Resources
Urban Perspectives
…reflections on faith, grace, and the city
Urban Perspectives is a collection of monthly reflections about life and faith in the city. Robert Lupton, founder and president of FCS Urban Ministries, offers us personal glimpses and poignant stories of a journey he began more than 30 years ago when he responded to a call of God to live and serve among the urban poor.
Urban Perspectives can be mailed monthly to your home at no charge. If you would like to join the mailing list remember to include your name and home address in the submission form.
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The Collective
- Beltline Bike Shop
- CF Youth Development Group
- Charis Community Housing
- Common Focus
- Community Chaplaincy
- Community Grounds Cafe
- EIRO
- FCS Community Economic Development
- Georgia Avenue Community Ministry
- GlenCastle
- Green My Hood
- Metro Merge
- Mission Year
- Moving in the Spirit
- Pathways
- Refugee Beads
- South Atlanta Bike Shop
- South Atlanta Marketplace
- Southwest Atlanta Neighboring
- Youth Universe
FCS Resources
Toxic Charity
How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help (and How To Reverse It)
Release Date:
October 11, 2011
By Robert D. Lupton,
All Orders will be SIGNED copies
$18.00
Churches and charities have fallen into the bad habit of creating programs to help the poor when in reality the only people they are helping are themselves, creating a toxic charity that needs to be reexamined and fixed. In this groundbreaking book, Lupton shows how good-intentioned people are actually hurting the very people they’re trying to help. The poor end up feeling judged, looked down upon, only worthy of charity and handouts that end up making them more dependent instead of learning skills to help themselves. Churches and charitable organizations, though good-intentioned, have missed the mark when it comes to serving the poor, creating a toxic form of charity. Lupton says that a better system would be to treat the poor as business partners, empowering them to start businesses, build houses, plan communities, etc. He offers specific organizations as examples of this healthier model of charity and gives practical ideas for how to get involved in service projects that truly help. Together, we can serve our world in a way that actually effects life-altering change.
Order By Phone Call Kerry Wilkerson at the FCS office 404.627.4304. You will be billed by mail. Discounts available for bulk orders (10 or more).
Everyday Missions
How Ordinary People Can Change the World
By Leroy Barber
USA $15.00 – Pre Order
It’s not every day that you get a visit from God. Burning bushes, ladders to heaven, chariots of fire and all that–we look for those stories in the Bible, and we look for them in our lives. When it comes to something as important as what we do with our lives, we think, maybe God owes us a big event.
But, as Leroy Barber has learned through his work in inner cities and with young people, that’s not usually how it works. More often God calls out to us from everyday misfortunes and all-too-common injustices, and he invites our response–not just a response in the moment, but a recognition that we have a role to play in seeing God’s kingdom come, God’s will done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Through the surprisingly normal stories of the heroes of faith in the Bible, and through Barber’s experiences with Mission Year and other ministries, in this book you’ll learn what it means to change the world from your own little space in it.
Order By Phone Call Kerry Wilkerson at the FCS office 404.627.4304. You will be billed by mail. Discounts available for bulk orders (10 or more).
Theirs Is The Kingdom
Celebrating the Gospel in Urban America
By Robert D. Lupton,
HarperSanFrancisco, ISBN: 006-065307-8
USA $10.25
Robert Lupton – educated and middle class – moved into a high crime area of Atlanta with the intention of bringing Christ’s message into the ghetto. In this insightful and moving series of vignettes, he shows how his experiences there shattered many of his assumptions about himself and the nature of poverty in America. He soon found that his mission was as much about his own salvation as it was about that of the urban poor. He was surprised to learn that a spiritual life had already taken root in the urban soil, exposing his own patronizing attitudes, materialism, and biases.
Order By Phone Call Kerry Wilkerson at the FCS office 404.627.4304. You will be billed by mail. Discounts available for bulk orders (10 or more).
