'Urban Churches, Vital Signs' is an important and positive contribution to the urgent discussion about the mission of the churches in American cities. These significant stories describe creative initiatives by congregations in response to issues of economic development, affordable housing, health care, and education in fifteen cities across the nation. Readers will see woven throughout the narratives the crucial role of theology, worship, pastoral leadership, partnerships, racial identity, family life, new patterns of funding, and transformative imagination. This is a book that will inspire hope and stimulate the struggle for justice. V. Bruce Rigdon, president, Ecumenical Theological Seminary Nile Harper has brought together twenty-eight excellent illustrations of the most important development in the contemporary American church - the spiritual quickening of urban congregations.... Telling these stories not only supplies models for other churches that want to be faithful to their mission and heritage, but also provides a testament of devotion that will inspire all readers. Harper's examples show what churches are supposed to be about. These stories dispel the false myth that city churches barely survive in hostile urban environments. On the contrary, these churches - African American, mainline, evangelical, Roman Catholic - are shaping their communities, their cities, and the future faith of the nation. Loyde H. Hartley, professor, Lancaster Theological Seminary Nothing, in my mind, is more important than the revival of the urban church. Harper has given us a very valuable resource in these inspiring, well-written stories. This new book ought to be in the hands of everyone who cares about the present and the future of urban churches. John M. Buchanan, pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago Nile Harper is director of Urban Church Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and an adjunct faculty member at Ecumenical Theological Seminary in Detroit. Among his previous books is 'Will the Church Lose the City?'
