Urban Ministry in a New Millennium

“The poor will be with you always,” Christ said in Mark 7:14. Over 2,000 years later, the condition of poverty in the United States and around the world reinforces this statement a hundred times over. In the book entitled Urban Ministry in a New Millennium, author David Claerbaut, states that cities determine the destiny of nations. When so many of our nation’s cities are filled with poverty-stricken, slum-dwelling inhabitants who physically and economically are not able to contribute to society, the fate of our country can seem grim. The main reason why urban situations continue to worsen is due to ignorance and disregard from the majority of the people living outside of the city. It is these people who can do the most to help, and it is these people who continue to ignore the plight of poor inner-city dwellers.

Urban Ministry in a New Millennium “examines urban ministry in the context of globalization and regentrification that currently dominate the contemporary American city” (page x). It is a tool for ministers, non-profit workers, church members and aid givers in an urban ministry setting, allowing insight into a world with which they may not be familiar. Claerbaut gathers information from his own research and studies done with various city churches across the country, to “focus on ministries of stewardship and service” (page xi) and present models of community development that are helpful to leaders looking to start programs in an urban setting.

In order to help someone, you must first understand them. “To understand the city is to understand the future” (page 2). A city contains a glimpse of the rest of the world, for within a city are multiple nationalities, races, cultures and religions. Along with world-class entertainment, sports, art and food are poor, hungry, homeless, single-parents and impoverished children. God calls his followers to serve these people, because one of God’s “main concerns is justice for the poor and oppressed” (page 5). One of the reasons urbanites are most often forgotten is because of the fear, prejudice and blame from those on the outside. Those who live in the safety of a middle-class suburb are not faced with the ideals and events that occur every day in a city-dweller’s life. In order to connect and fully understand a person, you must embrace their cultural differences and diversities.

To understand the person, you must acknowledge their surroundings. The people with the most needs and who live in the most disparaging of poverty live in what is called the “inner city.” An inner city can be described as “a poverty area in which there is much government activity but little private sector activity” (page 36). The people who live here deal with violence, drugs, sexual exploitation and crime on a daily basis. When stuck depending on welfare to help pay the bills, these residents start to feel trapped, hopeless and depressed. Life is never changing. Days go by and problems remain the same. The number one priority among the poor is survival. In America, self-worth is determined by the job title you hold, the number of possessions you have and the power you control. When someone has none of this, they lose their identity and fill their life with meaningless things such as crime, theft and drugs. They start to value material things over life.

A common misconception in the United States is that there is enough wealth and opportunity for someone to rise from the depths of any situation and make something of themselves. According to Claerbaut, “a person’s status at birth largely determines the future” (page 73). Americans base most of their success on the fact that they worked hard and achieved great things despite the odds. They do not realize that most of their success is due in part to the level of the economic stratosphere in which they were born. They have no empathy for those who are at the bottom of the food chain, because those people are looked at as lazy and as if it is their own fault that they are poor. If a person is not faced with problems that don’t concern them, they find it difficult to care.

Poverty is not only the lack of money, it is also “powerlessness and alienation from the key institutions of society” (page 86). These institutions are described in the book as politics, religion, economics, family, education and recreation. Poor people are greatly missing out on all of these things. They are underrepresented politically because they do not vote and therefore politicians do not care about their welfare. From an economic standpoint, those who have no money have no need for banks or stocks, important institutions that keep our economy afloat. Because they do not contribute to these things, they do not receive the financial education that is important for people to have in order to make smart decisions with their finances. What little money they do have is almost always in cash form and is rarely saved.

Sixty percent of African American families are fatherless (page 97). Because of this, most families are headed by the mother, who has to work several jobs to pay for expenses. The family is often torn apart and children are raised on the streets. It is hard to motivate a child to excel in education, because so often they have no role models that have achieved an education before them. Because the parent may lack an education and have to work all the time, the child grows up in a home without reading or monitoring, leading to an idle lifestyle. The home is too small and crowded to spend significant time in, so they look to the streets and join up with other children in order to feel part of something. This leads to the creation of gangs, which leads to drug usage, crime and most likely, jail time.

How does all this information pertain to those looking to become involved in urban ministry? Ministering in an urban setting requires awareness (page 133). Urban workers “have to develop a great deal of patience and empathy” (page 133) if they wish to break the barriers and minister to the people. For a lot of pastors and non-profit workers, the way of life in a city is completely foreign. Since a person’s environment has the most effect on the things they believe and the way they live their life, these workers will have not dealt with the same things as inner-city residents. Reading this book has opened my eyes to a lot of the reasons why people are the way they are. Growing up middle-class in a white neighborhood and attending Christian schools all my life, I was very sheltered from the influences of the city. That lifestyle was looked as something to fear and avoid. Although my parents were not racist in any way and always taught me to love people from all backgrounds, I was not face-to-face with many people from a different economic and religious lifestyle than me.

As I went away to college, I began making friends with people from other countries and social classes. My eyes were truly opened up to the world and the different people in it and I grew to love diverse cultures, languages, foods and art. The city has always attracted me and I had a desire in my heart to study and help those who were less fortunate and trapped. Unfortunately, my journalism degree limited the study of lifestyles to one diversity class and I didn’t take too much away from it. After reading Urban Ministry in a New Millennium, I find myself with a much better understanding of those who live in the inner city, the views of people on the outside, and the issues that must be tackled in order to make a difference. I’ll admit that while reading the book, I started to feel a sense of hopelessness myself. There’s so much suffering and work to be done and I feel that I could never even make a dent in any progress. I was, however, encouraged by the models Claerbaut gave at the end of the book on organizations that had been successful in starting programs in the city that have really made an impact. I believe it really depends on educating the workers about the urban environment and who they are trying to reach and setting up specific goals and areas in which they will target. Too often does a well-meaning organization get caught up in the hierarchies and paperwork and forget the original reason of why they are there.

Urban Ministry in a New Millennium is a very important tool that should be used by all first-time workers entering into any type of ministry or service in the inner city. I believe that if police officers, human resource managers, pastors, government and non-profit workers read a book like this, they would go into their job with a greater understanding of the mindset and lifestyle of the people in which they are serving and therefore would avoid a lot of conflict and confrontation. Fear is what keeps people defensive and distant and with knowledge comes the power to be sensitive and deal effectively with all sorts of issues. In regards to the course Christ and the City, the book gives us a starting point on which to found our ministries and efficiently serve the people of the city. It reinforces Jesus’ call for us to serve the poor and hungry, mild and meek, young and old. In order to spread the love of Jesus Christ, we must go to the people who need it the most, the ones who feel forgotten and lost: the poor of the city.