Efrem Smith – författare

How can the people of God develop churches in ways that help and don't hurt poor neighborhoods? In urban ministry, Christians too often treat the poor as goodwill projects instead of people. Because of this mindset, many remain unchurched. Healthy, local, urban churches are needed because they combine personal empowerment and community transformation.

Every poor neighborhood needs uncommon churches that will seek the common good of their communities. Alvin Sanders engages hard truths about these neighborhoods and provides a model for how to do ministry in difficult conditions. The local, urban church is the key to community transformation, as it plays three crucial roles of empowering, partnering, and reaching.

Pastors and church planters interested in Christian community development will find here practical insights into the power of the local church, which is often underrated. Churches can serve their communities and improve the quality of life of every facet of the neighborhood.

Efrem Smith, an internationally recognized and innovative African-American leader, offers a workable plan for connecting theology, practical ministry models, and real stories of people in multi-ethnic Christian communities. Using the example of Jesus, Smith develops a theology of multi-ethnic and missional leadership. Embracing urban and ethnic subcultures such as hip-hop, this book provides a rich mix of multi-ethnic church development, reconciliation theology, missional church thinking, and Christian community.

This book is written for anyone wrestling with what it means to be a Christian in an increasingly multi-ethnic world polarized by class, politics, and race.

Efrem Smith, an internationally recognized and innovative African-American leader, offers a workable plan for connecting theology, practical ministry models, and real stories of people in multi-ethnic Christian communities. Using the example of Jesus, Smith develops a theology of multi-ethnic and missional leadership. Embracing urban and ethnic subcultures such as hip-hop, this book provides a rich mix of multi-ethnic church development, reconciliation theology, missional church thinking, and Christian community.

This book is written for anyone wrestling with what it means to be a Christian in an increasingly multi-ethnic world polarized by class, politics, and race.

Diversity is a high value for younger generations-but too often, they're not finding it in the church.

Emerging generations in the West are more diverse than ever-ethnically, socioeconomically, educationally, and politically. And as church attendance among younger generations declines rapidly, research shows that one of their primary sticking points is the lack of diversity in most churches.

In Church for Everyone, pastors Dan Kreiss and Efrem Smith address this phenomenon head-on. In this research-based, theologically informed, and practical book, they explore the younger generations' expectations and disappointments with church and hold out a vision for true diversity taken from the pages of Scripture. As experienced church leaders themselves, Kreiss and Smith share a wealth of practical experience and stories from the trenches of multiethnic ministry.

The good news is that God has already called the church to diversity. As we seek to live out this calling in our own local contexts, we can become the demonstration of God's love for all humanity that he has designed the church to be-and that the younger generation is so desperately looking for.