Press Release

Title: Discovering Your City Subitle: Bringing Light to the Task of Community Transformation Special Note: Includes an Urban Analysis Reference Appendix containing sample surveys, forms, maps, graphs, and data summaries - including spiritual mapping

Discovering Your City Provides Answers to the Following Questions:

• How Do You Translate Vision into a Transformed Society?
• What are the Strategic Goals and Processes that Apply?
• How Can We See the Whole Church Function in Unity as a Body?
• How Do You Convert Strategic Information into Transformed Societies?
• How Do You Obtain an Accurate and Relevant Assessment of the City and the Church?

Overview

Many writers and researchers who have explored America’s church have all come to an astonishing conclusion. Mike Regele (co-founder and president of Percept Group, Inc.), writing in the Death of the Church, states, "In the face of the current wave of change, the church in America has two options. Either it will go about its business as usual--and be swallowed up by obsolescence and die by default. Or the church will choose to die--and thus find life." George Barna, founder and president of Barna Research Group, stated in the late nineties, "I've concluded that within the next few years America will experience one of two outcomes: either massive spiritual revival or total moral anarchy."

Going about business as usual will find the Church in the cities of many nations, especially the West, continuing unable to make a significant impact in unchurched populations in terms of conversion and/or transformation. This applies especially to recent generations. The gap will continue to widen. Most of our cities are a morass of secularism, materialism and paganism little understood by the Church. Up until now we have seen a minimum of interdenominational or interchurch cooperative efforts geared for making disciples in the city. The Body of Christ has serious difficulty functioning as a body, and the result is it is very lethargic in building the Body.

Paradoxically, many Christian leaders today are saying we are living in unprecedented days with regards to both the Church and the world. Dick Eastman of Every Home for Christ says this is a "dream hour" for the Church, and "is the time that prophet, priest and king were anxiously awaiting."

Over the past two decades there has been a concerted, focused, cooperative effort by the Church to reach the unreached peoples around the world. The Church has established beachheads in hundreds or formerly unreached peoples, with many paying the high price of martyrdom. This has been undergirded and catalyzed through a concerted effort to locate, identify and understand these people groups, and to skillfully get the information into the right hands. It has benefited from the initiative taken by many current day apostles and prophets.

A similar scenario is needed for the cities of the world. We can identify and count many effective tactical ministries functioning in many cities. However, it is rare (there are a few) to find a cooperative city-wide/Church-wide strategy initiative where a broad spectrum of the Church in the city is holding in common: a challenging Biblically-based vision, long and short-range measurable goals, and an accurate, up-to-date picture of the city and its societies, and of itself.

In Discovering Your City you will find steps and tools (including graphical) for obtaining a detailed analysis of the city’s complex mosaic, including ways to understand the mindset of the unchurched, and to discover the causative factors behind many of the enemy strongholds. It leads you through an analysis of the city Church, providing measurement of progress and effectiveness .

Discovering Your City walks you through the steps and roles this informed picture has in the motivation and mobilization of a city-wide/Church-wide strategy initiative. The thrust of the initiative to give every person in the city the opportunity to experience the love, care, truth, joy and power of Jesus Christ on an ongoing basis. Its long range purpose and goal is to see widespread community transformation. A transformation that aligns with the righteousness of God.

What Others Say About the Book

"In this book Bob and Carl Townsend have distilled decades of experience and present a what, why and how book to take you through the processes of obtaining, analyzing, and applying strategic information to effective city-reaching and transformation. Each leader and worker seriously interested in discovering the realities within the city, including the Church, and seeing them translated into effective citywide transformation, should keep this cutting-edge book close by for reference."

Jack Dennison, President of CitiReach International; author of: City Reaching: On the Road to Community Transformation

"You bring fresh insights, terminology, analogies, and depth to the idea of discipling nations and cities. And of course, taking us through the strategy all from the viewpoint of gathering the data is a much needed and appreciated trip. I wish I could make some sage remarks on how to improve the book or suggest some stuff that should be included or left out, but I believe you have hit the mark."

Jim Montgomery, founder and president of DAWN Ministries; author of: DAWN 2000: 7 Million Churches To Go, and, Then The End Will Come

About the Authors

Carl Townsend is founder and president of Strategic Resources Ministry. He lives in Portland, Oregon and has been active in the citywide initiative Mission Portland as research coordinator for the past decade. He has written more than 30 computer text books over the past 20 years, and currently consults on a variety of computer and research-related projects.