Dear Beloved Community

Recently the Census Bureau published findings on Middle Tennessee that reveal our income gaps continuing to widen. Nashville’s worst neighborhood for median income is today twenty times lower than the median income of our richest neighborhood — a statistic which was fifteen times lower only ten years ago. That is an alarming increase over a very short period of time depicting our region as one where the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.

Perhaps the most unsettling statistic for me comes with respect to children. Of the 1200 plus kids living in our worst neighborhood the survey only found 187 living in two-parent families contrasted with the richest area of town where 932 children were Identified and 915 of them were living in two parent homes. The decline in incomes only reveals the need for solid education, job opportunities and caring for At Risk children. Any group working in these areas should rise to the top of our financial priority and prayer lists!

As believers and followers of Jesus we are engaged in transforming lives all around us especially in these communities of need. Like never before we are called to get our hands dirty up to our elbows and armpits in the mud of culture building into the lives of our neighbors. Our Church is investing into the Spiritual renewal of the people of Middle Tennessee as well as to the preserving of its Physical beauty. Maybe this year is one for us all to reevaluate our commitments to seeing God change our world. If you are in the Middle Tennessee area, come discover how you can be the answer to these overwhelming problems by joining the work of just one of the many ministries CCC supports that battle these difficulties every day. If you are in the Nashville area, go to our web site at www.christcommunity.org and follow the links to these vital outreach initiatives. Or…check out the Christian Community Development Association site at http://www.ccda.org/, they will direct you to Community Development initiatives in your area.

God bless you as we see the need to battle injustice all around us and as the Lord calls us to Worship, Care and Serve,

Scott