Planting Churches among the City's Poor - Volume 1

P ART III: P LANTING U RBAN C HURCHES • 293

A. The American inner city represents a tough and difficult mission field: 40 million strong .

James 2.5 (ESV) – Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? 1. America’s inner city is not homogenous, but dramatic in its mind-numbing diversity and levels of cultural and class difference.

a. Massive new immigration (legal and illegal)

b. Push-pull theory of African-American migration

(1) First migration: between World War I and II where nearly 4 million blacks left the South “pushed” out by racism and ostracism (2) Second migration: after the Civil Rights Act of 1965, the most serious abandonment of the inner city by businesses, professionals, educators, etc.

c. Well-worn historical divisions between cultures and groups: Koreans, Blacks, Hispanics, poor Whites, etc.

d. Linguistic and ethnic difference: 23 languages in LA for driver’s license!

2. Dramatic class alienation in the American city, which impacts and affects life in urban poor neighborhoods throughout the country

a. Unemployment and lack of education

b. Dramatic levels of noninvolvement in political processes and community governance

c. Economic separation between those living in the city and those in the suburbs

d. Lack of government attention and care: a seriously developed “blame-the-victim” social view in the 80’s and 90’s