1 of 8
Books discussed in this essay
Andrew Billingsley, Mighty Like a River: The Black Church and Social Reform (Oxford Univ. Press, 1999).
Robert D. Carle and Louis A. DeCaro, Jr., eds. Signs of Hope in the City: Ministries of Community Renewal (Judson Press, rev. ed., 1999).
Roberta Brandes Gratz with Norman Mintz, Cities Back from the Edge: New Life for Downtown (Wiley, 1998).
Paul S. Grogan and Tony Proscio, Comeback Cities: A Blueprint for Urban Neighborhood Revival (Westview Press, 2000).
Nile Harper and associates, Urban Churches, Vital Signs: Beyond Charity Toward Justice (Eerdmans, 1999).
Katherine S. Newman, No Shame in My Game: The Working Poor in the Inner City (Alfred A. Knopf/Russell Sage Foundation, 1999).
Cheryl J. Sanders, Ministry at the Margins: The Prophetic Mission of Women, Youth and the Poor (InterVarsity, 1997).
Stanley P. Saunders and Charles L. Campbell, The Word on the Street: Performing the Scriptures in the Urban Context (Eerdmans, 2000).
Amy L. Sherman, Restorers of Hope: Reaching the Poor in Your Community with Church-Based Ministries That Work (Crossway, 1997).
Ray Suarez, The Old Neighborhood: What We Lost in the Great Suburban Migration, 1966-1999 (Free Press, 1999).
Jim Wallis, Faith Works: Lessons from the Life of an Activist Preacher (Random House, 2000).
William Julius Wilson, The Bridge Over the Racial Divide: Rising Inequality and Coalition Politics (Univ. of California Press/Russell Sage Foundation, 1999).
Robert L. Woodson, Sr., The Triumphs of Joseph: How Today's Community Healers Are Reviving Our Streets and Neighborhoods (Free Press, 1998).
Two miles west of Baltimore's tourist-packed and stadium-lined inner harbor, and just a mile or so further from Fort McHenry where the "Star Spangled Banner" was composed, is the inner-city neighborhood of Sandtown. The prevailing public sentiment about Sandtown has long been, "Can anything good come from here?" Because the gospel is good news for the poor, the answer is of course, yes. Today there are many remarkable things taking place, and one catalyst has been New Song Community Church. Having heard the cry of God in the cries of the community, the church has seeded an ensemble of community development initiatives. A neighborhood health center serves all residents regardless of insurance or ability to pay, a housing corporation has replaced blocks of vacant houses with units sold for community ownership, a multi-grade school enables children to succeed, and a job placement program links working-age unemployed people to a ladder of employment. At the center is the church, with its worship and witness animating the process. The cumulative result is that block-by-block, God's shalom is being advanced.
Skeptics may find this account too good to be true. To them I say, visit Sandtown, take a look for yourselves. In fact, New Song's Christian community development efforts are just one very small part of a much larger story of urban faith and discipleship under the heading of "church-based" or "faith-based" ministry. President George W. Bush's announcement of a new White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives has drawn attention to often unheralded success stories—and raised concerns among critics and allies. Despite ongoing debate, Bush's actions promise to quicken the pace of public and religious partnership in social services and community development that has been underway for the past decade and longer.
Clearly, there has been a reversal of evangelical withdrawal from social ministry and concern, a historical change that deserves celebration. But in our time of ballooning national plenty, is too little being said about the reasons why a work such as New Song is even still required? Are we too concerned with the deeds of compassion and not critical enough about the needs for a more just social world? In the books discussed in this essay—and there are more now on this subject than ever before—we are helped not only to think about what congregations are doing and can be doing better, but also to reflect on the conditions of urban America that call faith-based ministries into being.
share this page
RSS Feed
