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A paper submitted to Alliance Theological Seminary Nyack, New York
for Theology & Practice Mission to Urban Poor Reference: Jenkins, L. (2003). Kingdom Building In a Diversified Urban Community. Nyack, New York, Alliance Theological Seminary.
CONTENTS I. BRIEF INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................3 II. CURRENT KINGDOM ISSUES...................................................................................3 III. STRATEGY FOR ENTRANCE....................................................................................5 IV. DOCTRINAL TEACHING..........................................................................................6 V. PURPOSE OF THE CHURCH FOR THE COMMUNITY....................................................7
A. As the Body of Christ
VI. CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES.....................................................................................9 VIII. GOD’S CREATION OF INSTITUTIONS ...................................................................16 IX. POVERTY AND POWER........................................................................................17 X. HOW CAN THE CHURCH EMPOWER THE POOR.......................................................18 XI. BIBLIOGRAPHY....................................................................................................21
This report provides my vision and strategy of building a church in a urban environment that is located amongst middle and upper class families that are of different ethnic, cultural, and racial backgrounds. The church has existed in this location for 85 years, however, the demographics and psychographics of the community has changed significantly and the church has made very little impact on the community. It maintains a small membership of approximately 30-35 African American people that represent poor and middle class families and the congregation is not being led to fulfill the tasks that Christ ordained for the Church. The focus of this paper will address
CURRENT KINGDOM ISSUES The current characteristics of the congregation with respect to psychological, economics, family and community, and relationship of subculture to major institutions have created kingdom issues in this church.
Although a new Pastor has been recently installed, he does not have the time or commitment to develop this church. This key leader is spiritual, of good character, and good at administration and the people know this person well, He has created a pattern of Bible Study every Tuesday, Sunday morning services at 8:00 a.m. and one 11:00 a.m. service on the 2nd Sunday and meets with the church officers and ministers once a week for training and development. As I alluded to earlier, the residents in this area have changed significantly over the past 10 years in terms of demographics and psychographics and the strategies to reestablish this church in the community must be meaning and relevant to this new community. The Pastor has not taken time to strategically deploy actions that will develop and grow a healthy church although he keeps asking the question what can be done to improve and grow this church. Therefore, the current membership continues to exist of poor to middle class African Americans. STRATEGY FOR ENTRANCE Understanding the culture of this community is key to evangelizing and ministering to people. In an effort to develop the church that is in an urban middle and upper class environment, I believe the first step to entrance into this community is to conduct a thorough investigation of the community and determine the nature and the tasks of the church in the community.
1. Why does the church exist in this
community?
The goal is to develop a
church that changes lives and leads people to preserve the lives of future
generations through Background Investigation of Community
Growing a church should begin with prayer and reliance upon God. There are things that people will look for to know if the church will be of interest to them. The evangelistic efforts would concentrate on intercession and proclamation of the gospel message as well as the church’s ministries. Defining and establishing a team to address the community issues will be key. Training the current membership will assist with the new strategies. DOCTRINAL TEACHING
As I think about the entrance
strategies and the current membership of this church, I’m asking myself the
questions that may be relevant to a person seeking a church. What is the
church teaching? I believe and agree with the following eight doctrines of
the church that are indispensable when people are seeking for a fellowship
that is teaching the truth. PURPOSE OF THE CHURCH IN THE COMMUNITY It is important that the church builds the faith of its members and disciples them accordingly. Also, church membership is essential for the growing Christian. The church would be accountable to having leaders that preach and teach the gospel while at the same time enabling the people to receive direction from God in other areas of their life. In addition, the church should be concerned about poverty-stricken people and people around the world who never have head the Gospel? The church must not only make an impact in its community but also globally. In Ephesians 2:14-18, Paul reminds the Gentile community of how much God has blessed them in the Body of Christ:
