Articles for tag: Urban

March 10, 2013

Christian Standard

The Impact of Our Internships

By Bill Baumgardner “I have to do an internship?” “It is not that you must do an internship,” I say to the student before me. “You get to do an internship.” This is typical of many conversations I have at Cincinnati Christian University. As the director of service learning, I help students with their supervised internship for college credit. The internships are supervised because we feel there is a great value when a student works alongside someone who is in his or her field of study. This is why we match up students studying for the preaching ministry with preaching

January 19, 2013

Christian Standard

Interview with Danny Schaffner

By Paul Boatman Danny Schaffner Jr. is the preaching and teaching minister at Common Ground Christian Church in the urban corridor of Tampa, Florida. He has lived with his wife and three boys in this community since 2007. His church”s website is www.commongroundtampa.com.   What makes your ministry distinctive? Common Ground is a restart of a church that was closed for a year and a half. Our zip code, 33603, is where much of America will be in another generation: predominantly Hispanic-American, then African-American, and then Caucasian American. It feels like the mission field, where most of the people look,

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

November 16, 2012

Christian Standard

Signs of Hope Amid Urban Suffering

By Ash Barker Suffering and despair can easily overwhelm us, strangling any last tinges of hope we have for something better. This is often the case in our neighborhood, the Klong Toey slum in Bangkok, Thailand. Here we are confronted with HIV-AIDS, child malnutrition, and premature death as daily realities. The fragility of life and lack of control often cause us to cry out to God, who promises that a better world is possible. However, sometimes we can only pray, “How long do we have to sing this song? When will things get better?” Biblical hope is more than just

October 12, 2012

Christian Standard

Insights into the Underprivileged: Find This Book and Read It! (Part 6)

By Nancy Karpenske   What Every Church Member Needs to Know about Poverty Bill Ehlig and Ruby K. Payne Highlands: aha! Process Inc., 1999 Ruby K. Payne is the leading U.S. educator teaching teachers and social workers about the impacts on families in poverty, and the author of the best-selling book, A Framework for Understanding Poverty. Bill Ehlig has been a minister in urban settings for more than 30 years. God expects and commands followers of Jesus to be concerned and involved with needy people. “If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has

April 8, 2012

Christian Standard

A New Church for Happy”s Inn

By Phil Alspaw “This is just a fun ministry.” I say those words to my wife nearly every Saturday evening as we pull around a rural fire department”s parking lot and start driving 35 miles home after worshipping with Chain of Lakes Christian Church, started by Libby Christian Church last year on Easter weekend. We usually drive on a logging road maintained only a few months of the year; it”s bumpy, narrow, and beautiful. A long section of the road stretches along a gorgeous river that supports a vast wilderness teeming with deer, elk, moose, mountain lions, wolves, bears, and

May 25, 2011

Christian Standard

Well Gifted

By Mark A. Taylor “What do you want for your birthday?” Believe it or not, I always have trouble answering the question. It”s not that material things don”t turn my head. But, with all my physical needs met and so many of my wants provided, nothing”s pressing for a place on my wish list. Just bake me a chocolate cake and shower me with funny cards””that”s enough to make my birthday happy. I guess I”m at that stage of life where smaller gifts””the kind usually given at birthdays””aren”t really necessary. I have more socks and shirts than I can wear

February 24, 2011

Christian Standard

Restoring God”s Hope

By Jonathan Williams The scene was always the same. Every morning at 8:00 Marcus Jackson was at my classroom door with a scowl on his face and a half-eaten bag of red-hot, extra spicy potato chips in his hands. I think the red-hot chips explained why Marcus had a scowl on his face. I could always count on two things each morning. The sun would rise and Marcus Jackson would ask to go to the nurse after finishing his bag of red-hot, extra spicy potato chips. It seemed that his breakfast never agreed with him. After school Marcus wouldn”t go home.

November 23, 2008

Christian Standard

The Emerging Church: A Brief History and Helpful Resources

By William R. Baker See the Main Article: “The Emerging Church and the Stone-Campbell Movement: Some Striking Similarities (Part 1)”     What is now dubbed the emerging church began with a few prominent, young, evangelical church leaders in the early 1990s who became disenchanted with the megachurches with which they were involved. It has grown now to an expanding network of mature, culturally savvy church leaders and thinkers who minister with congregations, mostly in large cities.  These leaders are attempting to embody the gospel within the challenges of a postmodern world. The crisis these leaders were experiencing, it turns

July 6, 2008

Christian Standard

Hope Partnership: A Way to Get Involved in HIV/AIDS Ministry

By Staff Nearly 2.5 million people live in poverty in the slums and urban areas of Nairobi, Kenya. They lack the basic necessities of life, including adequate housing, clean water, and sanitation services. Educational opportunities are negligible. Diseases run rampant throughout the communities. Complicating the problem, there are very few jobs to provide the income needed for families to improve their lives. In addition to these difficulties, the effects of AIDS are devastating the area. There are countless orphans and vulnerable children throughout the slums, where the infection rate approaches 40 percent. For every person who dies of AIDS, another

August 19, 2007

Caleb Acton

microenterprise

The Bread That Brings Life

A California church partnered with leaders in Nairobi’s Mathare Valley to support microenterprise as mission. One $8 loan helped Elizabeth start a chapati business, escape exploitation, and grow in faith and community.

May 20, 2007

Christian Standard

Gifts from the Heart

By Ruth Herron and Anita Smelser The young mother hesitated as she and her toddler stepped quietly into the foyer. She sat down quickly on the closest pew, shushing him and pulling him near her. She smiled tentatively as a worker greeted her and asked a few questions for record keeping. “Yes, it”s just me and my son. . . . Yes, we have transportation. . . . I got a job and someone to watch my little boy. . . . I start tomorrow.” The young mother answered each of our questions, but we knew from experience the most

October 19, 2005

Mark A. Taylor

biblical unity

Poorest of All

Using David Hilfiker’s observations about urban poverty, this editorial challenges Christians to confront a different poverty—life without unity. It urges believers to begin with relationship, prayer, and shared fellowship across divisions.

September 7, 2005

Mark A. Taylor

Ground Zero

Four Years Later

A late visit to Ground Zero makes the facts of 9/11 feel newly heavy—and raises a question: what would it look like if the aftermath became a lasting catalyst for worship, mission, and what endures?

July 27, 2005

Mark A. Taylor

urban evangelism

Different

A Central Park conversation reveals how stereotypes distort our view of unfamiliar communities. This reflection urges Christians to learn from and support those sharing the gospel in neighborhoods unlike their own.

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