May 25, 2005

CityVoices readers,

If we took a moment to honestly ask “What’s the most difficult job we have as pastors,” our answers would most likely agree that evangelizing our communities, perhaps our own congregations, is most difficult. We like to think that the city church transitions smoothly between good and bad times, organically living on and growing to new levels. But experience tells us that’s not always true. Churches often fall on hard times and die when Christians give up and fail to tell the good news.

The difficult (and delightful) job of evangelism must be carried out through music, small groups, youth clubs, neighborhood events, summer camps, through whatever means that works in a particular urban community.

With this May edition of CityVoices, we continue our focus on Urban Evangelism, attempting to go deeper with the practical realities facing pastors in a number of city church environments. Our contents include:

-- An interview with Rev. Richard Williams III of L.A. ’s Victory Institutional Baptist Church

-- Ray Bakke’s musings on the importance of large cities for evangelism

-- An interview with Rev. Eli Garza of Detroit ’s First Spanish Baptist Church

-- Cardinal Avery Dulles outlines a Catholic theology of evangelism

-- Reviews: “Telling the Story” (Stallings) and “The Church Enslaved,” (Campolo and Battle )

This month’s special book offer: Fr. Dom Grassi’s “Bumping Into God,” “Bumping Into God, Again” and Ray Bakke’s “Expanded Mission of City Center Churches” – all for $25 . Contact us between now and June 20 th to get this great offer. Call (312) 726-1200 x 239, or email roger@cityvoices.com . VISA and MC accepted.

In addition, we are also featuring “Can This Church Live” by Donald H. Matthews ($12), “Churches, Cities, and the Human Community” edited by Clifford J. Green ($15), and “Tell Me City Stories: A Journey for Urban Congregations” by Phil Amerson ($12). Each of these books is filled with creative ideas for adding strength and power to your ministry.

Roger Johnson, CityVoices / SCUPE

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Victory Institutional Baptist: Building Authentic Relationships With Christ

(Rev. Richard Williams III is pastor of Victory Institutional Baptist Church of Hawthorne, California, just outside Los Angeles . Since coming to the church 15 years ago, he has seen healthy growth leading to a new building and two Sunday worship services. Besides ministering to more than 700 church members, Rev. Williams serves on the board of Partners in Urban Transformation, a Los Angeles-based urban mission organization.)

Q.- How have you observed people finding a relationship with Jesus Christ? Or is it first a relationship with Victory Institutional Baptist Church ?

At Victory Institutional I’ve discovered that one dynamic of our ministry is leading people to a corporate frame of worship. I think there’s a balance between corporate and individual that has to be accomplished. When an individual comes into our church we try to make sure that the person is felt welcome and ministered to. But then we recognize that we want to become a larger circle of fellowship and ministry. And we’re not necessarily just trying to get more members. We want to produce relationships that foster fellowship, if you will. I think there are some churches that focus on the one-on-one, and they forget that there is a corporate “coming together” that ought to be cultivated. We seek a greater mentoring for all of our people.

Q.- Rev. Williams, when you talk about mentoring, are people organizing themselves into small groups for more intimate relationships or do they respond better to all-church meetings?

I don’t find a lot of small groups forming. We try to provide an atmosphere that fosters fellowship and relationships in a corporate worship environment. Here in Los Angeles , we have a number of our members who drive more than 30 miles for church. So it’s a very different situation from churches that might have a small group meeting on one side of town or the other. This is a freeway culture.

Q.- At your church, and others in metro LA, what role does music have in reaching people for Jesus Christ?

Music is very significant in that it not only compliments the gospel message, but it also crosses cultures. While we are a primarily African American church, we still have a variety of cultures within our congregation. And the cultures within our context are so diverse. I’ve got kids who are into Hip-Hop. I have seniors who are very traditional. Oftentimes, I serve as the bridge between the two or more cultures, especially when it comes to generational cultures.

Q.- Are urban churches too concerned about reaching ever larger numbers of people to the detriment of discipling the people that God has already given them?

Yes, I think we can easily get focused on things like television ministries, instead of reaching people for Christ. God has allowed us to be where we are so we can minister effectively. What you see on television is just a 20-minute snippet of someone’s message. Too often, we may allow ourselves to be influenced by media-oriented ministries, when God may have destined us for something different. I we need to really consider the character or say, the personality of a particular congregation. Many churches need to search and find out what their qualities really are.

Q.- Rev. Williams, do you think an urban pastor has to understand something more about himself (or herself) before they can ever be an effective evangelist?