The church is also known is the Fellowship of the Spirit. There are several references in Scripture which indicate the church is a fellowship established by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit creates a community in the sense that the common participation of believers in the Holy Spirit brings them together in the community. The church as the Family of God in the light of Trinitarian Thinking has also distinguished itself as a family in the community. Followers of Christ are taught to call God “our Father” in the New Testament (Matthew 6:9). God is the creator of all human beings, but He is the Father of all believers in Jesus Christ. Having God as Father implies having intimate family relationship with Him. In relation to God the Father, we are brothers and sisters in Christ. We are to love and serve one another and no one of us should lord over the others. In terms of God the Son, Christ is the one and only Son of God. Christians are legally adopted as “sons of od” and children of God. Finally, as God the spirit, Christians share in the common family Spirit, the Holy Spirit. We are born from the Spirit into the new spiritual family of God. Members of the church are to treat one another as they would members of their own family. The church is to be defined as primarily as the Christian community. It is a community in which believers are in communion with one another. The church is one community bound together in dynamic fellowship in Christ, reflecting the very life of love and communion of the Godhead. The church is to be a Great Commission church, always reaching out to the lost and making disciples of all the nations. The church is to incarnate Jesus’ message of love and service before an unbelieving world. Christians are to live incarnationaly by loving and serving the people so that they may come to know Christ, the Savior. The goal is to connect the human need with the divine resource.
It is going to take a holistic approach to ensure that both the believer or nonbeliever is aware of the solution or resource is a direct response from God. CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES Given the church currently has a congregation of African Americans, I thought I would take the time to provide cultural perspectives of Black Americans. Throughout history Black Americans have periodically experienced separation from their families and friends and have known the intense loneliness of rejection. As a result of this experience and the journey to freedom, Black Americans have displayed in their kinship organization a capacity for individual mobility and freedom with security that has enabled generations of Black Americans to “try their luck” in a new environment. People build on what they know, and possibly here and there a custom, a rule, or a value survived as a foundation for a new way of life. The black family has demonstrated adaptability throughout Black history in the rural South, during migration to he North, and in Northern cities. Social Structure & Kinship Black people had large network of relatives surrounding them and strong interaction and interdependence among kin. Relatives and close friends where important dependencies to survive in life. Besides blood relatives, there had been those people who where always “just there.” People who functioned as an Uncle or Aunt, but was not related. These people were day-to-day contacts or concerns who helped when one is thinking of family beyond “blood” relatives. Along with kinship goes moral responsibility. Southern folk do not limit their circle of kin to real or assumed relatives. They add “play mothers and fathers” and “play sisters and brothers” onto an already full set of kin. Family members in other cities or states often allowed them to live in their homes until they will able to get on their fend for themselves. Those in one generation would help the next generation to settle in a new situation. Gender: Male vs. Female Roles
Men play a variety of roles and
role types in Black families; they may be good providers (father or
husband), family leaders (maternal or paternal uncle), sources of rivalry
and support (brother), or focuses of pride or concern (son or nephew). One
individual does not necessary exemplify all of these role types during his
lifetime. Within one extended group, the total range of kinship roles is generally present, with a wide variation in their performance. The child is exposed to a spectrum of activities and values of men that may be represented by the free-floating male or by the pillar of the community, both of whom play a part in his socialization. Male family members reflect a variety of values and life possibilities. Because of they are black, young men deal with the severe handicaps of their environment without benefit of an institutionalized myth of male superiority, although they are sustained by bonds of friendship and kinship. Fatherhood Social fatherhood is not essential to becoming a man, while it is considered necessary to first attain manhood in order to be an effective father. Some fathers put their children first and earned the respect and love of their children. The mother would be identified as the disciplinarian and boss while the father was identified as the provider and protector. This type of father also influenced his children in his communication of their future. His attitude towards their education or future endeavors would shape the child’s thinking to some degree. Men instill in their daughters the perception of what a man should or should not be. What the father says about men to the daughter will be her view of men as she grows up and even as