
EGC RESOURCES
Research Topics
- Boston Churches
- Boston General
- Christian Leadership
- Christianity & Culture
- Church Spaces
- Churches/Church Planting
- Communities
- Gender-Based Violence
- Housing & Homelessness
- Intercultural
- Public Health
- Race
- Refugee
- Spiritual Health/Vitality
- Trafficking/Exploitation
- Urban Youth & Education
- Women in Leadership
Boston is often described as secular, but research tells a different story.
Boston Churches
The Boston Church Directory may be used for a variety of scholarly, relational, and spiritual purposes.
Explore the history of the Church in Boston with a look at Christian movements through the centuries.
Communities
Boston
Neighborhood Studies
Data Dives
How to research your community
Most Popular
Christian Ministry
Church Landscape Review
Boston is often described as secular, but research tells a different story.
In the last 10 years, pastors have faced unprecedented challenges in shepherding their congregations. How did pastors in Boston hold up under the pressure?
Churches have experienced plenty of change and faced much upheaval over the last 10 years. If you could take a snapshot of your church before and after that period, what would it look like? Would you see any big structural changes? How would the leadership of your church have changed? What about the congregation?
How has the church landscape in Boston changed over the last ten years? EGC’s Applied Research team analyzes the data from before-and-after snapshots of a group of newer churches between 2014 and 2024.
Church Space
Christians look on in dismay as empty churches are converted into luxury condos, but congregations are beginning to reassess how their sacred spaces are used outside Sunday worship.
While many churches in Boston share their space with congregations, nonprofits, or community members, several barriers prevent them from fully utilizing their properties for mission.
Churches open to reimagining how their spaces can be utilized may discover new ways to serve their communities, build stronger connections, and contribute to the financial sustainability of their facilities.
Some churches have successfully transformed their properties into dynamic community centers offering various services, from food pantries and after-school programs to cultural events and neighborhood meetings.
Churches faced with aging buildings, lack of parking, and aging, dispersed membership may find selling their buildings necessary—or even advantageous. What happens to the buildings when they do?
With limited meeting space in some of our cities, how do churches who practice their faith in different ways gather under the same roof and learn to love each other?
Intercultural Ministry
Church Planting
Boston is often described as secular, but research tells a different story.
In the last 10 years, pastors have faced unprecedented challenges in shepherding their congregations. How did pastors in Boston hold up under the pressure?
There are about 250 Black churches in Boston facing multiple challenges. To leverage their collective strength, almost a dozen of them came together to build relationships for the betterment of the community.
Churches have experienced plenty of change and faced much upheaval over the last 10 years. If you could take a snapshot of your church before and after that period, what would it look like? Would you see any big structural changes? How would the leadership of your church have changed? What about the congregation?
How has the church landscape in Boston changed over the last ten years? EGC’s Applied Research team analyzes the data from before-and-after snapshots of a group of newer churches between 2014 and 2024.
The Boston Church Directory may be used for a variety of scholarly, relational, and spiritual purposes.
Want to know where to plant a church in Boston? You might consider Boston’s newest or soon-to-be-built residential growth sites. We’ll take a look at eight neighborhoods where growth is—or soon will be—taking place, based on public and private development plans.
Want to explore Neighborhood Chaplaincy as a fresh way to bring the gospel into emerging neighborhoods? There are questions to address before fostering a Neighborhood Chaplaincy movement in Boston. Explore with us.
Rev. Ralph Kee, animator of the Greater Boston Church Planting Collaborative, has been giving a lot of thought to this idea: What may be the Church’s dreams for Boston for the next few decades? What should be the Church’s priorities? Where are the Church’s growth edges? In this article, Ralph offers his own five basic ideas, his five dreams about church planting for Boston’s future.
The City of Boston has released “Imagine Boston 2030,” a comprehensive vision to prepare for an expected population surge by the city’s 400th anniversary in 2030. Can the church articulate a similar vision for what the Kingdom of God could look like in Boston 13 years from now?
Starting a new church, but short on leaders? A few years ago, we interviewed a number of Greater Boston’s church planters to ask how they were developing new leaders for their churches. Here are some of their tips for raising new leaders.
