Has your community changed in the last 10 years? In recent weeks I’ve asked that question to dozens of pastors, and not one has said, “No.” Everyone, whether in urban, suburban, small town, or rural settings, has noticed significant shifts in the communities surrounding their churches.
The most conspicuous change has been the increasing diversity of the population. Racial, religious, and economic differences are increasingly evident. This, of course, can be unsettling to some, but it presents tremendous opportunities for ministry. Every congregation is aware of human needs in its own back yard.
Just this week I heard from my friend Dr. Gerald Durley, pastor of Providence Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta, who described the “regentrifying” of that city:
“In the 1980s and early ’90s, many urban congregations were predominantly black, and suburban congregations were predominantly white, but as urban sprawl (and traffic snarls, longer commutes, higher gasoline prices, etc.) began to take its toll on the suburbanites, they began to move back into the cities.
“First, young, single whites came back remodeling old warehouses. Politicians once again recognized the viability of urban centers. Sports facilities began to attract more people back downtown who remained after dark. City planners began redesigning sections of the city. Lofts and condos were built. Real estate speculators bought entire black neighborhoods, at below market value, and rebuilt them for those returning from the suburbs.
“For the last 15 years, regentrification has quietly and now resoundingly transpired. Most cities are no longer merely black and white, but are rapidly seeing Latino and Asian populations emerge. As more and more Christians find themselves in racially integrated neighborhoods, the church is challenged to take the initiative to create ‘the beloved community,'” concludes Pastor Durley.
What opportunity! And regentrified cities are only one setting where changes are creating openings for churches to touch their communities with the gospel and with tangible expressions of God’s love.
But where do you start? Durley identifies three starting points for churches that want to transform their changing communities:
- Provide Spirit-filled worship relevant to your particular community mosaic that offers the spiritual wisdom and power necessary for all those in attendance to endure the challenges of the week.
- Actively seek to erase barriers of ignorance and misunderstanding across racial, gender, class, and economic lines.
- Conduct ministries that directly contribute to solving whatever issues confront your community, whether unemployment, health care, teenage crime and pregnancies, senior citizen care, illiteracy, homelessness, or hunger.
This issue of Leadership offers multiple examples of churches, from Whitefish, Montana, to Jacksonville, Florida, that are finding ways to transform their communities.
You’ll also notice this issue of Leadership is something of a transformation itself. After 22 years, we’re changing the paper and the look of our cover. The larger photo illustration provides a “window into the world,” representing some aspect of the theme.
Last month, we showed this illustration and several other possibilities to those attending the National Pastors Convention. This one was the clear favorite.
“It communicates what the church does,” said Ted Schuldt, an interim pastor in Seattle. “The church turns the world upside down and brings it into focus.”
Others mentioned the sacramental overtones of the glass, while still others reflected on the cup of cold water.
Yes, such a picture can communicate on a number of levels, just as the church does as it touches its community.
Marshall Shelley is editor of Leadership.
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