an adult. As a result, woman would find themselves in relationships that were not created on the basis of love but on the basis of convenience. The role of father, like that of mother, is greatly idealized and is felt to require the mature faculties of the person. A young man may have to compete with an arrangement between mother and her daughter, or between a girl and her kin group, as well as to resist pressures exerted by his own mother, in his attempt to be a real father to his child. Motherhood Being a mother is a highly valued role in Black communities. With motherhood comes responsibility and shared responsibility brings adults together. A mother may not encourage her daughter to marry, since she will lose her support and a measure of domestic authority. Often a woman can turn to her mother or other family members for help if her marriage does not work. Women were willing to help take care of a child if the mother was not able to or did not want to. The ways in which Black mothers influence their daughters vary. The deciding factors are their own needs and experiences as well as their own upbringing. It is an accepted premise that men attempt to control women. Mothers try to protect their daughters from these influences. Black mothers are strong and protective. In the communities in which they often must raise their children, these are necessary, socially approved traits. They impose strong discipline because a child needs to learn respect for others and for social order. They surround their children with a network of family and friends, furnishing them with a sense of security and sensitizing them to social values. Black children developed a strong social identity. Children Children are desired. They are tangible evidence of manhood and womanhood and of one’s humanity. Children are important to a woman, especially in the absence of a stable relationship with a man. A woman needs someone to care for and to hold on to. A husband is not necessary to have children, and children are important if a woman’s life is not to be lonely and unfulfilled. Children in Black families have an intimate knowledge of a wide range of social relationships and experience a complexity of attitudes and values that are not encountered by children in the conjugal family setting. Discipline is often strict and concerned with teaching children to show respect to their elders and to adult authority in general. The aunt’s and uncles on the maternal side generally has influence on the children regardless to where they live. Children belonged to their mother’s kin group and a maternal uncle has jural authority over, and takes responsibility for, his sister’s children. It is a tightly-knit family group, which gives emotional and financial security to its members. Family obligations extended beyond the nuclear household. Relatives were accustomed to sending money and helping with financial issues. In order to be effective in achieving advantageous social arrangements, Black youth learn early to exercise their intelligence and will in a social context and to cooperate without being easily controlled or intimated. A child should be firmly disciplined but not suppressed. Marriage Among Black people in the United States marriage may endured partly because of support by family members and also because the mates are well-suited and have a good understanding including social, psychological, and economic arrangements. In the South, it was believed you should marry someone close to your own age. And the woman should never be older not even by as much as a month. Black family is more frequently oriented toward the maternal side in the families. When sons and daughters marry, they usually leave home, but they often remain in the same neighborhood as their parents and form closely-knit groups. Children learn a variety of social roles and values within this extended group. Rituals (Funerals, Weddings, Reunions) Ritual activities such as reunions, funerals, and other celebrations strengthen the system of economic reciprocity that is prevailed in Black communities. They are a supreme expression of a system of exchange which reinforces mutual aid among its members and also signifies a social identification with a powerful group whose orientation is not merely one of survival but of advancement through unity and mutual social support. These ceremonies of the extended family are an embodiment of the drama, excitement, sociability, and display that are essential to the human spirit. Religion The elders of the family - grandmothers, typically were the ones who attended church and kept the family in touch with religion. The elder usually a woman is very active in the church, which is the best source of information. The Baptist church was identified as the center of social activity. Some churches are strong and have managed to keep most taverns out of the area. Legal System Black Americans may not accept the terms and decrees of a legal system designed for conjugal family system in which parents take all responsibility and have sole rights over their children, and a man is the sole support of his wife and children. These requirements do not hold in the case of extended families, where grandparents, aunts, and uncles share responsibility for children and in which a woman may receive support for herself and her children from sources other than a husband and father. In these informal legal procedures, the legal system may be used as a means of enforcement rather than as a final authority because it is not responsive to