In the News
Urban Ministries Strengthened As Dedicated Workers Buoyed
Outsider Observations Inside an Urban Ministry Conference
By David B. Bowes
Diverse attendees from 20 cities in 14 states had two key things in common when they convened at the College of Preachers on a Saturday in June for a conference called The City of God for American Cities: Reinventing the Urban Church™. Representing nine Christian denominations, the attendees shared an abiding commitment to beleaguered urban ministries. In addition, they wanted to hold burnout at bay and reinvent themselves while gaining new insights for effective servant ministry to city dwellers.
By Thursday, before a closing Eucharist in the college chapel, it was clear that the intervening days of city-focused worship, seminars with noteworthy urban church leaders, field trips to Capitol Hill and innovative church-run agencies, and social time when laughter and song could trump commiseration, had enabled these men and women to look forward to more productive action on behalf of congregants and others who live precarious lives in often unforgiving cityscapes.
The Rev. Dr. Douglass M. Bailey, conference founder and executive director of the Center for Urban Ministry, Inc.™ at Wake Forest University Divinity School, started the final session with a prayer: “Renew your urban church, oh Lord, beginning with each of us.” He ended the session with uncomfortable words from the long-imprisoned Nobel Peace laureate Nelson Mandela: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure...”
Between Dr. Bailey's opening appeal and the challenge implicit in Mandela's comment, one attendee after another stood to express thanks for the supportive fellowship of their counterparts and the perspective of speakers who once had risked life and career alike to stand with the poor and the disenfranchised. One such speaker and discussion leader on the program was Memphis Pastor, the Rev. Dr. Samuel “Billy” Kyles, the last living person to confer with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. mere minutes before the civil rights leader was assassinated in that city.
Several participants expressed surprise at their unexpected comfort with candid personal interchange and self-disclosure as these became progressively more common in conference seminars and over meals. “I arrived at this place,” said the female rector of a parish in a Middle Atlantic town-turned-city, “saying to myself ‘This is the College of Preachers, I need to be really serious here.' But the welcoming atmosphere is a revelation. I'm so comfortable I'm waving my hands as I talk!”
Others were thankful for vocational dimensions of the program and for unstructured time with speakers who likewise had stood against the disinterest of a largely prosperous and mostly conventional society. “This has been a re-connection with the big C Church for me,” explained the pastor of a predominantly gay congregation in the central South. “This is the first conference I've attended anywhere since 1991 and I never expected such a warm reception. And [the people I represent here] do want validation so much! Sitting at the feet of wise elders like Gordon Cosby will light the way for me for a long time.” The 86-year-old Cosby had counseled that vision in urban ministry, while important, pales before the authenticity of essence. “Urban churches must model the essence of what it means to do church in this 21st century,” said Cosby.
Presenters pulled no punches about how much more uncaring the climate of support for their efforts has become in recent years. A former police officer, now studying in seminary, pondered that judgment with emotion: “I'm humbled by all we've shared together, particularly the stories. It's hard to be in higher education these days because so many people there don't care about what you all care about. I know I'm white and privileged. But I've never fit in anywhere.” Those in attendance hastened to assure this colleague in transition that counterintuitive blends of training make for a perfect fit in urban ministry.
Central to reinventing the urban church is knowing intimately the turf of in-town neighborhoods, cultivating and training volunteers, conveying strong personal commitment and “staying at the table when things in a city partnership get rough.” Each conference to date has presented a prophetic and pastoral vision of the Biblical mandates for making the word of God manifest in the city. Moreover, each has offered direct connection with specific urban ministries where lives are being transformed and communities renewed.
This year's conference attendees in Washington, DC, made pilgrimage to Luther Place Memorial Church, the N Street Village Ministries, and several servant ministries of The Church of the Saviour. Since it was organized by The Rev Dr. N. Gordon and Mary Cosby in 1946, the “multi-denominational” Church of The Savior has spun off a dozen discrete faith communities. Today, the Adams-Morgan neighborhood is being transformed by pieces of the Church of the Saviour such as the Festival Center's Servant Leadership School, Samaritan Inns for the homeless addicts, Christ House medical clinic, the Potter's House restaurant and other outreach entities.
The day before the conference ended, attendees joined Dr. Marian Wright Edelman and her Children's Defense Fund for that organization's “Wednesday in Washington” advocacy blitz on Capitol Hill. In the vanguard were mothers pushing strollers to dramatize their desire for Congress to take constructive action on issues of children's' health, education and justice. Many noted that this opportunity to act at the federal level was possible because the conference is located in the nation's capitol.. One conferee, the Very Rev. Ernesto Medina of St. Paul Cathedral in Los Angeles, was invited by his congressman to offer the daily prayer in the House of Representatives.
Back in the college's library, the dialogue on the urban church's role in promoting racial justice continued with remarks by and exhortation from the Rev. Dr. Johnny Ray Youngblood. Dr. Youngbbood's book Upon This Rock: The Miracles of a Black Church is based on his trenchant defense of disinherited African-Americans through the programs of St. Paul Community Baptist Church in Brooklyn, N.Y. His presentation prompted spirited discussion about whether racially exclusive parishes of any color offer useful precedent for fighting 21st century discrimination that is just as likely to be based on economic oppression or sexual identification as on race.
Key things to stress next, counseled the Rev. Dr. Barbara K. Lundblad, a former urban pastor now teaching Homiletics at Union Theological Seminary, New York City, are as follows: seek common human ground with parishioners, reclaim Biblical texts about life in city-size habitations, establish a realistic scale for community action, preach about the city itself once a month, avoid name calling when referring to folks who oppose change, and “love your people.” Pray daily, she concluded, one of this conference's compelling prayers: “God is great. God is good. God lives in this neighborhood.”
Founded in 2000 and administered by Carolyn L. Bailey, the” City of God for American Cities” conference was inaugurated in Memphis where her husband, Doug Bailey, was rector of downtown Calvary Episcopal Church. Memphis was the second poorest large city in the nation and became a crucible of racial tension, tragedy and poverty. This prompted Bailey and Calvary Church to launch multiple non-profits for urban ministry. One of these became the Center for Urban Ministry, Inc.™, a learning laboratory, training center for urban clergy and lay leaders. It will return to the College of Preachers in May 22-27, 2004 with another slate of seasoned urban church leaders, once again through a partnership between the College and the Center for Urban Ministry, Inc. at Wake Forest University Divinity School. Additional information may be obtained at (336) 794-7446 or (336) 758-3219.
David B. Bowes is President of Oakleaf Associates; Senior Associate of Partners for Livable Communities; former Vice President of Communications, National Association of Manufacturers; Urban Affairs columnist and Associate Editor of the Cincinnati Post and editorial writer and Washington correspondent for the St Louis Post-Dispatch. Bowes served as a writer-in-residence for this conference.