By Christine A. Scheller
June 18, 2010
I'm alive today because God used an urban ministry to bring my parents together, and to lead our family to a more dynamic faith.
The term "urban" once described people, places, and things related to the city. Then it became code for anything related to modern "black" culture. Now, according to Regent University religion scholar Antipas Harris, the word needs to be fine-tuned once again.
A growing and diverse movement of urban Christian leaders reminds us that the beauty of art is also an effective instrument for sharing the Good News.
The Information Age has changed the cultural landscape, and our models for ministry must change along with it to stay relevant -- and raise more effective urban leaders.
A Special UMI Promotional Feature
There's a shortage of enduring love stories in the black community. And if the dismal statistics released by the U.S. Census Bureau, the Barna Group, and others hold steady, the decline of African American marriages will only continue. Currently, African Americans have the lowest marriage rate of any group in the United States (41 percent), and research has found that among those few that do marry, as many as 36 percent end their relationships in divorce. The numbers are bleak, but Christian marriage experts Drs. Clarence and Ja'Ola Walker believe there are steps Christian couples can take to ensure they build strong healthy marriages.
Pro-choice. Pro-life. Anti-abortion. Reproductive justice. Life ethic. Words have become weapons in the war of ideas and positions surrounding the a-word: abortion. People on all sides of the issue compete for media coverage, public opinion poll supremacy, and the quickly-dwindling resource dollar. I think we all can agree there are few topics in today's society that provoke stronger responses. But there's something we also should remember. Behind--sometimes too far behind--the unfurling banners of the culture war are real women, men, children, and families who have in some way experienced the results of this life-and-death decision. Some of them are hurting, some in denial, and some just want to be left alone.
Shortly after noon on January 20, the history-making President Barack H. Obama reminded the world during his inauguration: "It has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things ... who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom."
As a veteran urban youth worker for more than 20 years, I've heard lots of self-serving rhetoric--trash talk--from people whose game fails to measure up.
