Urban Ministries Research Articles

The Spiritual Lives of Young African Americans by Almeda M. Wright

Reviewed by: The Spiritual Lives of Young African Americans by Almeda M. Wright C. Vanessa White (bio) The Spiritual Lives of Young African Americans. By Almeda M. Wright. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017. 332 pp. $29.95. Emilie Townes, Thomas Groome, Peter Parker, Sharon Daloz Parks, Evelyn Parks and Anne Streator Wimberly: to these names we must now add the name of Almeda Wright, whose book The Spiritual Lives of Young African Americans is an important and timely work that contributes to understanding the daily life and coping mechanisms of young African Americans. Almeda Wright builds upon the work of religious educator Evelyn Parker's Trouble Don't Last Always: Emancipatory Hope among African American Adolescents, as well as the narrative storytelling work of Anne E. Streator Wimberly (Soul Stories). Parker's work defines the problem of fragmented spirituality in African-American adolescents' discourse about their faith in light of racism. Wright builds upon Parker's work in looking not only at racism, but also classism, sexism, and youth violence in today's society. Wimberly's work focuses on the formative aspect of religious education as defined by the stories of a people. Wright uses storytelling as a framework for understanding the lives of young African Americans. Almeda Wright's book is an important contribution not only to studies in spirituality, but also to further research in religious education, race studies, and theories of adolescent development. The author was able to shine a light on the spirituality and experience of young African Americans by use of a narrative method which included interviews of 20 young African Americans. She chose to use a practical theological approach-to relate to their stories. Her practical approach included three movements. The first is attending closely to the lived realities of African-American adolescents and their spirituality. The second is a constructive critical reflection on this reality, placing the experiences of African-American youth in relation to theories of adolescent spirituality and religious education, identity development, sociology of religion, African-American history, and womanist and black theology. Third, she returns to the concrete realities of youth by offering proposals for improved practice with African-American adolescents. In looking at the lived experience of young African-Americans, Smith examines their religious educational curriculum. She reviewed 106 lessons from the Urban Ministries Inc. adolescent curriculum line, including 53 lessons with those aged 12 to 14, and the InTeen curriculum for use with those 15 to 17 (258). She also conducted online and face-to-face interviews with African American adolescents of various ages who participated in the Theological Initiative Summer Academy at Emory University. The interviews explored their daily activities, their concerns and struggles in the world, their understanding of God, their experience of God, as well as their hopes and dreams for a future world (247–256). She acknowledges the influence of Ana Maria Isasi-Diaz (En La Lucha), who uses ethnographic interviews as well as meta-ethnography. Chapters 1 and 2 focus on narrative and what is viewed as the fragmented spirituality and context of young African Americans. Through interviews and the telling of their stories she introduces us to African-Americans ranging in age from 16-19 and how their understanding of God has shaped their own experience of oppression. Chapter 3 moves to the second movement of practical theology which focuses on the the lives of adolescents as primary texts. In this section she reviews [End Page 156] their religious educational curriculum and asks whether African American churches are currently influencing, in a positive or negative way, the lived realities of young people. She found in her research that a theology focused on the personal and interpersonal seemed to prevail. In chapters 4 and 5 she writes that African American youth are not making a connection between their understanding of and belief in God, and how this experience and belief had an impact on their life and the world. This fragmentation is not just a reality for young adolescents but as she states has become a common phenomenon across generations. In this section of her book she also looks at that which she calls the unspoken question of theodicy at the center...

A Theological Framework for Adventist Urban Ministry

"Early Adventism typically advocated the need to flee the cities for simple rural living because cities were regarded as Babylon (Jer 50:1-3; Rev 18:2-3). Consequently, in those regions of the world where the church’s presence has the longest history with sometimes larger congregations, many church properties are located in the countryside or rural areas. A major reason why the Adventist Church is only so lately coming to terms with the exigency of urban ministries is the deficiency of a theological framework for engagement in missions to the cities. Stone (2015) agrees that the failure to develop a theology for the cities is a factor in the inadequacy of mission initiatives in urban areas. The objective of this paper is to present a theological framework for Adventist urban ministries that will provide an impetus for effective and sustained mission programs in urban settings. This framework will be developed from a biblical study of God and the city, an examination of Ellen White’s writings on mission to the cities, and an exploration of contemporary challenges cities pose to the church’s task of taking the gospel commission to all regions of the world. This framework follows Van Engen’s (1994:249) tripartite theology of mission model comprising an interface between the biblical text, the faith community, and the urban context."