some of the values and needs of the contending parties. Communication Patterns & Channels Black people are a highly mobile group. They will travel via buses, trains, and planes to see family members due to life events, death, or social bonding as well as work. They maintain bonds of kinship and friendship so they may periodically return to renew a feeling of “roots” and so that others may follow them into a new life. Family members are sent cards for birthdates or special occasions. Funerals are occasions on which families get together, particularly in the South. Wakes would last as much as three days, with plenty of food and liquor. Relatives would come from everywhere and stay for several days or a week. The death of an extended family member brings together the entire kin group. Funerals generally show respect for the dead as well as an occasion for renewal of bonds among the living. Locating family members would take leaving messages with friends who may have seen the relative or by visiting places that the relatives frequently go to. Blacks respect those who communicate freely and clearly, expressing and sharing themselves. MINISTRY IMPLICATION It is important to understand the origin of the strong feeling for family in the Black community. The kinship systems of African societies include patrilateral, matrilateral, and bilateral extended families. In the urban setting, Black families generally are more common to be matrifocal households. This situation can be explained by the following factors:
1. the relatively high fertility of Black
women; For a Black man, complete commitment to one household carries with it the risk of loss of pride if he loses his job or is unable to handle emergencies; further, the high fertility rate together with the higher death rate among young men means that there are more children per able-bodied man to support than in the White population. All of the individuals mentioned were basically oriented to their mothers and to a lesser extent, their fathers kin groups; while most children are the focus of an extensive network of friends, relatives, and fictive kin, their basic identity and security lie within a relatively limited and clearly bounded set of kin. The extended family is surrounded and nourished by a larger social network, which forms its community. For ministry to be effective in the Black community, the services the ministry provides must be relevant to that community. It must be holistic enough to touch not only the man, woman, and child from a biblical, spiritual perspective but clearly identify and provide assistance to meeting the needs of each person in the immediate family as well as the extended family. Upon reviewing the cultural perspectives of African Americans and the involvement of the church in the community, the strategies and gospel message will need to immediately address the physical, emotional, and informational needs of people in this community.
GOD’S CREATION OF THE INSTITUTIONS The scriptures present nations, cities, businesses, churches, and even families as bodies that are made up of these interlocking systems - a religious system (that is, that structure by which that social institution moves into relationship with God), a political system (that structure which orders the life of that community) and an economic system (that structure which provides the material support of the nation, city, business, church, or family). (Linthicum, 1991:105-106) A. RELIGIOUS The religious system has been created by God to bring the nation, city, religious institution or family into relationship with God. For this is why corporate life as well as individual was created: so that humanity might glorify God and enjoy God forever. B. POLITICAL The political system was created by God to bring a Godly order to the institution an order based upon equitable justice for all as the inevitable networking of a corporate deepening of relationship with God. C. ECONOMIC The economic system was created by God to steward responsively the resources of the nation, city, business, church, or family. God was perceived as the owner of everything and the people as God’s trustees, caring for God’s wealth by using that wealth to maintain economic equality and justice for all citizens. The corruption of the systems begin with money. The economic leaders determine that they are not stewards but owners of an institution’s wealth. Eventually they will not only seek honest gain but will cheat in business, charge unfair interest and find legal ways to steal from the people - thus exploiting an increasingly vulnerable people to build their own estates. The political systems, seeking to protect the wealth of the increasingly affluent and thus protecting the source of the politician’s wealth and power will create laws which will oppress the people while protecting the powerful. The religious system will then support this political and economic collusion by “blessing” it, for which they will be amply rewarded. This they will do by using their access to God by keeping the people from God, thus creating a religion of control while seeking their own power. The voices of accountability to that institution - the prophets - will gradually be seduced by money, power and prestige, and thus will be stilled. The people oppressed, exploited and controlled by the systems created to serve them will become the exploiters of each other. Thus the essential spiritual nature of the nation, city, business, church or family which has been created by God will become irredeemably