Also, find a sociologist or somebody who really knows your city. I get them to bring together their best models of urban ministry, and we teach each other what we're learning. My role has been interpreting the city from Scripture and history. You've been part of a support network in Chicago. A group of us made a commitment to each other 25 years ago because we were watching colleagues get burned out by what was happening in the city.
Cities have personalities.
I did about 1,200 articles on urban, ethnic, and ethical issues in the Bible-handling the 1,250 texts on city and the 142 cities mentioned in the Bible. Jerusalem's sister city in the north is Samaria, and in the south Sodom. The biblical family is urban, and it's made up of ethnic families. Milwaukee and Chicago share a common water system. When Milwaukee was polluting it, Chicago took Milwaukee to court.