Current Affairs and Causes on Neighborhoods

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The Value of Relationships to our Health and Safety

Author

Keywords

When we think about our health and safety, we tend to think first and foremost about our bodies. We may also consider our mental health. But have you ever considered how your relational health impacts...

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God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—our

God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—our Loving Creator, Redeemer and Guide: We praise and thank You for being with us wherever we are on the journey of faith; whether we feel You or not—You are here wit...

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Lord: In our times of weakness and our

Author

Richard Herman

Scripture

Matthew 11:28-30, Colossians 3:12, Matthew 5:14-16, Romans 12:18, Matthew 5:9, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Lord: In our times of weakness and our hours of need, Yours is the strength that enables us to carry on, Yours the shoulder we rest our heads upon. When our load is heavy and too much to bear, Yours a...

liturgy

Precious Lord, take our hand, Lead us

Author

Richard Herman

Scripture

James 1:5, John 14:27, Psalm 34:18, Philippians 3:6-7, Matthew 6:31-33

Precious Lord, take our hand, Lead us on, help us stand; We’re tired, we’re weak, we’re worn; Thru the storm, thru the night, Lead us on to the light, Take our hand, precious Lord, Lead us home. The o...

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The Causes (& Solutions) of Poverty are Complex

Author

Timothy Keller

Keywords

Poverty

The poverty of an inner-city neighborhood like Sandtown was not initially the product of individual irresponsible behavior or family breakdown. A complex range of structural factors led to the exclusi...

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The Devastation of Residential Segregation

Author

George Yancey

Keywords

More people of color than whites live in the city of Dallas and in the city of Fort Worth. But they are more likely to live in poorer inner-city areas while whites live in the more affluent suburbs. D...

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Institutional Racism: The Byproduct of Historical Racism

Author

George Yancey

Keywords

The ways that social structures and institutions systematically work against the interest of people of color is called institutional racism. Institutional racism and historic racism are not unrelated ...

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Heather and Mark: Justice Doers

Author

Timothy Keller

Keywords

Justice

Scripture

Luke 4:18-19, James 1:27, Amos 5:24, Jeremiah 22:3, Matthew 25:35-40

I recently met with Heather, a woman who attends my church in New York City. After graduating from Harvard Law School she landed a lucrative job with a major law firm in Manhattan. It was a dream come...

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Author

Bill Bishop

Keywords

Like-minded, homogeneous groups squelch dissent, grow more extreme in their thinking, and ignore evidence that their positions are wrong. As a result, we now live in a giant feedback loop, hearing our...

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The Good News Isn’t Sounding Good to Some

Author

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 53:3, Jeremiah 20:7-10, 1 Kings 22:8-28, John 15:18-19 , Acts 5:40-42, Psalm 37:1-2

In Vanishing Grace , Philip Yancey examines the growing negative perceptions of evangelicals. Although the book was written in 2014, these dynamics have only intensified in the era of MAGA and Ch...

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Peacemaking Begins With Us

Author

Jon Huckins and Jer Swigart

Keywords

Recently we found ourselves around a table with a team of faith leaders from an influential Midwestern church. Their restlessness was palpable. “Peace has been one of our core values for years,” they ...

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Coming To Terms with Institutional Racism

Author

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

Keywords

Racism

Christians in America must come to terms with how institutional racism has infected us. Few white persons in twenty-first-century America see themselves as racist. (Even fewer Asian, Latino, or Africa...

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Location, Location, Location

Author

William W. Klein

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 10:25-37, Matthew 13:34-35, Acts 13:15, Mark 12:28-31, John 10:22-23

As in buying real estate, three principles are crucial to understanding a person’s words: location, location, and location. We cannot make sense of what someone says unless we understand the context i...

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The Mayor in the Projects

Author

Melinda Joy Mingo

Keywords

Scripture

Revelation 21:3, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Romans 8:3, Isaiah 53:5, Hebrews 2:14-15, Matthew 1:23

During spring 1981, one of my favorite persons at the time, Chicago mayor Jane Byrne, made the announcement that she and her husband were going to move into my old neighborhood: the Cabrini-Green hous...

