Center City Churches: The New Urban Frontier

by Lyle E. Schaller

Part of Abingdon's Ministry for the Third Millennium, a new series for church leaders. If 26 of America's 40 largest churches are in the center city, then urban ministry is alive and well in North America. This book investigates high-performance churches that have a missionary motivation and offers 30 recurring themes to guide church leaders in establishing and revitalizing the new frontier.

187 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1993

Reviews

[Andrew Burden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this book was like stepping into a time machine. I picked it up from the lending shelf at my church in midtown Kansas City, but much of the accomplishments in the congregations it featured centered on late-20th century models focused on buildings, programs, numbers, and media. While most of the mainline Protestant churches chosen could be described as having intentional ministries, the missing component - one which has surged in the years since - is a missional orientation. Most of the chapters are extremely dry in tone. One nugget I will take from the book is that suburbanites will come to worship (as well as play, dine, and attend cultural events) in the central city, but central city residents will rarely go to suburban churches. I believe this holds true even after the rise of gentrification and downtown renaissances of Kansas City and elsewhere.

[Lynn Calvin]

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