Absolutely. I had that affirmed for me in 1995 when I was in Johannesburg , South Africa . Prior to that, I had been influenced by pastors here who were great orators. There are those who are great administrators. As I participated in worship with some congregations in Soweto , I was “reacquainted” with my own passion, gift and personal style. My journey to reminded me to take I look back over my life and those gifts have been as a worship leader, and leading people into an authentic relationship with God. Once I understood something more about my gifts and calling, it allowed me to really focus in on what God had placed on my heart.

Contact: Rev. Richard Williams III, Victory Institutional Baptist Church , 4712 W El Segundo Blvd , Hawthorne , CA   90250 (310) 263-7073, rwmsiii@sbcglobal.net

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Evangelizing World Class Cities

(Dr. Ray Bakke chairs the Board of Regents at Bakke Graduate University for Ministry, where he teaches many of the school’s core courses throughout Pacific Rim cities. A native of the Pacific Northwest, Ray Bakke spent most of his career teaching and pastoring in Chicago . He is the author of “The Urban Christian,” “A Theology as Big as the City,” “A Biblical Word for an Urban World,” and “The Expanded Mission of City Center Churches” – all available from CityVoices.)

Christians need strategies to cope with broad urban realities – a plethora of tactics, models and styles. Obviously, no one form of ministry constitutes an adequate response to urban pluralism. Lamentably, we observe many single-strategy evangelizations for large cities. In these cases the evangelists do not recognize the need for multiple responses to the urbanization of the world. God's people should seek to minister not only in the city but to it as well.

Cities have inherited an unusual share of all our problems and problem peoples who have dropped out of other places. Evangelism is most effective when the passion for evangelistic effectiveness is adorned with broad-ranging concerns and goals for the renewal of the whole of city life. As in the days of old, urban evangelization is most effectively accomplished by those within the city itself (Jeremiah 29: 4-7, Isaiah 58:12).

Is it not ironic that many contemporary Christians who claim a high view of Scripture continue to ignore the biblical truth stated plainly in hundreds of Old and New Testament texts dealing with urban mission? Surely “the blessed hope” is the Lord's intervention, not the church's continued flight from the presence and task of urban evangelization. Evangelization of the cities today will affect the countryside tomorrow. Surely the cost accountants of mission budgets cannot fail to see the significance of urban mission as a high-growth investment.

For nearly two thousand years the church has possessed the mandate to disciple all the peoples or nations of the world. Now, in this generation, we are discovering where these peoples and nations are located: in the large cities of the world. Urban pastors and missionaries need a global perspective to interpret the modern city. They need international skills to live and serve there. Theologically, one might ask, “What is God trying to accomplish by the urbanization of his world and the internationalization of our cities?” Could it be his way of showing us the priority now for urban evangelization?

Every city now has links with populations “back home.” Reaching a person with the gospel in East London is to simultaneously reach out to the Punjab . In Paris it is to impact Algeria . Reaching out in Amsterdam affects Surinam , Goa or Indonesia . Though a declining population is characteristic of some world-class cities, others are experiencing rapid growth. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is in the process of urbanizing. With large international populations, major cities have become microcosms of the world and thereby place to develop and test evangelism strategies.

Cities continue to challenge churches and mission agencies to develop specialized structures and functions. But by no means can most cities be classified as evangelized. Even if they were “reached” today, at the rate cities recycle peoples and cultures, they may be “unreached” by tomorrow. Strategies for evangelism must be devised that will meet the task of the whole city, reaching every group and person head-on.

Contact: Dr. Ray Bakke, Bakke Graduate University for Ministry, 1013 Eighth Avenue , Seattle , WA 98104 , (800) 935-4723, seattleiua@earthlink.net

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Eli Garza: Reaching Hispanics in Southwest Detroit

(Rev. Eli Garza serves as Associate Pastor at First Spanish Baptist Church in southwest Detroit . Rev. Garza’s involvement with the church and Detroit ’s Hispanic community goes back to the 1950s when his father first came to Detroit as an autoworker and the Garza family became church members. Today, Rev. Garza participates in and leads several of the church’s outreach and discipleship ministries.)

Q.- Eli, tell us a bit about First Spanish Baptist Church.

It was started in 1960 in a converted bar, with about 40 people. Over the years the church became bi-lingual as children grew up in English-speaking schools. Services are now conducted in both languages. During its first decade, the congregation was primarily Mexican and Puerto Rican. But now it’s became very diverse with up to 15 different Latin American nations represented, as well as Anglo-Americans and African-Americans. Our Sunday attendance varies from 120 to 200, with no consistent pattern.

