Editor's Note: Churches are often seen as places only for the worship of the faithful. Yet churches can also have a transformative social and economic impact on their communities. Amy Sherman, a friend of DIFW and director of the Center on Faith in Communities at the Sagamore Institute, compiled this list of best practices from churches across the U.S. who are making a transformative impact on their local community.
"The most effective way to turn around poverty, economic distress, and injustice," Sherman writes "is by expanding opportunity for people to develop and deploy their God-given productive potential in communities of exchange, especially through entrepreneurship." Feel free to download the guide, share ideas with your congregation, or dive further into these models as you consider the unique role your church might play in revitalizing your neighborhood.
Dr. Amy Sherman is the author of Kingdom Calling: Vocational Stewardship for the Common Good, the winner of Christianity Today’s 2013 book award in the category of Christian Living. She is a Senior Fellow at the Sagamore Institute for Policy Research, where she directs the Center on Faith in Communities. She is also the founder and former Executive Director of Charlottesville Abundant Life Ministries, an evangelical nonprofit assisting low-income, inner-city families. Dr. Sherman also serves as a Senior Fellow at the International Justice Mission’s IJM Institute. She is the author of six books and 75+ published articles in such diverse periodicals as Christianity Today, First Things, The Public Interest, Policy Review, Prism, The Christian Century, and Books & Culture.
