Braintree, Mass (April 18) – More than 180 Christian leaders from across the nation came together near Boston this week for the Tenth Anniversary National City Impact Roundtable—“Mobilizing a Diverse Church for City Transformation.”
 
Urban ministry veteran Ray Bakke gave the plenary addresses for the three-day conference in Braintree, Mass., April 14-16. He presented a message on ministry in the city through long-term, faithful witness, sharing his experiences from over 40 years of cityreaching and urban ministry in Chicago and Seattle, and of advising urban ministry practioners in locations around the world. Bakke offered a perspective of having a biblical mission for justice and mercy in tandem with a biblical mission of personal salvation. He gave both a local and global perspective to the conference, which resonated with the diverse crowd representing various ethnicities, generations, types of ministry and several denominations.
 
Bakke’s talks revolved around the notion of incarnational evangelism rather than missional evangelism. In incarnational evangelism, believers live in neighborhoods and revitalize them over a 10-15 year period, as opposed to the common missional approach where people have short-term evangelism or mercy missions in urban areas and then retreat to the safety of the suburbs.

Bakke’s perspective was inspiring to many. “Just the joy that I hear as Ray speaks, the joy of ministry in the city, in spite of issues and problems,” said Greg Detwiler from Boston. “We need to remember the joy, the good life, of working in the city.”
 
Bakke noted that for too long the attitude among evangelicals has been, “Just get ‘em saved.” For effective urban missions we need to have a bigger picture of the systems that create wealth and poverty in our cities, he said. The gospel is received more readily when real and felt needs are being addressed by those who also proclaim the good news. He said marketers seem to understand neighborhoods better than the churches do. If you walk into the supermarket, you will be introduced to what the people of the area value, he said.

“If you can read a supermarket, you can read a neighborhood,” Bakke advised. He maintains that holistic evangelism, addressing the physical and relational needs of people along with their spiritual needs, will attract many to worship at the foot of the cross.
  
Chung Ha, a CIR participant from the Northfield Foundation in Amherst, Mass., was inspired by Bakke’s perspective and cultural sensitivity.
 
“I was fascinated by what Ray Bakke shared, especially his openness and his heart. Not only about the ethnic gap in the U.S. but other countries. How to impact other countries without offending,” said Ha, who came to the U.S from Korea. Ha expressed the benefit of interacting with other cityreachers as well.
 
Dr. Thomas Idiculla, from Agape Partners International, Waltham, Mass., summed up the reason so many from across the country gather for the CIR. “I want to know what is happening in other cities, learn from them, connect with them, and know what the Lord is doing,” he said.  
 
The national CIR is all about learning from each other, according to founder Glenn Barth, who is also president of GoodCities in Minneapolis, Minn. Barth says the CIR exists to empower and resource leaders of cityreaching all over America—whether in Christian community development work, evangelism work, prayer-based work, marketplace evangelism, or other arenas. In all of these contexts, relationship-building among cityreachers is most important.
 
For Idiculla, who is originally from India, the CIR delivered just that. “The connections we make [here] are more lasting because people are more serious. It is not just a casual contact like some other conferences,” he said. “We had a good opportunity at the roundtables to make connections.”
 
Roundtable discussions were ample amid the plenary sessions, as well as special interest workshops to speak to the variety of attendees and allow strategizing and problem solving in small groups.
 
“Small groups are the lifeblood of any cityreach movement,” Barth said. “Intimate relationship has the most powerful social force.”
 
Diversity of ministries arenas is also important in cityreaching, Barth says. “The healthiest cityreaching efforts are ones with pastors and people in ministry and people actively involved in the marketplace working together,” he said.
 
Workshops at the CIR reflected that. One workshop, “Partnership 101” led by Phill Butler and Bill Sutherland from visionSynergy, Seattle, Wash., is an intensive training in developing effective partnerships between the church, marketplace, government, ministries and lay people.
 
Another workshop track involved options of 11 different tours of cityreaching efforts in Boston. Three of the tours focused on the “Quiet Revival” in Boston—the 40-year history of spiritual renewal and church growth in the region. Others included ministries in the areas of youth, the homeless, Haitian immigrants, unreached people, church planting, and college students.
 
Linda Clark, with the Northeast Apostolic Prayer Network and Emmanuel Gospel Center was glad for the opportunity for others to see the diversity and ministry activities going on in Boston. “We did the Boston tour and it broke a lot of myths people have of Boston [as a spiritually dry place],” she said.
 
The Emmanuel Gospel Center (EGC) also addressed the CIR gathering on Monday night, offering a moving presentation of the body of Christ working together with presentations from Hatian, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese EGC team members. EGC works to nurture urban churches in the Boston area and collaborates with community-based organizations to empower homeless people, provide training in financial literacy, and equip urban youth leaders.
 
EGC and Vision New England served as the local hosts for this National City Impact Roundtable meeting.
 
The event was endorsed by the Mission America Coalition City and Community Ministries division. Mission America is the U.S. Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization. It is a network of national leaders who represent denominations, ministries, and cityreaching efforts with a shared vision to collaborate in prayer, evangelism, and revival. Since its inception, leaders from 81 denominations, over 400 ministries and dozens of ministry networks have been involved in the Coalition. Mrs. Vonette Bright (Campus Crusade for Christ), Dr. Billy Graham (Billy Graham Evangelistic Association), and Dr. John Perkins (Christian Community Development Association) serve as honorary co-chairs.

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