From Reconciliation to Revolution: The Student Interracial Ministry, Liberal Christianity, and the Civil Rights Movement by David P. Cline

Reviewed by: From Reconciliation to Revolution: The Student Interracial Ministry, Liberal Christianity, and the Civil Rights Movement by David P. Cline Carolyn R. Dupont From Reconciliation to Revolution: The Student Interracial Ministry, Liberal Christianity, and the Civil Rights Movement. By David P. Cline. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2016. Pp. xx, 276. Paper, $29.95, ISBN 978-1-4696-3043-4; cloth, $85.00, ISBN 978-1-4696-3042-7.) In From Reconciliation to Revolution: The Student Interracial Ministry, Liberal Christianity, and the Civil Rights Movement, David P. Cline chronicles a little-known cohort of theological students who aimed to promote racial understanding and justice within American Protestantism. The Student Interracial Ministry (SIM) traced its shared origins with the better-known Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to the 1960 Easter weekend conference at Shaw University. Theological students at the Shaw [End Page 1013] conference created SIM with goals similar to SNCC's, except that SIM intended to work in the church. Like SNCC, SIM changed over its eight-year existence. Its field of endeavor expanded beyond its original confines, and its members often worked in key centers of civil rights movement activity and embraced changing movement philosophies. SIM grew from its initial cohort of seven students—four of whom were white and three black, six men and one woman—into a ministry that placed scores of students for summer, semester, or full-year internships in interracial ministry settings. Operating mostly from Union Theological Seminary in New York, SIM interns developed projects in locations as far apart as Minneapolis and southwest Georgia. Student interns lived in interracial settings, "created pastoral exchanges," ran urban ministries, staffed youth programs, and joined forces with existing civil rights organizations (p. xiii). They endured arrest, received little pay, and lived in difficult situations, but they often asked for more work, sometimes returning to positions for a third or fourth time. A chapter on SIM's work in southwest Georgia is especially intriguing. Most readers versed in civil rights history will recognize Charles Sherrod from his work organizing Albany's black community in 1961 and 1962. Indeed, traditional narratives suggest Martin Luther King Jr. famously sabotaged the Albany movement in July 1962, humiliating himself and leaving the local movement demoralized and stalled. Cline, however, follows Sherrod as he returned to southwest Georgia under the auspices of SIM in 1965. Over the next three years, SIM and SNCC worked to politically and economically empower African Americans in twenty southwest Georgia counties. The two organizations argued regularly over the role of white people in the movement and about Sherrod's leadership style, but Sherrod and SIM ultimately outlasted SNCC in the area. SIM workers created a Freedom School, built and staffed Head Start Centers, and offered cultural programs to black southwest Georgians. SIM collapsed abruptly in 1968, ostensibly due to loss of financing. But Cline shows that broader debates about the goal of theological education, the purpose of the church, the direction of the civil rights movement, and the complicity of American Christianity in black oppression also precipitated SIM's demise. SIM's story intersects with the career trajectories of important civil rights leaders. In addition to Charles Sherrod and his wife, Shirley Sherrod, Jane Stembridge and the Reverend James Lawson also figure into this narrative. Of interest to historians of religion, future scholars in the discipline served with SIM, notably Lawrence H. Mamiya, coauthor with C. Eric Lincoln of The Black Church in the African American Experience (Durham, N.C., 1990), and RalphE. Luker, author of The Social Gospel in Black and White: American Racial Reform, 1885–1812 (Chapel Hill, 1991). As the subsequent careers of these figures demonstrate, SIM worked perhaps its most profound transformation on the interns themselves. Ultimately, From Reconciliation to Revolution is the history of an organization. Though Cline's narrative is always well contextualized, it sometimes struggles to extend its analysis broadly enough and lacks the drive of a vigorous argument. Cline's meticulously researched story may not offer enough to [End Page 1014] readers who want to understand the broadest trends in American Protestantism, especially as they relate to the civil rights movement. Still, the work of SIM is a...

Religious Impact of a Poverty Immersion Experience on College Students

An increasing number of universities have initiated activities and assignments to foster empathic and altruistic behavior in students. This study is a report of an outcomes assessment of a poverty immersion experience in a Christian urban ministries course. Following Firmin's (2006) protocol, we used a qualitative methodology that included three waves of interviews with 23 undergraduate students. Analyses of the data suggested that students underwent both affective and behavioral changes as a result of their experience. Affectively, students reported deepening their appreciation for the grace of God in their lives and changed perceptions of homeless people as children of God deserving of dignity and for whom they should care and provide assistance. Behaviorally, students reported the intent to teach other Christians about the spiritual lessons learned, to make urban ministries a long-term part of their individual ministries to others, and to make a tangible difference in the lives of people less fortunate than themselves. The poverty immersion experience utilized by this particular professor seems to have helped students have a deeper experience than they would have had with a more traditional service-learning model.