New England’s Book of Acts is a 2007 publication of the Emmanuel Gospel Center that captures the stories of how God has been growing his Church among many people groups and ethnic groups in New England.
What is the Quiet Revival? Fifty years ago, a church planting movement quietly took root in Boston. Since then, the number of churches within the city limits of Boston has nearly doubled. How did this happen? Is it really a revival? Why is it called "quiet?" EGC's senior writer, Steve Daman, gives us an overview of the Quiet Revival, suggests a definition, and points to areas for further study.
Our research on new church development in Greater Boston yielded general information with a special focus on women in leadership. The hope is that this study can become a source of “mainstreaming” gender parity discourse within the church, as part of an overall discussion of the practical needs of church planters in the areas of leadership and ministry development.
A church-planting movement requires mutual understanding and agreement that can only come from a common and adequate language.
We need to more clearly identify the prophets in current-day Boston and enlist their participation as we seek to expand Jesus-permeated, Kingdom-of-God-on-earth-permeated, church-planting movements
With limited meeting space in some of our cities, how do churches who practice their faith in different ways gather under the same roof and learn to love each other?
God’s intent is that everyone living in Greater Boston be enthusiastically and holistically engaged in a community of vibrant Christian faith. The best way to make that happen right now, in 2012, is by church planting—apostolic-led church planting. That is the story of the Book of Acts and it is the story of Christian history ever since.
Awakening Your Inner Church Planter is a motivational book with practical suggestions to encourage the involvement of the whole Body of Christ in the important work of starting new churches.
Do you want to see the Church at work? This little book by Rev. Ralph Kee, veteran church planter in Boston, helps us get a handle on what the Bible calls “diakonia” and what we call “the deaconate.” Diakonia, we will discover, is much more than just a religious word. Diakonia moves us quickly from words to action, for it is, in fact, the life of service the church carries out in the world. In our day, as in Jesus’ day, as in the Apostle Paul’s day, diakonia carried out in the power of the Holy Spirit is still absolutely critical to the work of a credible church.
“The Summit was a reality check. And it wasn’t a reality check that the world is becoming more multi-ethnic, but rather that God’s Kingdom is already multi-ethnic, and what am I going to do about it? How am I going to respond?”
Ministry Collaboration & Partnership
Nurturing Vitality
A discussion group for people involved in the child welfare system in Boston has led to collaboration as members learn from each other and better understand the system which affects their lives and directs their work.
After almost 50 years of providing theological education to urban ministry practitioners, CUME’s vision and mission are still being turned into a beautiful reality each semester.
A simple question changed the trajectory of a young college student’s life in the late 1970s. “Would you be willing to go to the city?” Jeff Bass, EGC’s executive director, reflects on how the Holy Spirit used that question to prompt other questions that continue to shape God’s call on his life.
In times of political crisis and division, the poetry in some lesser known hymns has surprising power to bring courage and vision for justice. Enjoy this reflection from Prof. Dean Borgman.
We live in polarizing times—but we’re not the first. Prof. Dean Borgman recommends resources with time-tested kingdom principles about how to engage with others in political matters.
[VIDEO] Why is it important to share your stories of God at work in your city?
As a busy Christian social activist or leader, do you know the practical, strategic, and relational benefits of waiting for God? Here are the perspectives of 10 Christian change-makers on why they wait for God in their work.
Are you ministering in a spiritual desert? In a recent study, Boston was ranked one of the most “Post-Christian” cities in the U.S. Kathryn Hamilton, an EGC communications intern from West Texas, weighs in about her experience with Boston’s spiritual climate and Christian vitality.
EGC Executive Director Jeff Bass reflects on the greatest lesson from the recent meeting of the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization at the Boston Islamic Center, attended by Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Mayor Marty Walsh.
What is Living System Ministry? Doug Hall sets out the core ideas of this discipline of Christian practice where we learn to discern the living social systems around us and align our actions to what really creates lasting change.
The Emmanuel Research Review (2004-2014) was a digital journal from the Emmanuel Gospel Center’s Applied Research department that featured articles, papers, resources, and information designed to be a resource for urban pastors, leaders and community members in their efforts to serve their communities effectively. Ninety-five issues of The Review were published during its ten-year run from 2004 to 2014. On this page we offer a list of all issues published, and links to those that have been reposted to this new site.