About 10 years ago we were having difficulty in penetrating our neighborhood with the gospel. Evangelical churches were seen as suspect in our community, so our pastor decided to join the boards of several neighborhood organizations to show that we indeed cared. As a result, we’ve won the friendship of neighboring churches, civic organizations and the municipal government. We’ve also made the effort to cross denominational lines, and we’ve gained a reputation of having our doors open to serve our immediate area. That’s all very intentional.

Q.- At First Spanish Baptist, how do you see people coming into a relationship with Jesus, or into a relationship with the church and its people?

The best way for us to present the gospel is through friendship evangelism. In the past we’ve tried big meetings and that just doesn’t work. Even Vacation Bible School doesn’t work well. Nor do those styles work for our neighboring congregations. The best way is through word of mouth. If a person is helped through a family or economic crisis, that speaks volumes. Our good works speak louder than our words! Maybe people think, “They say all this because they have to say it. But when they actually are doing something, it means they really believe it.”

We’ve found that when people have been helped by our congregation, they become more receptive to a presentation of the Gospel and willing to attend our services. Visitors come because they hear about us from family and friends who’ve been impacted by our church.

Q.- Do small groups function as “entry points” for people, or is it the congregation as a whole doing that work?

It’s the congregation as a whole. Everybody is busy, working one or two jobs. Our people are working at unusual hours, at scattered places across the metro area. Most people’s jobs are not located in the inner city, but towards the outer rim of the Detroit area. People come home tired and stressed out. Small group meetings during the week are all but impossible. Sunday is our primary day. So we ask, “What can we do to encourage our members during the week?” It’s difficult to do all that during one Sunday morning worship service.

We tend to have many emergency alarms going off during the week. We’re like a fire station. These may be family crises, or translation needs at doctor’s appointments or court hearings. While these are not typical pastoral duties, they open all sorts of doors for evangelism.

Q.- What is the role that music plays at your church, or can play, in reaching people for Christ?

In 1980 we adopted a contemporary music format, and that’s opened the doors tremendously. We use piano, drums, guitars, trumpets, everything. I believe every church in the United States needs to see itself as a foreign mission agency asking, “Who is the group we are trying to reach?” You can’t compromise the gospel message, but you do need to fit the culture you are in. People in our area just aren’t into classical church music. So we take a blended approach to worship, integrating contemporary music with traditional hymns. And of course, we sing in both Spanish and English.

Q.- Are urban churches sometimes too concerned about reaching ever larger numbers of people, to the detriment of discipling the people God has already given them?

I think that’s right. In general that happens because churches have to survive. They won’t survive unless they grow. Churches that want to continue to grow and survive will aggressively reach out – not just as an institution, but to fulfill the biblical mandate. But if you become too much of a community-based church, you don’t have people who are well-trained disciples. Mixed congregations – economically and educationally – are vital and necessary. Younger Christians must always be discipled by stronger Christians. Discipleship becomes an ongoing process, in a generational sort of way. And when I say discipling, I don’t mean just book learning. I mean practicing the real work of ministry.

Contact: Rev. Eli Garza, First Spanish Baptist Church , 3495 Livernois Ave, P.O. Box 10058 , Detroit ,   MI 48210 , (313) 894-7755, egz7000@yahoo.com

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A Catholic Theology of Evangelism

(The follow piece is excerpted from “Evangelizing Theology,” an article by Cardinal Avery Dulles in First Things, March 1996. Cardinal Dulles is Professor of Religion and Society at Fordham University , a position he has held since 1988. He has published over twenty books including “Models of the Church,” “The Assurance of Things Hoped For,” and “The New World of Faith.”)

Evangelization is not and never has been easy. Today we tend to blame the prevalent culture for our lack of success. We denounce its individualism, secularism, relativism, hedonism, and other vices which do indeed render the environment unfriendly to the proclamation of the gospel.

But we too easily overlook the deep religious hunger that continues to stir in the hearts of contemporary men and women. Discontented with a civilization of gadgets and entertainment, many are looking for some overarching meaning in life. For all its worldliness, the United States remains a remarkably religious nation – a nation, as G. K. Chesterton famously said, with the soul of a church. Many evangelically oriented sects and churches (Mormons, Adventists, Pentecostals, and Southern Baptists) are winning enormous numbers of converts. One wonders why, with all the official encouragement given to evangelization by Vatican II and the recent popes, Catholics are for the most part ready to leave the task to Protestants, some of whom are overtly hostile to Catholicism.

The reluctance of Catholics to evangelize has many roots, historical, sociological, cultural, and political. I shall restrict my attention to the theological roots. Catholic theology, in my opinion, still lags behind the evangelical shift that has taken place on the level of the Church's pastoral leadership. The program of evangelization calls for a renewal of Catholic theology, so that it may contribute to, rather than retard, the evangelical effort.