A volunteer community mental health clinic.

A volunteer community mental health clinic.

Fighting poverty with virtue: moral reform and America's urban poor, 1825-2000

Preliminary Table of Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: What Moral Reform Is, and Why It's Important Part One: Moral Reform in the Past Chapter One: Principles and Intentions: Why Moral Reform was Undertaken Chapter Two: The Virtues Taught by the Moral Reformers A. Diligence and its Difficulties B. Sobriety and Success C. Salvation through Saving? D. Family Values: More than Just a Footnote E. Knowledge as Virtue: Why Moral Reform Could be Implemented Chapter Three: Why Moral Reform was Hard to Achieve Part Two: The Critique and Rejection of Moral Reform Chapter Four: The Decline of Laissez-Faire and the Critique of Moral Reform A. Introduction B. Jane Addams: The Compassionate Critique of the Industrial Virtues C. Walter Rauschenbusch: The Christian Critique of Prudence Chapter Five: The Rejection of Moral Reform Chapter Six: African-Americans, Irish-Americans, and Moral Reform: Historical Considerations Chapter Seven: The Contemporary Climate for Moral Reform Chapter Eight: The Contemporary Practice of Moral Reform Urban Ministries, Public Policy, and the Promotion of Virtue Biographical Appendix Notes Bibliography Index

Understanding the "New" Black Pentecostal Activism: Lessons from Ecumenical Urban Ministries in Boston

Previous studies argue that theologically conservative churches are least likely to engage in political and social activism. Other studies assume that if such churches did act, their involvement would be limited to politically conservative causes, such as the New Religious Right. In recent decades, however, black Pentecostal churches have become increasing activist, and have joined and established local community efforts previously dominated by the religious mainline. This paper seeks to understand the contradiction between theory and recent trends. Using in-depth interviews with activist pastors, I develop an explanation of why black Pentecostal churches have become politically and socially active. This explanation emphasizes: a) the influence of the civil rights/black power movement on the third generation of black Pentecostal clergy, b) the transformation of Pentecostalism from a relatively small sect into a major faith community, and c) the flexibility of Pentecostal ideas in the hands of innovative and entrepreneurial clerics.

Book Review: Developing Leaders for Urban Ministries

Book Review: Developing Leaders for Urban Ministries

Mobilizing Social Movement Organizations: The Formation, Institutionalization, and Effectiveness of Ecumenical Urban Ministries

Mobilizing Social Movement Organizations: The Formation, Institutionalization, and Effectiveness of Ecumenical Urban Ministries

Mobilizing Social Movement Organizations: The Formation, Institutionalization, and Effectiveness of Ecumenical Urban Ministries

Mobilizing Social Movement Organizations: The Formation, Institutionalization, and Effectiveness of Ecumenical Urban Ministries

Female Mission Strategists: A Historical and Contemporary Perspective

Although women have been very prominent in foreign missions for more than a century, they have generally played a secondary role in the field of missiology. Most mission boards and seminary faculties have been male-dominated, except for a time in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when women formed their own “female agencies” and training schools. During this period women made significant practical and scholarly contributions to mission strategy. With the demise of the women's missionary movement, however, such opportunities sharply declined. That is now beginning to change. In recent decades women have once again become more involved in the strategy of missions, especially in areas involving women's work, cross-cultural communication, literature, education, lifestyle, urban ministries, and mission specializations.

Review of The Protestant Parish Minister: A Behavioral Science Interpretation and Mobilizing Social Movement Organizations: The Formation, Institutionalization, and Effectiveness of Ecumenical Urban Ministries.

Review of The Protestant Parish Minister: A Behavioral Science Interpretation and Mobilizing Social Movement Organizations: The Formation, Institutionalization, and Effectiveness of Ecumenical Urban Ministries.

Mobilizing Social Movement Organizations: The Formation, Institutionalization, and Effectiveness of Ecumenical Urban Ministries

Mobilizing Social Movement Organizations: The Formation, Institutionalization, and Effectiveness of Ecumenical Urban Ministries

Increasing Church Involvement in Social Concerns: A Model for Urban Ministries

This paper identifies several conditions in society and in the churches which limit church involvement in social concerns. It, then, briefly describes the origins of a group attempting to address these conditions: the Lafayette Urban Ministry (LUM). Finally, on the basis of their experience with LUM, the authors propose a general model for urban ministries which they feel also might assist in increasing church involvement in other communities.