Articles for tag: Urban Ministry

October 1, 2016

Christian Standard

Studying the City: How Three Schools Are Preparing Students for Urban Ministry

By Jennifer Johnson Two years ago, the United Nations predicted that by 2050, 66 percent of the world”s population would live in urban areas and reported that in the United States 82 percent already do. As the global community continues to move into cities, it”s becoming crucial for today”s young people””regardless of their major or vocational plans””to understand how to serve, minister, live, and thrive in urban environments. Several of the colleges and universities affiliated with our movement understand the need to reach their own cities while preparing students for an urban future. Here”s what three of them are doing.

July 14, 2016

Christian Standard

Transformed by God”s Grace

By Pat Magness The before and after photographs probably wouldn”t look that different. Both pictures would show a handsome, tall, athletic young man with a big smile. Unlike the transformation depicted in before and after pictures for a weight loss promo or exercise video, this transformation was not in looks, but in attitudes and actions. When I knew him “before,” he was self-absorbed, careless with the feelings of others. Some might have called him arrogant, and while he was never lazy, he often looked for the easy way. Perhaps most disturbing, he treated his sweetheart of a girlfriend with a

July 8, 2016

Christian Standard

City Planning

By Jennifer Johnson My friend Abby and I love to visit museums. Recently we spent the afternoon at the Philadelphia Art Museum, looking at our favorites””the modern art wing and anything by Van Gogh””and enjoying lunch in the café. Next month we”re planning a girls” trip to the ballet. Abby is 7. To say she”s a little brighter than her peers is like saying the current American political scene is a little dysfunctional. In addition to sampling the best culture of Philadelphia, Abby also loves going to New York City, just a short train ride away. She especially loves Broadway

July 8, 2016

Christian Standard

Trio Helping Facilitate the Future of Missions

By Jennifer Johnson It”s been a busy year for Stephen Burris. In January, Burris, along with Mark Krause and Kendi Howells Douglas, bought Urban Loft Publishers, an independent publisher of books focusing on urban ministry, church planting, theology, sociology, and even urban planning and architecture. “My friend Sean Benesh started the company a few years ago, and when he offered me the chance to buy it, I jumped at the chance,” Burris says. “It was both a defensive and offensive decision; defensive because we are aware there are many large publishers buying up small ones and putting them on the

June 30, 2016

Christian Standard

The Look, Smell, and Feel of Healthy Multiethnic Ministry

By Adrian Wallace Collaboration is the key aspect to effective inner-city ministry that, in turn, creates healthy multiethnic Christian community. Some of the main reconciliatory agents in Lexington, Kentucky, have been the joint efforts of churches of different denominations, parachurch groups, nongovernmental organizations, and civic organizations. Help has come from ministry partners like the Lexington Leadership Foundation, whose mission is to connect, unify, and mobilize the body of Christ. For example, LLF assisted Broadway Christian Church in creating an urban ministry. Quasi-governmental organization Partners for Youth, the Fayette County Public School system, and others have helped bridge gaps that have

June 25, 2016

Christian Standard

A Church Family for All People

By Brian Jennings and José Heredia If you walked around our urban neighborhood, you”d find a mix of ethnicities, cultures, and skin colors (about 30 percent minority and growing). You”d meet widows who”ve lived in their homes for 40 years and couples restoring the floors of their first home. You”d also see lots of apartments, several of which house people with poverty, hunger, disability, or struggles with mental illness. A few years ago, the Holy Spirit began compelling us to take steps toward ethnic, generational, and socioeconomic diversity. We have a great church of loving people, but we acknowledged that issues

March 10, 2016

Christian Standard

Our Challenges, My Peace

By Dan Lang Since my youth, the burning conviction to be a preacher moved me in the direction God wanted me to go. There was no escaping it. I was compelled. During training at Lincoln Christian University, Jesus” commission to make disciples of all people jelled for me as the simple but profound strategic mission that would shape the way I carried out my personal call to leadership ministry. A picture materialized of what my ministry in a local church might look like. I never dreamed I would be in my 28th year leading an increasingly diverse urban church with

November 23, 2015

Christian Standard

Back to the City

By Kendi Howells Douglas Our increasingly urban world requires a commitment to embracing diversity and pursuing reconciliation as we plant churches in cosmopolitan environments. Our world is more urban than rural for the first time in history1, and in addition to rethinking how we prepare people to minister in an urban world, we must look at church planting efforts in light of this new reality. In researching the history of the Restoration Movement in urban areas, I have discovered some factors that have kept many of our churches out of cities in the past. One issue was failure to be

February 23, 2015

Christian Standard

Spreading Our Hands Toward Heaven (Previewing the 2015 NACC)

By Stephanie Young Into the turbulent chaos of our times rings a signal: “Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below””you who keep your covenant of love with your servants who continue wholeheartedly in your way” (1 Kings 8:23). So begins a prayer for the nation of Israel by her king, as he stood before the whole assembly, spreading his hands toward Heaven. The national concerns were strikingly similar to our present day””unjust treatment by a fellow man, defeat at the hands of an enemy, disaster and disease, foreigners who

October 28, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

How to Succeed at Influencing Culture

By Mark A. Taylor How do you measure the success of your ministry? Joe Boyd and Rich Gorman and I talked about that for almost an hour last week in Christian Standard”s monthly Beyond the Standard online interview program, all while trying to address our assigned topic, “Church and Culture.” “The hardest thing about vocational ministry,” Boyd said, “is you never really know if you”ve done a good job or not.” Boyd doesn”t believe numbers alone can tell the story. He spoke about the ministry of Jesus who preached to the thousands but soon had only a dozen followers. And