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Getting Sorted

Author

Bill Bishop

Keywords

As people seek out the social settings they prefer—as they choose the group that makes them feel the most comfortable—the nation grows more politically segregated—and the benefit that ought to come wi...

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Author

Rodney Stark

Keywords

Homelessness

To cities filled with the homeless and impoverished, Christianity offered charity as well as hope. To cities filled with newcomers and strangers, Christianity offered an immediate basis for attachment...

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Author

Michael Wear

Keywords

We do not love our neighbor for affirmation, but because we have been loved first. Now is not the time to withdraw, but to refine our intentions and pursue public faithfulness.

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What it Means to be White

Author

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

Keywords

Race

In his book Reconstructing the Gospel , pastor Jonathan WIlson-Hartgrove tells a story that occurred shortly after he and his family, white ethnically, decided to move into a historically African A...

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Author

Edward Glaeser

Keywords

Cities aren’t full of poor people because cities make people poor, but because cities attract poor people with the prospect of improving their lot in life. [Thereofre] we should worry more about place...

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Retail Therapy

Author

Ashley Hales

Keywords

Retail therapy gives us the thrill of the hunt and a hit of dopamine (the love hormone) as we anticipate a purchase, but it cannot feed our hungers. We know this. But we return each time, hoping it wi...

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Poverty from Differing Perspectives

Author

Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert

Keywords

We have conducted the previous exercise in dozens of middle-to-upper-class, predominantly Caucasian, North American churches. In the vast majority of cases, these audiences describe poverty differentl...

liturgy

Prayer for Cities

Keywords

Scripture

1 Timothy 2:1-4, Daniel 9:18-19, Jeremiah 29:7, Psalm 22:28, 2 Chronicles 7:14

Heavenly Father, in your Word you have given us a vision of that holy City to which the nations of the world bring their glory: Behold and visit, we pray, the cities of the earth. Renew the ties of mu...

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Gracious God, in Christ Jesus, you

Gracious God, in Christ Jesus, you teach us to love our neighbors but instead we build dividing walls of hostility. You show us how to love one another as sisters and brothers but instead we hide from...

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The Gospel and the Other: Preaching in an Age of "Us vs. Them"

Author

Andrew DeCort

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 10:25-37

When conflict and division are driving both politics and media (including social media), the contrast between the way of the world and the way of Jesus stands out more than ever. How can pastors, task...

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What It Takes to Birth a Multi-Ethnic Church and a Just Mission

Author

Mekdes Haddis

Keywords

Scripture

Micah 6:8

A House for All People Every summer my church hosts a week-long summer camp where children experience the beauty and majesty of the Lord. The first year we sent our daughter to it, she loved it and l...

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Racial Division in America

Author

Michael O. Emerson and Christian Smith

Keywords

While I was sitting at a stoplight a few blocks from my [Emerson’s] home in Minneapolis, reflecting on the recent rash of drive-by shootings in the area, three African-American teens clad in the urban...

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Author

Margaret Walker

Keywords

For the cramped bewildered years we went to school to learn to know the reasons why and the answers to and the people who and the places where and the days when, in memory of the bitter hours when we ...

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John Perkins’ Journey from Segregation to Reconciliation

Author

Emmanuel Katongole and Chris Rice

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 2:14-16, Galatians 3:28

In 1970 John Perkins, an African American pastor and community organizer who lived on “the black side” of rural Mendenhall, Mississippi, was nearly beaten to death by white state police officers. The ...

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Author

Bono

Keywords

Poverty

Where you live should not determine whether you live, or whether you die

Quote

Author

John Stott

Keywords

Scripture

Hebrews 13:16, 1 Peter 4:10, Luke 10:27, Romans 13:8-10, Galatians 5:14, 1 John 4:20, Matthew 22:37-40

Social responsibility becomes an aspect not of Christian mission only, but also of Christian conversion. It is impossible to be truly converted to God without being thereby converted to our neighbor.

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