‘More Churches Need To Be Here’: The Changing Face Of Urban Ministry
ATLANTA — As the Atlanta Inner-City Ministry — known as AIM — hosted the recent National Urban Ministry Conference, keynote speaker Mark Powell had a message for fellow Christians.
“More churches need to be here,” declared Powell, former dean of the Harding School of Theology and now the lead minister for the Donelson Church of Christ in east Nashville, Tennessee.
That consistent theme emerged as AIM’s director, Bret Wilson, welcomed ministry leaders to Atlanta from Washington, D.C., and major cities in Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas.
The annual conference started in the early 1990s with a desire to promote ministry among Churches of Christ within urban centers.
When the conference began, the focus was on starting churches and ministries that would reach the urban poor in the downtown areas of large cities. Many of the established urban ministries in Churches of Christ, like AIM, find their beginnings from that original vision.
Yet, the city — speaking in a general sense — is constantly changing.
Gentrification has caused a reshaping of downtown areas in most cities, to where it is now quite desirable for young adults to live in the urban core. Townhomes and luxury apartments have replaced the “projects.”
The redistribution of the poor throughout metro areas means an established congregation in a first-ring suburb may find itself surrounded by Section 8 housing.
Powell described his own previous experience as an elder for the Sycamore View Church of Christ in Memphis, Tennessee. The church located outside the Interstate 240 loop — the freeway surrounding that city’s urban corridor — finds itself near a significant homeless encampment.
The complexity deepens as immigrants come to the United States and settle in cities. Churches once located in neighborhoods containing similar demographics find themselves surrounded by immigrant communities from various ethnic backgrounds.
Churches must decide if they will stick with their current ministry plans or be open to the new people God is bringing to their neighborhoods.
For example, David Duncan, minister for the Memorial Church of Christ in Houston, recently shared that almost 30 nationalities are now present in his congregation.
More and more churches located in metropolitan areas find themselves doing “urban” ministry: serving the poor, welcoming the immigrant and working for mercy and justice.
Powell reflected on this insight in his new work at Donelson, a church with over a 150-year history.
Today, Donelson is trying to engage diverse urban realities. On the one hand, there are young professionals moving into the neighborhood. On the other, ethnic diversity is on the rise with increased poverty in the local schools.
The Donelson church partners with a ministry to provide transitional housing and addiction recovery for those leaving prison. Immigrants from African countries worship in Swahili at the church building.
A new perception and understanding of the urban context are needed.
Gone are the days when established and largely suburban churches could support a certain ministry working in the inner city and view it as an urban ministry.
The “inner city” has become “the city.” God invites churches in any area of the city to do urban ministry right where they are, in the context where they are placed: serving the poor, welcoming the stranger, proclaiming the Gospel.
As Jim Harbin, president of the National Urban Ministry Association, would say, “It is all urban ministry.”
Harding University’s new Center for Church and City Engagement, which I direct, aims to help churches engage the city for the mission of God. This center will be a key sponsor for the next National Urban Ministry Conference, set for Feb. 19-21, 2026, in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Churches who desire to engage the city should, as Powell encouraged, be there.
This piece is republished with permission from The Christian Chronicle.
Steve Cloer, based in Memphis, is an associate professor of ministry at the Harding School of Theology in Searcy, Arkansas, where he directs the Doctor of Ministry program and the Center for Church and City Engagement. Contact secloer@harding.edu.