August 7, 2014

Michael C. Mack

Blitz Your Community

By Michael C. Mack In May, Northeast Christian Church, Louisville, Kentucky, canceled weekend church services, opting instead to serve an urban community of the city where the church has a campus. Nearly 2,000 church members rode buses to Clifton, where they were mobilized for more than 4,000 hours of service. How does a church plan a serving event of this scale? Randy Gordon, “Go and Do” minister at Northeast, suggested that church leaders “establish points of contact in the community to identify the legitimate needs.” Northeast staff and volunteers visited schools, businesses, government leaders, community ministries, and a bar owner

May 31, 2014

Christian Standard

Country Clubs

By Jennifer Johnson I thought my years in California prevented me from developing geographical snobbery, that condition in which you assume your city/state/region has the corner on all things progressive and everywhere else is a barren wasteland. It”s a hobby along that coast; one California megachurch pastor actually told me Willow Creek grew to its current ginormity because “there”s nothing else to do out there. What”s in Illinois, yaks?” Yep, buddy, their church is way bigger than yours because Chicago”s boring. So I expected to like the Plains states when I first visited them years ago to lead workshops at

October 3, 2013

Christian Standard

A Conversation with Becky Ahlberg

Meet Our Contributing Editors: This month, in our ongoing series of interviews with CHRISTIAN STANDARD”s contributing editors, we speak with one who is leading a dynamic urban ministry. Interview by Jennifer Johnson  A lot has happened since the last time we talked about your ministry. Fill me in on the latest. Anaheim [California] First Christian Church started My Safe Harbor in 2008. We discovered that 70 percent of kids who join gangs, drop out of high school, commit suicide, run away, and get pregnant are from single-mother homes, so our goal is to make a difference now and in future generations by

September 29, 2013

Christian Standard

When ‘Les Mis’ Comes to Life

By Dave Smith I remember the first time I heard songs from Les Misérables. It was 1988, and I was riding in a van to Chicago with Tim Streett and a couple other guys. Tim and I were interning at our home church, East 91st Street Christian Church in Indianapolis. We were on our way to Chicago for a conference. Tim did not say much that day. He just kept playing songs from Les Misérables, over and over again. Many know Les Misérables as a powerful story of grace and forgiveness: but no one knows this better than Tim. Late

September 16, 2013

Christian Standard

Chicago Impact

By Tammy Melchien “We need to plant campuses in the city!” It was a simple text. I typed the eight words to Community Christian Church”s lead pastor, Dave Ferguson, and hit SEND as I was finishing an overnight getaway in downtown Chicago. I was energized by the past 24 hours in the city. I”ve always loved big cities. The energy. The life. The opportunities. Dave”s reply was simple too: “We do and we will!” It wasn”t until the car ride back to my suburban home that it hit me. I was supposed to be part of the vision to reach

September 15, 2013

Christian Standard

Boston Strong

By Dan Clymer I love Boston. Even though it is ridiculously expensive, academically arrogant, religiously skeptical, sometimes dangerous, and a place where it seems that sins are magnified and multiplied””I love this city. It has diverse worldviews and four idols called the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox. It is the focus of terrorist bombs and gangster murders, but I love this city. Why? Because God loves the people and desires to transform the soul of the city. Why plant churches in a city? In 1900 just 14 percent of the world”s population lived in cities. Today that number has

September 8, 2013

Christian Standard

Phoenix: New Approaches at New City

By Brian Kruckenberg “Do you own this gallery?” (As a pastor of a local church, it wasn”t a question I had ever expected to be asked.) “Well, sort of. Yes.” (Not the most eloquent answer, perhaps, but an honest one.) Over the past two and one-half years, I have been asked that question, and similar ones, time and time again in a place we call the New City Studio, one of New City Church”s venues. New City Studio is the place we intersect the message of the gospel with the world of art. I am pastor of this church, started

November 18, 2012

Christian Standard

Urban Ministry in Lansing

By Kendi Howells Douglas Lansing, Michigan, is a city of about 115,000 with a median income of $35,000. The population is 61.2 percent white, 23.7 percent black, 12.5 percent Hispanic, and 3.7 percent Asian1. The car industry town has seen economic hardships the past few years, with increasing unemployment, crime, domestic violence, single-parent homes, school closings, and many health care and education issues, among others. As in most towns, there are areas that seemingly are ignored, forgotten, or plain invisible. Delta Community Christian Church decided to go to one of those forgotten neighborhoods. Delta is a house church of about

November 17, 2012

Christian Standard

Urban Ministry: Not Just an Academic Concern

By Kendi Howells Douglas In January 2012, an academic society was formed and met for the first time in Bangkok, Thailand. The International Society of Urban Mission is a gathering of like-minded Christians, teachers, missionaries, and urban practitioners from around the world. Its members focus on the issues of urban life, specifically serving those who live in poverty-stricken conditions in the growing slums around the world. Officially, “The International Society For Urban Mission exists, therefore, to be a fellowship of urban missiologists committed to seeking God”s Shalom in cities, especially majority world cities, through active reflection, solidarity and leadership development.”1

July 12, 2012

Christian Standard

Just One NACC Story

By Mark A. Taylor Meet Tyrone Benson, minister with the  Pontoon Beach (Illinois) Christian Church, not far from St. Louis Missouri. Tyrone graduated from St. Louis Christian College this spring, and this is his first ministry. This is his first North American Christian Convention too. He’s at the event in Orlando, Florida, this year because of convention president Rick Rusaw’s idea to honor new ministry graduates at a special service during the convention’s closing session Friday morning. Tyrone is one of several dozen such ministers who will be singled out then. I can’t imagine a candidate more deserving of our

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