Lived Theology and Community Building Workgroup

The Workgroup on Lived Theology and Community Building was co-directed by Charles Marsh, an academic theologian, and Reverend Mark Gornik, a community-based theologian. This workgroup sought to understand the influence of theological commitments and convictions on faith-based urban initiatives in community development.

The general purpose was to move beyond journalistic accounts of faith-based communities in order to bring theological clarity to this important and widely debated movement (which one Christian activist has called America’s “quiet revolution”) and to build bridges of cooperation and fellowship between academic theologians and grass-roots Christian activists.

First Meeting – Charlottesville, Virginia

December 15-17, 2000

Readings

Participants read the following works in preparation for this meeting:

  • Milbank, John. Theology and Social Theory: Beyond Secular Reason. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1990.
  • Saunders, Stanley P. and Charles L. Campbell. The Word on the Street: Performing the Scriptures in an Urban Context. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2000.

Meeting Resources

The following are the available resources from this meeting:

Second Meeting – New York City

March 12-14, 2001

Readings

Participants read the following works in preparation for this meeting:

  • Myers, Ched, et. al. Say to this Mountain: Mark’s Story of Discipleship. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1996.
  • Rasmussen, Larry, ed. Reinhold Niebuhr: Theologian of Public. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991.
  • Rooney, Jim. “Why did the South Bronx Collapse?” Organizing the South Bronx. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995.
  • Sassen, Saskia. “Introduction: Whose City Is It? Globalization and the Formation of New Claims.” Globalization and Its Discontents: Essays on the New Mobility of People and Money. New York: New Press, 1998.
  • Stuart, Lee. “The Development of Moses as a Leader.” South Bronx Churches.

Meeting Resources

Third Meeting – Los Angeles, California

May 4-6, 2001

Readings

Participants read the following works in preparation for this meeting:

  • Carle, Robert D. and Louis A. Decaro, Jr., eds. Signs of Hope in the City: Ministries of Community Renewal. Valley Forge: Judson Press, 1999.
  • Linthicum, Robert C. Empowering the Poor: Community Organizing Among the City’s Rag, Tag and Bobtail. Monrovia, CA: World Vision, 1991.
  • Orr, John. “Los Angeles Religion: A Civic Profile 1998.” Center for Religion and Civic Culture. 19 September 2000.

Meeting Resources

Fourth Meeting – Charlottesville, Virginia

October 12-14, 2001

Readings

Participants read the following works in preparation for this meeting:

  • Gorringe, Timothy J. Karl Barth: Against Hegemony (Christian Theology in Context). New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
  • Perkins, John. Let Justice Roll Down. Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1976.
  • Pohl, Christine D. Making Room; Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999.
  • Sherman, Amy L. Restorers of Hope; Reaching the Poor in Your Community with Church-Based Ministries that Work. Wheaton: Crossway, 1997.

Meeting Resources

Lived Theology and Community Building Workgroup Participants

For more information about the speakers and participants, please click on their photos below.

 

Lived Theology and Community Building Workgroup Consultants

For more information about the speakers and participants, please click on their photos below.

Not pictured in gallery:
Al Stokes, Sandtown Habitat for Humanity