Missions Resources - Bibliography
Renewing the City
Authors: Robert Lupton
ISBN: 0830833269
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Number of pages: 240
Type of cover: Soft Cover
Summary: Book of the Week, October 24, 2005
Reviewed by Beth Tebbe
The themes of ‘building walls’ and handling opposition have made the book of Nehemiah the obvious text to study during numerous church-building campaigns. The book is both encouraging and realistic and speaks to congregations of God’s people. Robert Lupton introduces us to Nehemiah, the expatriate community developer and urban planner in the ancient city of Jerusalem. We also get to know Ezra, who had returned to Jerusalem twelve years before Nehemiah, as priest-governor, a man of God whose primary concern was over the spiritual state of the local people. Together they made a team that transformed the city they loved.
The Jewish community of Nehemiah’s day developed a tool called midrash to make biblical stories and teaching come alive to a generation of worshippers who knew very little of their own history. While being faithful to the text, midrash is a commentary on the text, which uses imagination to fill out the stories. Lupton skillfully applies the same tool for his own retelling of the ministries of Nehemiah and Ezra and how they intertwined.
Jerusalem, seven generations after its fall in 586 B.C., was a broken city. It was dangerous, corrupt, with economy in tatters, and full of systemic injustice. Despite its problems, the exiled Jewish community continued to think of Jerusalem as their homeland and bemoan the state it had fallen into. Nehemiah was born and raised as a Jew in Persia. He became a high-placed court official in Artaxerxes’ regime with extensive administrative responsibilities and experience. We meet Nehemiah as he has just heard of the further deterioration of the city from his brother, Hanani, Jerusalem's mayor.
Approaching the books of Nehemiah and Ezra as their journaled accounts, Lupton develops the story of a man with a vision and call, who secures a government grant, transforms a dangerous ghetto into a secure city, and then repopulates it by inducing suburbanites to move in. Part One is the careful retelling of the story from Nehemiah’s first stirrings of concern through the rebuilding phases, subsequent opposition and into his leadership in dealing with some of the social issues of the society. In Part Two Lupton again tells the story, but thematically. He takes issues that Nehemiah and Ezra faced and intersperses these with the modern equivalents in a city like Atlanta, Georgia. He tackles issues that are challenges to urban rebuilding and ministry today:
- The nature of urban leadership
- Problems encountered in urban regentrification
- The need for purity and stable family life
- The centrality of vision and call in urban renewal
- The problem of ‘good’, well-intentioned deeds leading to bad consequences
- The strategic nature of personal investment into the city
- The interrelationship of ‘serving’ vs. ‘leading’
- Dealing with conflicts of interest
- The relationship of church and community
- Theology of ‘occupation’ vs. theology of ‘engagement’
Lupton doesn’t have easy answers. Along with rejoicing in efforts that have turned out well, there are stories recounting failures and disappointments, the ‘ugly underbelly of effecting change.’ Ministry is complicated and full of ambiguities; compassion is essential, but evil must be confronted and that is messy business. Many of his examples are from his own life, but he draws on the stories of friends in urban renewal in various cities as well. Discussion of each issue begins with Nehemiah and Ezra. More fully realizing the issues of systemic evil that they faced leads to a much greater appreciation for both the Old Testament leaders and the challenges inherent in urban ministry today.
Robert D. Lupton is the founder and president of FCS Urban Ministries. He has invested more than thirty years in inner-city Atlanta, Georgia. He believes God cares about individuals, but also the cities they live and work in, that communities can be transformed, reflecting God’s love and justice in society, even and especially in our cities.
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