Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Loving cities well: Chris Brooks on the church’s role in economic restoration
Loving cities well: Chris Brooks on the church’s role in economic restoration
Mar 17, 2025 11:28 AM

What would happen if local churches came together to love and serve our cities?

Upon hearing such a question, our minds are prone to imagine an assortment of “outreach ministries,” from food pantries to homeless shelters munity events to street evangelism.But while each of these can be a powerful channel for love and service in munities, what about the basic vision that precedes them?

Before and beyond our tactical solutions to immediate needs, how can the church truly work together to bring economic flourishing that will endure for years e?

In a recent talk for Made to Flourish, Pastor Christopher Brooks explores that question at length, drawing from both scripture and personal experience to provide a framework for re-imagining the church’s role in urban munity transformation. “God places his people in the hearts of cities, and cities in the hearts of his people,” he explains.

As pastor of a church in Detroit, Brooks speaks to the range of challenges that local churches faced in responding to the chaos that surrounds them. In his own experience, that included the disruption that followed the financial crisis and, later, the devastation that came from the city’shistoric decline into bankruptcy. The people of Detroit were hurting, and local churches were struggling as well, quickly retreating into isolation and division.

Eventually, Brooks was able to meet with several local pastors and begin to sow seeds of unity and collaboration. Together, they agreed to focus on spurring a revival of “good news” and “good works” across the city—economic, social, spiritual, and otherwise. “We were captured by a vision that good deeds would produce good will that would open the door for the good news to be shared,” Brooks explains.

As a result, that small group of pastors and churches slowly grew, now including over 500 churches from across the Detroit area. All ing together in shared purpose, making a covenant to love their city well do so by working together.

As far as the methods, the es have varied, ranging from training programs to personal discipleship to networking activities to economic activation. But regardless of the tactics, these churches are growing in a shared understanding of the real issues in munity, as well as their roles in training up believers for stewardship in the broader social and economic world.

To give a taste of that vision, Brooks offers the following lessons he’s gained on how we might change our perspectives and truly love our cities well.

1. Poverty isn’t permanent when the es together.

It’s so easy for us to lose sight of this reality and to feel overwhelmed, in particular when we work in isolation…We think that cities can’t be changed or that the Gospel can’t work in certain zip codes or neighborhoods. But when Jesus said, ‘The poor you will have with you always,’ he didn’t intend for that to mean that poverty was some unfixable disease or some incurable condition. No. We can see poverty change by unleashing the entrepreneurial, enterprising spirit that God has placed within each and every person within munity. When we begin to see them not just as mouths that consume, but minds that create, God restores flourishing.

2. Diagnosis determines treatment.

The church has been misdiagnosing poverty. We’ve been narrowly defining poverty as the lack of resources. But as a person who grew up poor, let me tell you, poverty is much deeper than that. It’s the lack of positive of relationships. Who’s better at giving people a network of positive relationships than the church? What people need most is not a check or a handout. They need a network of relationship that can provide intimacy and restoration and healing…God changes lives through relationships.

3. Our cities need munity development.

Never forget that what we bring to the table is munity and economic development. Don’t forget that part. Because…if God does change lives through relationships, and if…poverty is…a lack of positive relationships, then here’s my question: “What is the greatest relationship that a person can have?”…It’s not a relationship with you or with me, but it’s with a Savior, who can not only fix us on the outside, but renew us on the inside, and transform our hearts and our minds. This is what munities need. They need more than just creative programs or initiatives. They need Christ.

In the end, its about forming networks of fruitful relationships for the Kingdom and mon good. When the local church is working together with that bigger picture of human needs and creative capacity, transformation will follow, in turn.

“It is when we begin to collaborate with one another, forming these networks of relationships in Christ, that munities are transformed and flourishing returns,” says Brooks. “Let’s love our cities well plete the love story.”

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Todays Verse   Commentary on Proverbs 22:4   Read Proverbs 22:4   Where the fear of God is, there will be humility. And much is to be enjoyed by it spiritual riches, and eternal life at last.   Proverbs 22:4 In-Context   2 Rich and poor have this in common: The Lord is the Maker of them all.   3 The prudent see danger...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Todays Verse   Complete Concise   Chapter Contents   Exhortations to obedience and faith. 1-6 To piety, and to improve afflictions. 7-12 To gain wisdom. 13-20 Guidance of Wisdom. 21-26 The wicked and the upright. 27-35   Commentary on Proverbs 3:1-6   Read Proverbs 3:1-6   In the way of believing obedience to God#39s commandments health and peace may commonly be enjoyed and though...
Verse of the Day
  Hebrews 11:6 In-Context   4 By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.   5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: He could not be...
Verse of the Day
  Galatians 2:20 In-Context   18 If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker.   19 For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God.   20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I...
Verse of the Day
  Isaiah 61:7 In-Context   5 Strangers will shepherd your flocks foreigners will work your fields and vineyards.   6 And you will be called priests of the Lord, you will be named ministers of our God. You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast.   7 Instead of your shame you will receive a double portion,...
Verse of the Day
  1 Corinthians 3:18-20 In-Context   16 Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in your midst?   17 If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person; for God's temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.   18 Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Todays Verse   Commentary on Proverbs 15:4   Read Proverbs 15:4   A good tongue is healing to wounded consciences, by comforting them to sin-sick souls, by convincing them and it reconciles parties at variance.   Proverbs 15:4 In-Context   2 The tongue of the wise adorns knowledge, but the mouth of the fool gushes folly.   3 The eyes of the Lord are...
Verse of the Day
  1 John 4:20 In-Context   18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.   19 We love because he first loved us.   20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Todays Verse   Commentary on Psalm 37:1-6   Read Psalm 37:1-6   When we look abroad we see the world full of evil-doers, that flourish and live in ease. So it was seen of old, therefore let us not marvel at the matter. We are tempted to fret at this, to think them the only happy people, and so we are...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Todays Verse   Commentary on Psalm 90:12-17   Read Psalm 90:12-17   Those who would learn true wisdom, must pray for Divine instruction, must beg to be taught by the Holy Spirit and for comfort and joy in the returns of God#39s favour. They pray for the mercy of God, for they pretend not to plead any merit of their own....
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved