting to see some long-term
results. Ten of us share preaching privileges. English and Spanish worship
are concurrent and bilingual services are held at 6 week intervals.

What mission / outreach emphasis is now your top priority?

There are several. An intensive two-month Youth / Family Outreach is the
focus of the summer. Members, staff, interns, reading teachers from the
area, and three different visiting youth groups each week host a variety of
daily activities. These include home visits, neighborhood events, Vacation
Bible Schools, camps, literacy programs, trips, and more.

We've always been first and foremost a church. But, we have developed
several nonprofits as a right hand to what we're doing. A camp, in the Texas
hill country, was begun. It has its own board and it services city kids
everywhere. Our Distribution Center blessed thousands in 2004 with more than
$500,000 in food and clothing. Small Steps Nurturing Center, a free
pre-school for inner city kids is now expanding to a second location. The
Youth Development Center is an after-school program showing impressive
results. Now we're promoting scholarships to assist youth going to college.

What about Houston's gifts? How can they actively advance God's kingdom
throughout the city?

There's such diversity in this city! It's growing! There's continual renewal
with people coming here from everywhere, all ages, races, languages, and
backgrounds. That is an incredible gift God has given us for sharing the
Good News. There's an amazing abundance of people to whom God has given
godly ambition. Young leadership is emerging dreaming even greater dreams.
Yet, God has always loved to do his work through humble people, and those
from humble circumstances. God has many people in this city. Each one is a
gift from above.

Contact: Ron Sellers, Impact Houston Church of Christ, 1704 Weber, Houston,
TX 77007, (713) 864-5667, rsellers@impacthouston.org ,
http://www.impacthouston.org/

********************

Brentwood Baptist Church

When Houston's Brentwood Baptist Church installed a McDonald's franchise in
their new family life center, the primary purpose was not to make money. Yet
the fast food restaurant has been profitable. Pastor Joe Samuel Ratliff
states it best, "This McDonald's is providing jobs, training and leadership
development for the members of its owner, Brentwood Baptist Church. It gives
us an opportunity to hire our young people and our seniors, and gives us a
chance to demonstrate African American enterprise by example."

Located in a southwest Houston subdivision, Brentwood Baptist was started as
an Anglo church in 1965. But 15 years later 500 members called Joe Ratliff
as the pastor to lead what had become a predominately African American
congregation. Now, numbering about 15,000 members, it is the largest African
American church in the Southern Baptist Convention. About 7,500 people
gather for morning worship each Sunday.

Brentwood boasts a number of community ministries including a credit union
for church members, transitional housing for people who live with AIDS, and
a computer training center. A 75,000-square-foot lifelong education and
family life center dedicated in February 2001 includes a gymnasium, fitness
center, arcade, 60 classrooms and the McDonald's -- perhaps the only
church-owned unit in the giant McDonald's network.

The Brentwood congregation participates in more than 100 ministries and
missions. More than 250 people are helped each week by the church's Food
Pantry Ministry. In 1997, the Brentwood Cottages were opened -- a 6,500
square-foot transitional housing facility for people living with HIV/AIDS.

Pastor Ratliff has led the congregation in construction of the 55,000
square-foot Worship Center. Since then the Brentwood church has added
Lifelong Learning Center and Center for Child Development. Brentwood's
growth is not only evident in its membership and innovative programming, but
also in its ability to spread God's Word and reach out to others. The church
has sponsored 17 missions which have become independent churches.

Contact: Brentwood Baptist Church, Rev. Joseph Ratliff, 13033 Landmark
Drive, Houston, TX 77045, (713) 852-1400

********************

Bits to Know About Today's Houston

Houston, the nation's fourth largest city, has no zoning laws. Since 1948,
the voters have rejected plans to begin zoning three times. The latest
defeat was in 1993.

What is Houston's biggest problem? Traffic congestion, according to the
annual Houston Area Survey. Crime and air pollution were second and third in
the public opinion survey.