In seeking the right principles for an evangelically oriented theology that is fully consonant with Catholic Christianity, we could not do better than to look to the New Testament. The Gospels, the Acts, and the letters of Paul are permeated by such a theology. The New Testament understands the Church as an expansive community, divinely commissioned to extend to all peoples the saving message of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the content and the principal bearer of the gospel. Dwelling in the hearts of those who are baptized into his body, and actively present in their preaching and testimony, he inwardly moves and assists the faithful to carry on his work. In biblical terms the gospel may be described as the saving power of the risen Christ, exercised in and through the Church by means of word, sacrament, and personal witness.

Jesus’ mission on earth stands in unbroken continuity with his eternal existence within the godhead. As Son he is perfectly obedient to the Father, from whom he receives all that he is and does. Sent into the world by Christ, the Church is the gathering of those who engage themselves to travel on the road marked out by him. They seek to show that he is for all humanity, as he is for the baptized, the way, the truth, and the life. Taken up into the body of Christ and directed by the Holy Spirit, Christians become bearers of the good news by their speech, their actions, and their whole mode of being. Like Jesus himself, they have an essentially missionary existence.

Building on these biblical themes, theology seeks to show the connection between the word of God and the truth that leads to salvation. As “salutary truth,” the gospel rescues believers from death and gives them a share in eternal life. Taken up into the “pro-existence” of Christ the Redeemer, the Christian feels driven to declare by word and work the wonderful deeds of God. Because faith flowers into testimony, the theology of faith is inseparable from a theology of witness. All the truths of revelation draw their meaning and power from their relationship to Christ's redemptive action, which comes to expression in the gospel, the evangelium.

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Must Read!

“Telling the Story: Evangelism in Black Churches,” by James O. Stallings, Judson Press, 1988.

With this short book, James Stallings (Executive Minister for American Baptist Churches of Metro New York) illustrates the importance of personal salvation stories, including his own, and our own. Written to highlight the evangelical witness stemming from a narrative African American tradition, Stallings compels each of us to discover the story buried within our own faith lives – a story that is far more riveting (and convincing) than any propositional truth statement. The author does quite a bit of historical digging to rediscover the roots of black Christianity in America and its particular oral traditions. He then goes on to focus upon the meaning of those particular stories for today. In all, “Telling the Story” is a highly readable and effective book because it stays true to its message of telling personal stories for evangelism’s sake.

“ The Church Enslaved: A Spirituality of Racial Reconciliation,” by Tony Campolo and Michael Battle, Fortress Press, 2005

Yet another in the “black – white reconciliation” genre, “The Church Enslaved” brings its own fresh perspectives with an honest exposition of current cultural / racial differences and a commitment to real spirituality. Then, there’s the interesting combination of authors: aging but ever combustible Tony Campolo and young, articulate African American theologian Michael Battle. They make for a strange and contrasting friendship that somehow works well in both print and real life. Campolo and Battle provide a clear-eyed assessment of racial factors that have enslaved the church for centuries. They hit on myths and taboos, and offer challenges to both black and white churches alike. Then they go on to offer their hopes and recommendations for reconciliation through justice, healing and contemplation. Their book finishes with a good series of reflection questions and resources for further study.

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Mary Nelson to Receive William Sloane Coffin Award

Protestants for the Common Good will present its William Sloane Coffin Award for Peace and Justice to Mary Nelson to celebrate her twenty-six years of faith and service as President and CEO of Chicago’s Bethel New Life.

A Reception and Presentation will take place July 13, 2005, 5:30 - 7:30 p.m., at the Bethel New Life, Beth-Anne Campus, Cultural Arts Center , 1140 N. Lamon, Chicago , IL . Guest Speaker for the evening is Jim Wallis, Editor, Sojourners and Executive Director, Call to Renewal . Wallis is the author of the recent best-seller, “ God’s Politics.”

For more information, contact Protestants for the Common Good, (312) 223-9544 or their website, www.thecommongood.org .

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Thanks for Reading CityVoices!

Next month CityVoices profiles a small, midwestern city – Grand Rapids , Michigan . Come along with us to discover what both urban ministry and community look like in the midst of a Reformed heritage and a prosperous-looking future.

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

-- “Can This Church Live?” by Donald H. Matthews ($12)
-- “Churches, Cities, and Human Community” edited by Clifford J. Green ($15)
-- Or our special offer: Dominic Grassi’s “Bumping Into God,” “Bumping Into God, Again” and Ray Bakke’s “Expanded Mission of City Center Churches” – all for $25.

We look forward to hearing from you and meeting any of your ministry needs,
Roger Johnson – CityVoices / SCUPE (Chicago)
(312) 726-1200