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Directions for Conducting a Community Study

Community Study:
Understand your context for ministry

Community analysis enables you to choose a ministry that is really needed, take best advantage of existing community resources, and convince your congregation and other friends that your program is worth supporting. In order to do that, you need to create as thorough and as balanced a profile of your community as you can. . . . God is already at work in your community. Your task is to find out where you can enter the picture. (Handbook for Urban Church Ministries, p. 13)

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Housing First in Washington DC

Submitted by CSM on Fri, 05/02/2008 - 11:20

400 of Washington DC's "most vulnerable" homeless individuals will be given housing by Oct 1. A recent Washington Post article describes the District's first step in a major effort to provide housing to over 2,500 individuals by 2014.

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Cool Organization in Oakland!

Submitted by CSM on Thu, 06/05/2008 - 15:57

We love hearing how people are able to use their unique gifts and passions to serve others. Check out this video to see how this organization is revitalizing a neighborhood in the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Area!

Learn how you can serve with CSM in the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Area!

LA Times Article: "Without a name, former 'South Central' L.A. has become almost invisible"

Submitted by Center for Student Missions on Mon, 07/21/2008 - 12:13

This is a good article on the identity of South LA.  Because of the lack of identity a the community of "South LA" being such a big area, it is hard for this area to get resources.  I think that we have experienced this as well being down here.  Many ministries and organizations in South LA have a harder time accepting volunteers because help is so scarce in this area.  We're praying for more resources in this area as well.

-Jon Vales, CSM Los Angeles Associate City Director

Subway Tokens and Other “Random” Acts

Submitted by Center for Student Missions on Wed, 08/20/2008 - 13:29

Today was a great day in Toronto. The weather was beautiful, my CSM team was amazing yet again, and I got to experience several different aspects of urban ministry that touched my heart.

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Battling the Recession as a Multi-ethnic Church

Submitted by Chad Brennan on Fri, 03/13/2009 - 16:17

# Nearly every community in America is being hit hard by the recession and there seems to be no end in sight. It is great to see many churches and ministries reaching out to help. But, imagine what the impact would be if Christians of different ethnicities in your community were all working together to help during this difficult time?

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The New Divide: Online Segregation in the Church

It was decades before the Web when Martin Luther King Jr. made his famous quote that “Eleven o’clock Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in America.” MLK’s point was that the church sets a poor example in its own segregation of congregations. The effects of ongoing segregation were recently detailed in the book Divided by Faith. The basic point of the book is that the segregation of the church results in a separation of “social capital” between communities which perpetuates injustice. For example, a church member in a very resourced church who is looking for a job, may get 10 referrals from friends in the church, whereas a church member in a church where 50% of the attendees are unemployed might not get any referrals.

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Community Study Guide

Community Study Guide


This guide (attached document) will help you know what you are looking for in your study of the community. Feel free to add, subtract or adapt questions as appropriate to your particular context. Some of the questions will apply more to "community" in the sense of a geographical area; others apply more to "community" in the sense of a people group.

 

 

 

CSM New York Ministry Preview - God's Love We Deliver

Submitted by CSM on Mon, 05/05/2008 - 13:50

CSM New York partners with some amazing organizations throughout the five different boroughs. Check out this great video from God's Love We Deliver as they celebrate 20 years of serving their community.

Find out how you can serve at God's Love We Deliver with CSM New York City!

A NY Reality

Submitted by CSM on Mon, 06/09/2008 - 11:51

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