Based on an interview with Rev. Eldin Villafañe, Ph.D., the founding director of the Center for Urban Ministerial Education (CUME), this article tells the story of Dr. Villafañe’s calling to launch CUME in 1976 and how the school rapidly took shape. Dr. Villafañe recalls the fruitful synergy at work among three primary players: CUME, the Emmanuel Gospel Center, and a network of new churches emerging from the Quiet Revival.
The Process of the Gospel is not a program, but a model for building relationships that nurture effective, incarnational ministry, helping people experience the presence and power of Jesus Christ for themselves. By internalizing this process, Christians can be involved in loving people in some of the same ways that Jesus modeled for us in the Gospels.
The challenge of dealing well with the different cultures in our modern cities is the most significant challenge facing theological schools today, according to Dr. Alvin Padilla, former Dean of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary’s Boston campus. In this issue, he begins to unravel the problem by offering several perspectives to help us move from being bewildered to better understanding what God might be doing in our cities.
Sometimes a group may be grappling with an issue, and they need to be able to “see” their issue in a clearer way. A facilitated brainstorming technique called hexagoning can help achieve that.
Christians need to change. Sometimes that change is so radical, we could call it conversion. But how can those who have been converted be converted all over again? Here, Dr. Hall talks about three types of conversion, a spiritual, social, and systemic conversion. Using examples from his own life, he explains how each type of transformation was needed for him to do ministry effectively, and all three types of change were empowered by the redemption won by Jesus Christ on the cross.
Innovating Ministry
This guide includes Boston-area Christian campus ministries and a sample of churches serving college students.
The arts are an important opportunity for spiritual formation. How can churches reach unbelievers through the arts while caring for the creatives in their pews at the same time?
Non-profits need sustainable funding for their long-term health. Avoid common pitfalls and learn about a balanced funding strategy.
People who profess no faith affiliation, often called "nones," as in "none of the above", comprise nearly 23% percent of the U.S.'s adult population. How do we develop meaningful connections with a generation that may never enter a church building? We sat down with anti-racism activist and spiritual director Tracy Bindel to discuss this question.
Neighborhood Chaplaincy is an innovative approach to ministering the love of Jesus in emerging communities. Steve Daman makes the case for how Boston would benefit from neighborhood chaplains.
Christ@Work (C@W) ministries help Christians live out their faith through their work: in their workplace relationships, work ethic, and professional impact on the world. This birds-eye view gives a glimpse of the scope of C@W ministries thriving nationwide today.
Want to explore Neighborhood Chaplaincy as a fresh way to bring the gospel into emerging neighborhoods? There are questions to address before fostering a Neighborhood Chaplaincy movement in Boston. Explore with us.
Do you want to see transformation in your organization? You might want to give some thought to the importance of creating a safe environment, where your team can learn together to trust, practice confidentiality, become good listeners, stop judging, and develop a culture of patience, forgiveness, and celebrating the best in one another.
Multi-Site Ministry
Christian Leadership
“My love for the Church comes from my love for Black people, so if the Church is not serving the people, then what are we doing?”
Jaronzie Harris,
Director, Black Church Vitality Project
“If the Black Church were to disappear, who would miss it?”
City Issues
Urban Youth & Education
Human Trafficking & Exploitation
Race
Housing & Homeslessness
Gender-Based Violence
Women in Leadership
Public Health
Editor’s Pick
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ABOUT EMMANUEL GOSPEL CENTER Emmanuel Gospel Center (EGC) is a nonprofit Christian organization dedicated to supporting the work of passionate individuals, ministries, and organizations seeking to positively impact critical issues in the city. Our collaborative approach aims to create a more equitable, connected, and thriving community for all Bostonians.
Research Topics
- Christianity & Culture
- Churches/Church Planting
- Intercultural
- Church Spaces
- Race
- Public Health
- Communities
- Boston Churches
- Boston General
- Housing & Homelessness
- Urban Youth & Education
- Christian Leadership
- Spiritual Health/Vitality
- Refugee
- Gender-Based Violence
- Trafficking/Exploitation
- Women in Leadership