Carl DeLine

‘Urban church’ subject of forum

Published in Newspaper Articles. Tags: .

A group of downtown Calgary churches is holding a workshop March 25-26 to examine the concept of the “urban church” and its role in the community.

“It’s a process of developing a network so that churches can do community work and be a source of community support,” says Carl DeLine, a local minister promoting the workshop.

“It will give people the image of what the church is throughout the world. It is designed to open people’s eyes to something other than the Calgary experience, introducing people to the broader picture of what church is, and applying that to urban ministry,” said DeLine.

Open to all Calgary churches, it will help participants identify the needs in their community and how to meet them, says DeLine, the director of the Calgary Inter-Faith Food Bank.

The workshop will begin Friday evening by examining the community concerns and their relationship to local churches. Then, DeLine will take a look at the social, psychological, physical and theological dynamics of the urban church.

On Saturday, DeLine will begin by examining the creative tensions that exist within the church and the various needs it strives to serve for the individual, the church community and the community at large.

Then it will examine the philosophy of church from the personal perspective. That will be followed by an examination of the Biblical images of church with special emphasis on the seven churches named in the Book of Revelation.

Finally, it will focus on how to network with other churches and the community.

“We’d like to see the churches raise among themselves concerns about community issues and then go beyond to use their resources to address those questions,” he said.

“If, at the end of this time together, we are motivated to a new sensitivity toward those outside the church, this workshop will be considered a success.”

For more information, contact John Mungham, [redacted] or June Petersen, Central United Church, [redacted].


Originally published March 19, 1988 by the Calgary Herald (Calgary, AB), credited to Gordon Legge.