Doing effective ministry in the city                    -Robert C. Linthicum

"The most strategic ingredient for doing effective ministry in the city is the capacity to move from networking through community organization to action".

From networking...
The strength of a city lies in its informal networks. Sociologists once predicted the collapse of large cities, because they believed individuals would become increasingly isolated and detached. The result would be the breakdown of social controls and social solidarity. To their surprise, the cities didn't collapse at all, but continued to grow and be healthy, even when substantial poverty, poor housing and economic deterioration were evident. What held the cities together? Sociologists finally figured out what ordinary people had known for years-it was the networks of a city.
What are networks? They are the set of personal links an individual or a group of people build. They are the web of relationships that support an individual, a neighborhood, a community, an ethnic group. Your network might include your family, your close friends, the neighborhood food seller, the people who gather in the barbershop, a local politician, and three friends who gather on Friday nights to bowl with you. All form a web of mutual emotional support which can be quickly organized to deal with a specific problem.
    What is true for a personal network is true, as well, for a corporate network. Just as individuals can be part of a web of mutual support, so are clubs, societies, associations, unions, common interest groups and political precinct groups. These networks normally sustain, encourage and support each other. The informal networks in Mexico City mobilized to provide aid to the victims of the earthquakes in that city in 1985.

Networking is the basic starting place for Christian ministry in the city. Networking, for Urban Christians, is the building and maintenance of those contacts which will enable all the members of the network to carry out more effective ministry with the exploited, the lost and the churched in that city. On the surface, Christian networking is simply a strategy by which people get in touch and maintain contact with each other.
    But networking is far more profound than that. Built upon biblical foundations, it will enable the urban church to join effectively with the poor and exploited of its city in everyone's liberation. By joining in common cause, the church will gain the credibility to proclaim the gospel to those who have formerly despised it.
    Intentional Christian networking occurs when pastors or church leaders begin calling on the people of their community- other pastors, community leaders, business people, providers of social and educational services, law and justice leaders-but most of all, the "common people."

Through community organization...
Networking is not enough. Networking is based on the biblical assumption that all human beings, however uneducated and exploited in life, have a great capacity to understand and act upon their situation. Every human being, no matter how difficult his life might be, is created in the image of God and is capable of determining his future.
The most influential person in community organization
over the past fifty years has been the late Saul Alinsky. He wrote: (A community's future lies in) a healthy active, participating, interested, self-confident people who, through their participation and interests, become informed, educated, and above all develop faith in themselves, their fellow men, and the future. The people themselves are the future. The people themselves will solve each problem that will arise out of a changing world. They will if they, the people, have the opportunity and power to make and enforce the decisions instead of seeing that power vested in just a few.
I have discovered that this is the hardest single concept for Christians and the church to accept inwardly. The church accepts that each person must "work out his own salvation in fear and trembling" (Phil. 2:12), standing alone before God for judgment or justification through Christ.
But that also applies to every other dimension of life. Only a family in trouble can assume responsibility for their own problems; others can encourage, support and pray with them- but only that family can choose to take charge of their own predicament. Whether a church or a business, a club or a government, each must "work out (its) own salvation in fear and trembling."
Simply put, no church by itself can successfully mount a ministry to its community. If it does, that ministry will be effective only as long as the church chooses to make it a high priority and pours its volunteers and money into that project. Unless the community feels a sense of ownership for that ministry and of responsibility for it, that ministry will ultimately be ineffective.
A church can most effectively minister with its community. It must discover
the pulse beat of its community through the technique of networking. Having discovered what is of greatest importance to the community, the church must join with the community in addressing that need. The church cannot decide what is best for the community; only the people of that neighborhood can make that decision.
To be truly effective in urban ministry, a pastor or church must move from the unconscious assumption that the church is called to minister to people to the biblically liberating perspective that we are called to minister with the people so that, someday, ministry may be in the hands of the people and done by the people.
   

To action.
St. James reminds us that faith without works is dead (James 2:17). Networking and community organization that do not result in ongoing, successful action are dead. In fact, community organization which does not result in the people taking charge of their situation is an indication that no authentic community organizing has occurred. What makes for authentic projects of that community.
True community organization is built around the reflection of the people of that community and the people of God regarding their mutual situation. The people seek to understand the forces which have turned them into hurting people: the economic and political systems under which they live, the demonic nature of power, and their own personal responsibility. The reflection of the people enables them to under- stand their situation better and to identify for themselves what must be done to cope with their situation. Out of such reflection comes action-the choice by them of what must be done.
Projects will emerge. But these are projects of the people, not determined by churches that are in that community. These are not projects selected and funded by well-intentioned people on the other side of the world. These are projects psychologically "owned" by the people of that community and the people of God. The people will expend unbelievable effort to make them succeed.

World Vision and urban ministry
By the year 2000, fully one-quarter of the world's population will live in the squatter settlements of Third-World cities.
After a year and a half of discussion and development, World Vision International's Board approved an Urban Ministry Policy in 1987. The policy states, "It is World Vision's policy to commit a significant portion of its resources to enable the Body of Christ to effectively serve the poor and share the Good News with the lost in the world-class cities of the Two Thirds World."
Our task, as we see it, is to enable the churches which already exist in a city to carry out more effective ministry which addresses the spiritual, social and economic needs of the poor and to reach the lost of their city. '
We are at work in cities building and sustaining the net- works that pull Christians and the concerned poor into coalitions. These coalitions can then undertake the organizing of needy communities, with World Vision helping. This help can take the form of training in community organizing techniques and in skill-building, in providing technical assistance and, in some instances, providing organizing staff.
Our Lord was crucified on a crude wooden cross on the city's garbage heap, at the kind of place where cynics talk smut and thieves curse and soldiers gamble. The city is where the church should be. And it is the cynic, the thief, the soldier, the wretched of the earth, the lost that the city church should be all about. That is the Church's calling. That is the Great Commission for this new age.

Robert C. Linthicum is director of urban advance, World Vision International.