What city has the worst air pollution in the country? If you said Houston,
you're right. This issue has actually hurt the city's ability to recruit new
companies and skilled workers.

Downtown living is catching on in Houston, 3,000 people now live in the
central business district, triple the number since 1992.

Black families are moving back to traditionally working-class
African-American neighborhoods like the Third and Fourth Wards. black gentrifiers seek some of the same things as white gentrifiers: easier commutes, exciting nightlife, community, and history.

Houston officials are serious about unclogging their freeways. Minor
accidents and stalled cars often remain on the freeway as drivers change tires or
exchange insurance information. It takes five minutes for the traffic flow to recover
for every minute of delay in moving cars out of the way.

********************

Must Read!

"Can This Church Live?: A Congregation, its Neighborhood and Social
Transformation," by Donald H. Matthews, The Pilgrim Press, Cleveland, 2004.
(CityVoices price: $12)

Dr. Donald Matthews, director of Black Studies at the U. of Missouri, Kansas
City, presents the compelling, true story of a church that had an
opportunity to thrive in the midst of a community that greatly changed
demographically. Matthews directs readers through the painful process he
experienced with the pastor and church leaders as they faced a harsh
dilemma - a dilemma that more and more churches are facing today - can or
will a predominantly white church embrace and welcome the people of color
who live within the community.

"Can This Church Live" is short, only 120 pages, but filled with serious,
hard questions that nearly ever city church pastor will face. Matthews works
hard at his analysis, but demonstrates that he is more than an analyst. He
truly loves the church that goes through this painful and tough dilemma.
(Now available from CityVoices.)

"Churches, Cities, and Human Community: Urban Ministry in the United States,
1945-85," edited by Clifford J. Green, Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand
Rapids, 1996. (CityVoices price: $15)

While Clifford Green's work has been around for a few years, its value for
students of urban mission has largely gone undiscovered. Unlike others,
Green focuses on our major denominations and their particular gifts to urban
ministry during the later half of the twentieth century. And in so doing, he
collected some of the best minds to write think through the works of their
own denominations. The late George Younger looks at his own American Baptist
Churches, Luther Smith, Jr. tackles the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church
and Richard Luecke focuses on Lutheran particulars in urban mission, both
LCMS and ELCA antecedents. Other contributors include Donald Steinle, Robert
Franklin, and James Melvin Washington.

In being largely a history book, "Churches, Cities, and Human Community"
ends up telling us what went right, what went wrong, and the quite heroic
efforts that for some reason never really lasted. In doing all that, Green
provides today's urban pastor with more than a little encouragement when
floating amidst a sea of questionable ministry programs. While organisms,
large and small, may not always succeed as planned, Christ's church does
persevere by God's grace, the power of the Spirit and the commitment of the
faithful. (Now available from CityVoices.)

********************

Thanks for Reading CityVoices!

Next month we return to our consideration of the current state of Christian
community development. Biblical concepts of justice and righteousness are
taking root in practical and energetic ways in cities across America. We'll
discover a few places where Christian community developers are preaching the
gospel in all that they do.

Call CityVoices at (312) 726-1200, to order any of the following books:

"Can This Church Live?" by Donald H. Matthews ($12)
"Churches, Cities, and Human Community" edited by Clifford J. Green ($15)
"Congregations in Transition: A Guide for Analyzing, Assessing, and Adapting
in Changing Communities," by Carl Dudley and Nancy Ammerman ($17)
"Starting a Nonprofit at Your Church" by Joy Skjegstad ($14)
"Time to Talk in Church About HIV and AIDS" by Corean Bakke ($10)
"How Far Along is Your Church?" by Bob Linthicum ($10)
"Why Some Churches Succeed and Others Don't!" by Bob Linthicum ($10)
"The Biblical Understanding of the World" by Bob Linthicum ($10)
"How Struggling Churches Can Cluster for Power" by Bob Linthicum ($10)

We look forward to hearing from you and meeting any of your ministry needs,

Roger Johnson - CityVoices / SCUPE (Chicago)
(312) 726-1200