Compassion, Justice and the Christian Life
Rethinking Ministry to the Poor
By Robert D. Lupton,
Published by Regal Books
USA $9.00
The urban landscape is changing and, as a result, urban ministries are at a crossroads. If the Church is to be an effective agent of compassion and justice, we must change our mission strategies. In this revised and expanded edition of And You Call Yourself A Christian, Bob Lupton, asks tough questions about service providing and community building to help us enhance our effectiveness. Among the questions: What dilemmas do caring people encounter to faithfully carry out the teaching of Scripture and become personally involved with “the least of these?” What are some possible alternatives to the ways we have traditionally attempted to care for the poor? How do people, programs, and neighborhoods move toward reciprocal, interdependent relationships? To effect these types of changes will require new skill sets and resources, but the possibilities for good are great.
Order By Phone Call Kerry Wilkerson at the FCS office 404.627.4304. You will be billed by mail. Discounts available for bulk orders (10 or more).
Renewing the City
Reflections on Community Development and Urban Renewal
By Robert D. Lupton,
InterVarsity Press ISBN:0-8308-3326-9
USA $10.00
When an expatriate bureaucrat toured a devastated city, he saw more than ashes and ruins. He envisioned a thriving metropolis where God’s people could find safety and community. Likewise, when we consider today’s urban challenges, we can be daunted by corruption and despair, or we can see opportunities for rejuvenation, restoration and rebirth.
Community developer and urban activist Robert Lupton looks to the Old Testament example of Nehemiah as a role model for community transformation and renewal. Lupton sees the book of Nehemiah as the memoirs of an urban developer who transformed a decaying city into a place of security and vitality. Placing Nehemiah’s story in juxtaposition with contemporary realities offers encouragement and concrete models for how our own metropolitan environments can be revitalized. Nehemiah’s example – and Lupton’s – offer guidance and hope for all who would seek the welfare of their cities.
Order By Phone Call Kerry Wilkerson at the FCS office 404.627.4304. You will be billed by mail. Discounts available for bulk orders (10 or more).
Return Flight
Community Development Through Reneighboring Our Cities
By Robert D. Lupton,
USA $10.00
Return Flight is a handbook of practical insights and thought-provoking vignettes that portrays a strategy for reweaving the fabric of urban community. It offers a compelling case for re-neighboring deteriorated neighborhoods with “strategic neighbors” who join with indigenous leaders to bring new energy, vision and resources into low-hope environments.
Order By Phone Call Kerry Wilkerson at the FCS office 404.627.4304. You will be billed by mail. Discounts available for bulk orders (10 or more).
New Neighbor
An Invitation to Join Beloved Community
By Leroy Barber
Photos by Brian T. Murphy
USA $14.99
We are regularly bombarded with the message that our world is getting smaller. We have more information about more people and cultures than we’ve ever had before. Yet our sense of disconnectedness continues to grow. How is it that we know people in other cities or even other countries, yet know nothing of the lives of the people next door? New Neighbor challenges our assumptions about what a neighbor is, who our neighbors are and what a neighborhood could be. This vivid gallery of words and images gives us a glimpse into what Leroy Barber and many of his Mission Year team members are discovering about being a New Neighbor. It is an invitation to join this movement. To explore, question, wonder and wrestle with others who are longing to be New Neighbors.
Order By Phone Call Kerry Wilkerson at the FCS office 404.627.4304. You will be billed by mail. Discounts available for bulk orders (10 or more).
Green My Hood – Black T-Shirt
$15.00
Order By Phone Call Kerry Wilkerson at the FCS office 404.627.4304. You will be billed by mail. Discounts available for bulk orders (10 or more).
Green My Hood – T-Shirt White
$15.00
Order By Phone Call Kerry Wilkerson at the FCS office 404.627.4304. You will be billed by mail. Discounts available for bulk orders (10 or more).
Green My Hood – T-Shirt Green
$15.00
Order By Phone Call Kerry Wilkerson at the FCS office 404.627.4304. You will be billed by mail. Discounts available for bulk orders (10 or more).