Half the world’s population lives in cities and suburbs. More than 80 percent of U.S. residents call cities and suburbs home. To better understand how youth workers can reach and serve urban youth, we interviewed three experts in urban youth ministry.
As an anthropologist, Associate Professor of Youth Ministry at Eastern University Calenthia Dowdy approaches youth ministry from a global perspective. Her interests are poverty, justice and hip-hop as related to culture in American cities.
Though he’s now the Superintendent of the Pacific Southwest Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church, Efrem Smith still considers himself a youth worker at heart. An expert on urban ministry and former urban columnist for YouthWorker Journal, he’s also co-author of The Hip-Hop Church.
A “teaching preacher,” Rene Rochester teaches science at Brentwood Academy in Tennessee. She’s also the author of Models, Mentors and Messages: Blueprints of Urban Ministry, the CEO of Urban SET Inc. and the designer of Preventive Holistic Adolescent Training: Serving Teens at Risk (PHAT STAR).
Youth Worker Journal: Paint a picture of what urban youth ministry looks like.
Calenthia Dowdy: The most rapid urban growth is happening in developing countries. Of 1.2 billion youth on the planet, 85 percent of them live in the global south. The vast majority of these young people are impoverished and marginalized.
The most effective ministries are those that have contextualized their work. They understand holistic ministry and respond to spiritual and physical needs. Community centers are vital parts of these churches, where they feed, clothe, house, educate, offer health education, recreation and childcare alongside Bible study, worship and discipleship. Urban youth ministry is happening outside of the institutional church, on streets, in homes and often around the arts.
Efrem Smith: For a long time, professional urban youth ministry has been happening through parachurch organizations. A lot of urban youth ministry leaders are volunteers because many urban churches don’t have the resources to hire someone. In the urban context, youth ministry cannot be separated from other ministries of the church. The most effective ministries are those that also have ministries of compassion, mercy and justice: job training, computer centers and after-school centers.
Rene Rochester: In urban youth ministry, the needs are the same yet different because you’ve got kids who are living in a high-stress environment. You’re dealing with young people who are from communities that are high-pace, high-risk and sometimes low-income. In some communities where the money is not there, the social structure is not as strong, which puts people at additional risk. Single-parent homes also add pressure.
YWJ: What are some of the unique challenges urban teens face, and how can youth workers address them?
Calenthia: I don’t think there are challenges unique to urban teens. They are simply teens who lack resources, whether they’re economical, educational or social capital. Their needs often are based on material lack, which impacts every area of their lives. They learn to exist within a violent system that becomes normative. Part of our job is to expose the injustices, letting them know they are just as valuable and loved as other youth. They are strong and resilient, capable of making good choices if provided with good options. The youth minister also must be strong, resilient and persistent in his or her commitment to walk alongside these young people.
Efrem: Urban youth are impacted by the broader dynamics of urban communities, which have been hit hard by our nation’s economic challenges. Issues such as home foreclosures and unemployment impact the urban community. That in turn impacts urban families and youth.
Rene: I’m adamant about education. If kids cannot read, they can’t go to that next level. Sometimes we stop teaching the fundamentals, even though we haven’t caught the fundamentals yet. It’s not that urban kids can’t learn; it’s that they learn differently.
YWJ: How is the hip-hop culture influencing and shaping youth culture?
Calenthia: Hip hop has come of age and is returning to its roots. Thirty plus years old, it’s gone through a difficult adolescence filled with self-centeredness, immaturity, greed and violence. This current generation is tired of the gangsta’ism of middle school hip hop. They’re incorporating themes of peace, spirituality, neighborhood pride, interracial friendship and love into hip hop. Hip hop is reinvigorating poor communities with its focus on justice and community development. Hip hop’s appeal is in its expressive form. It allows young people to express their realities in productive ways using rap, dance, graffiti and deejaying to tell their stories.
Efrem: Hip hop is the most visible face of postmodernity and the emergent generation in the urban context. It’s been the strongest artistic expression of the issues and challenges that urban youth face. If you go to an urban community, you’ll find venues where urban youth are using art to express their concerns and issues, where kids are using poetry and dance to tell their stories. In Hispanic and African-American youth culture, this has been going on for a long time. Unfortunately, there are forces outside the urban community that have taken the art form of hip hop and distorted it to make money. That’s when you get stereotypes such as all urban kids being thought of as gangsters and playing basketball.
YWJ: What are some strategies for effectively ministering in a multi-ethnic, urban landscape?
Calenthia: Many youth workers come into urban areas with preconceived ideas and prejudices and end up doing more harm than benefit. Urban youth are not morally and socially inferior to suburban youth. Urban youth need love and challenge, not charity and pity. Do your demographic homework so you know about the community to which you’re ministering. Contextualization and incarnation are key. The most effective ministers live in the community. This way, they gain firsthand knowledge of the issues affecting the community.