evil. Thus, the church is to be on the side of the poor, the oppressed, the exploited. The church is to work for their empowerment both by gospel and by their own self-determination. The primary way such commitment to the poor is to be lived out by the church is through empowerment. God’s people are to practice charity toward the poor (Deutoronomy 15:10-11), are to be concerned about deteriorating human conditions among the poor (Isaiah 61:1-9) and are to advocate the cause of the powerless before the systems of power (Jeremiah 22:13-27). POVERTY AND POWER To truly understand the condition of poverty today, one must understand how power is exercised in the city. Poverty is not so much the absence of goods as it is the absence of power - the capability of being able to change one’s situation. It is because one is already severely limited in what he or she can do to change one’s plight that one becomes impoverished. Marginalization, exploitation and oppression are not simply results of poverty, but its primary causes. The very systems of a city could become corrupt, grasping, oppressive, and exploitative. If the church does not deal with the systems and structures of evil in the city, then it will not effectively transform the lives of that city’s individuals. (Linthicum, 1999: p11). Understanding the nature of evil in the city requires examining the primary systems that make a city function and then analyzing these systems biblically. What are the classic systems of the city - that is, the systems any city must have in order to function? The systems that order the life of a city are economic, political, and religious. By “religious” it means the system that gives the city its reason for existence. A religion is that which structures or brings ordered meaning to life. With such a definition, we can readily see that even the most secular and materialistic city has a religion, because it uses a commitment to modernity or communism or technology or nationalism to bring order and structure to its existence. All other social institutions (education, health care, culture, and the arts, social services) are subsystems of the economic, political and religious systems of a city. In fact, several hundred years ago, each of these subsystems was regarded as part of the religious system, for it was the responsibility of the church to carry out these services and to be patron of the city’s art and culture. (Linthicum, 1991:11) How can the poor become the people God created them to be? How can the systems and structures work for justice, maintain the “common wealth” for all and seek to bring the whole city into vital relationship with God rather than seek to economically exploit, politically oppress and spiritually control the people? How can the city work authentically for a Godly community no longer dominated by the powers of darkness which corrupt every effort of humankind? It all begins with working for the empowerment of the poor. What is important for us as Christians to realize is that behind every statistic are millions of individual stories, stories of poverty, of sickness and despair, stories of people who are unable to influence the course of their own lives and are powerless to change the course of their neighborhoods or cities. HOW CAN THE CHURCH EMPOWER THE POOR?
There are three distinctly different responses
that any church or mission organization can make to its city. The response
the church chooses to make decides whether that church will play a
significant role in the poor’s empowerment will provide social services out
of its largess or will simply ignore the needy around it. The task of the poor in the city is empowerment. The unbelievable living conditions of the urban poor - wretched jerry-built housing, polluted water supplies, open sewers, a lack of balanced food, terrible health conditions - are essentially manifestations of a far deeper problem. For the primary problem is a distribution of power. A few have considerable wealth and political clout - and back up that clout with the laws of the state, their control of the city’s economic machinery, and often with military hardware, guns, police dogs and even tanks. Unless the poor can find ways to effect an economic and political redistribution of power, all the efforts to feed, house and clothe them will only be palliatives that will never significantly change their estate. The task of the poor in the city is their own empowerment. And the task of the church is to come alongside the poor, both becoming their advocates before the rich and to join with the poor in their struggle to deal with the forces that are exploiting their community. The most effective means for bring about such empowerment in the city is community organization.
Community organizations is a
uniquely urban approach to Christian ministry among the poor. Modern cities
are the centers both of great power and utter powerlessness, of absolute
poverty and corrupted wealth. And its is in the midst of such power and
wealth, vulnerability and poverty that the church makes its home. BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Aschenbrenner, Joyce. Lifelines: Black
families in Chicago. (Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, Inc. 1975)
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© Viv Grigg, other materials © by various contributors & Urban Leadership Foundation, Last modified: April 2007 |
Once the church assists the community with their
basic needs, then people will be more receptive to hearing the gospel
message.