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    Church Forsaken: Practicing Presence in Neglected Neighborhoods
    Unavailable
    Church Forsaken: Practicing Presence in Neglected Neighborhoods
    Unavailable
    Church Forsaken: Practicing Presence in Neglected Neighborhoods
    Ebook275 pages4 hours

    Church Forsaken: Practicing Presence in Neglected Neighborhoods

    By Jonathan Brooks and Amisho Baraka

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    "There are no God-forsaken places, just church-forsaken places." —Jon Fuller, OMF International Jonathan Brooks was raised in the Englewood neighborhood on the south side of Chicago. As soon as he was able, he left the community and moved as far away as he could. But through a remarkable turn of events, he reluctantly returned and found himself not only back in Englewood but also serving as a pastor ("Pastah J") and community leader. In Church Forsaken, Brooks challenges local churches to rediscover that loving our neighbors means loving our neighborhoods. Unpacking the themes of Jeremiah 29, he shows how Christians can be fully present in local communities, building homes and planting gardens for the common good. His holistic vision and practical work offers good news for forgotten people and places. And community stakeholders and civic leaders will rediscover that churches are viable partners in community transformation in ways that they may never have considered. God has always been at work in neglected neighborhoods. Join Pastah J on this journey and discover new hope for your community.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherIndependent Publishers Group
    Release dateNov 6, 2018
    ISBN9780830873715
    Unavailable
    Church Forsaken: Practicing Presence in Neglected Neighborhoods
    Author

    Jonathan Brooks

    Jonathan Brooks ("Pastah J") is senior pastor of Canaan Community Church in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood. He has a master of divinity in Christian community development from Northern Seminary, was an art and architecture teacher with Chicago Public Schools, and is a recording artist with the hip-hop group Out-World. He and his family live in West Englewood.

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    • 5/5
      The story of the author's work in ministry in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood, described in terms of Jeremiah's letter to the exiles in Jeremiah 29.The author sets forth his story in a compelling way: a child of the area who moved out and yet came back and found himself the pastor of a local church, and how he has grown and developed to understand the area better, to love the people, to work effectively with and among the people, and to produce meaningful change in the community. The author's goal is to encourage Christians, wherever they are, to be present in their communities. He encourages them to participate in community efforts, to not consider themselves as better than or greater than the community, but to seek their community's welfare, just like Jeremiah encouraged the Israelites to do while in Babylonian exile. He encourages cooperation with local organizations doing good work, and does not expect the church to do all that work itself, which was refreshing and valuable. He demonstrates through his own example how one can come to love an area generally unloved and considered unlovable by many, and how important it is to get past the pretense and prejudice and find and love people where they are. While there are many, many books in this "X Church" or "Church X" genre, and it's easy to just gloss over them or think they're all just variations on a theme, this one has a lot of power and value and is worth consideration. Highly recommended.**--galley originally received as part of early review program, although I read the final edition which I purchased