Who Moved My Neighborhood? Leading Congregations Through Gentrification and Economic Change

by Mark E. Strong, Harold Calvin Ray (Foreword)

Neighborhoods are moving. While neighborhood changes can mean exciting and fresh opportunities for some, the experience can be vastly different for long-time residents. The rapid movement of people means changes in employment, economics, landscape, demographics, and the feel of a community. Churches often experience the painful impact of these shifts. Depending on how a church navigates through these changes determines if it will either live, die, or be reduced to a tragic existence on life support.

Mark Strong knows the obstacles connected with gentrification and the challenges it brings. As a pastor, he led his church through its own moved neighborhood in Portland. Strong shares the frustrations, surprises, and joys that his church experienced as their neighborhood shifted, and he provides the roadmap that his own church used to navigate the change. Who Moved My Neighborhood? gives insight to churches that need to heal from the wounds of gentrification and economic change, and revamp their mission amidst an uncertain future. Using the discussion guide included in the book, churches can discuss their own moved neighborhood and explore the unique next steps that God has for their community. There is hope and a future for congregations that face a moved neighborhood.

Genres: Christian Living, Nonfiction

176 pages, Paperback

Published March 8, 2022

About the author

Mark E. Strong (DMin, Portland Seminary) is senior pastor of Life Change Church, a diverse congregation located in the heart of inner-city Portland, Oregon. He is also the author of Church for the Fatherless, and he serves on the Board of Regents at George Fox Seminary. He and his wife, Marla, have four children.

Reviews

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who grew up in Portland, this book was one of educational revelation. Growing up in an all-White neighborhood, I was taught that N Portland was as close as the moon. It was where people lived that had nothing to do with me. As years passed, the changes in N Portland became more real as people thought and said, "It's about time they did something about those hooligans." As an adult, I moved away and really didn't give N Portland another thought. Everything changed when I began searching for a church home with people who loved God and wanted to be in a relationship with Him as much as I did. I wanted to find a place where I could worship freely and belong. I found it in Life Change Church in, of all places, N Portland. My thought processes and sense of understanding of the plight of Black individuals became at the forefront of my life. The author, Mark Strong, or as I call him every week, Pastor Mark, has taken the real issue of gentrification and put it into words. So many of the issues he addresses in this book are problems that I would have never considered. However, with many friends who live in the neighborhood still and in East Portland I have tasted firsthand all the difficulties my friends have experienced. I am grateful for these pages for the insight they have given me into what many people face all over the country. Gentrification. There are times when it should be considered a four-letter word.

[Ryan and Sara Wendt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book about how to navigate a church in a neighborhood undergoing new changes such as gentrification. Good pastoral resource to have for urban ministry in general.