A Centered Set Approach to Urban Mission

The focus of this project is on centered set approaches to urban mission and how use of this approach engages people in meaningful ministries. The hope is that this new approach will inspire leaders of coalitions of churches to unearth a wider diversity of service opportunities to be offered through the local church.

This project offers leaders of city transformation movements a fresh approach to their work. There are inherent advantages to a centered set approach when coupled with the bounded set of the leadership covenant community. This is a hybrid organizational approach that affirms the decentralized environment of the mission context and the need for a strategic center at the same time. This new organization is shown to be developing in Atlanta, GA, Little Rock, AR, Knoxville, TN and Long Beach, CA.

This new understanding is in its beginning stages. At this point, it is difficult to evaluate the full impact of this hybrid approach. We can say that each of the four leadership groups is using the skill sets that enable them to: 1)?Facilitate collaborative partnerships, 2)?Network people relationally into existing and develop ministries and programs, 3)?Share information about opportunities and engage participation in leadership communities.

This project offers several methods for evaluating local mission opportunities. In addition, several of the newest resources for church leaders to help their members find meaningful positions in local mission were discovered. This dissertation strongly suggests the development of information systems to connect volunteers to ministries well suited to their gifting and calling. This information needs to be coupled with a relational approach through local churches to effectively mobilize people into local mission.