Efrem: To be equipped, urban youth workers have to have a broad library at their disposal that includes books on theology, culture and hip-hop culture from multiple ethnic voices. Urban youth workers need to understand that ministry takes place outside the walls of the church. If you’re trying to do 70 percent inside the walls of a church, you’re not going to be effective. Urban youth ministry takes place on the playground, the street corner, at the local high school and in middle schools.
Rene: Be aware of the cultural differences, but focus on the heart issues of the child. They’re the same everywhere. Focus on the similarities of the spirit, soul and body. Think about Jesus when He came to the Sea of Galilee, where every fish of the world was in the water. When He said, “I’m going to make you fishers of men,” He was setting a precedent. You’re going to deal with every kind of fish. Walk and work in biblical integration. Know Scripture intimately. Study culture diligently. Apply truth theologically and biblically.
YWJ: What advice do you have for youth workers facing reductions in their budgets?
Calenthia: Urban youth ministry always has faced the challenges of meager resources, but the current financial crisis only intensifies that challenge. Trim fat and work harder at relationships without bells and whistles. Get back to the basics of talking, laughing and hanging out, spending time knowing and being known. This is also a time to pitch volunteerism and become familiar with what’s free in your city.
Rene: In the city, I tell my kids, “This is the hand you’ve been dealt. You’ve got to know how to play it.” In other words, you’ve got to make it work for you. Find out who’s got great resources. Who’s already teaching kids? Call on your schoolteachers. Who’s already doing economic empowerment? Have them come and give a workshop. Know where your own gifts are and lean into those. Cry out to God for creativity. Find the family businesses in your community. Stay connected with people with heart and passion who are doing what you do and love it. Pull on and challenge one another. Collaborate. Champion each other on. Stay connected with the body of Christ. Everything you need for the body is in the body. Value gifts, callings and people. Use what you have. God will meet the need if we stay connected with other people and ask Him.
YWJ: How can urban and suburban youth ministries partner with one another?
Calenthia: These partnerships must be mutually beneficial if they are to be transformational. I saw a partnership in the Philadelphia area between two churches that participated in an exchange during the summer. Suburban youth came and lived in the urban church for one week and helped out around the church. The main objective was to build relationships with the people of the community. Several months later, the urban youth did the same, going to live inside the suburban church, offering help and support but focusing on relationships. After the experience, the young people expressed that they had developed friendships with one another across racial, class and location lines. The youth became friends and partners in ministry, which lends itself more naturally to resource sharing. Friends share resources. We don’t share resources in order to become friends.
Efrem: Suburban churches have to be willing to sit at the feet of urban churches. Because the suburban church often has more resources financially, it’s usually in the position of power. A lot of times, suburban-urban partnerships don’t work because they’re top-down relationships. The more that suburban churches are willing to say, “There’s a blessing for us in being in relationship,” the more effective the partnerships will become.
Rene: Those in suburbia have to be willing to say, “How can we serve you?” Those in urban churches have to be willing to ask for help and walk together. Be teachable and be able to teach. The tendency sometimes is for a suburban church to plan. In true collaboration, it’s equal authority and access at the table.
YWJ: What else should we know?
Efrem: In the 80s and 90s, the future of the church was in the suburbs. That’s why we’ve seen so much church growth there. In this millennium, the future of the church is urban and multi-ethnic.
Rene: The gospel is a living epistle. The book is still being written in the lives of people. Pour into young people and find someone to pour into you. Introduce yourself to those who know more than you. Older teachers love to teach. Sit at their feet and learn. Then rest and be who God called you to be. Listen to God’s voice. Obey God’s voice. Then watch God work. If you stay connected with people and see ministry as your life, God will connect you with the right people at the right time. Your life will make an impact.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES FOR URBAN MINISTRY
Organizations and Events
Christian Community Development Association
Founded by John Perkins in 1989, this is a key organization for those involved in urban ministry.
CCDA’s next conference is April 3-8, 2011, in Chicago (CCDA.org).
Urban Youth Workers Institute
The organization offers regional one-day training events called “Reload” that focus on: “Collaboration, Community, Coaching, Counsel, Worship, Workshops and the Word of God!”
A conference called “Flavor Fest” in Tampa, Fla., is organized by Crossover Church.
Books
Fernando Arzola Jr., Toward a Prophetic Youth Ministry*
Alice McIntyre, Inner-City Kids: Adolescents Confront Life and Violence in an Urban Community
Ron Sider and Heidi Unruh, eds., Hope for Children in Poverty: Profiles and Possibilities
Efrem Smith and Phil Jackson, The Hip-Hop Church: Connecting with the Movement Shaping Our Culture*
Daniel Hodges, The Soul of Hip Hop*
Mark Dymaz, Ethnic Blends
Soong-Chan Rah, The Next Evangelicalism*
* See reviews and other info on these resources at YouthWorker.com.
