As we walk or drive around our neighborhoods, it can be easy to ignore their past, especially when the build environment of the past isn’t there anymore. But the ways neighborhoods have changed over the years profoundly shapes the present – they often haunt the present. How neighborhoods and cities in the United States took shape in the mid-20th century shaped the world we live in today, and churches played a major role in that shift.

Greg Jarrell shows the central role White churches played in shaping neighborhoods during this period, and explores how Christians today can seek healing and repair for our cities and towns.

Check out Greg’s book Our Trespasses and his album How Bright the Path on Apple Music or Spotify.

The podcast episode on reparations that Greg mentioned is here.

Churches love to tell their stories, whether their founding, their accomplishments, or their connections with wider history. How can churches tell their full stories—not just the ones that make us feel good—and how can they be part of wider neighborhood efforts to tell their full histories? Public history has resources to help this process, and in this episode historian Denise Meringolo talks about how to tell such full stories. The way we tell our church’s stories has moral implications, and public history aids this process of morally reflective storytelling.

Check out Dr. Meringolo’s books Museums, Monuments, and National Parks and Radical Roots.

Looking for a public historian? Start by consulting a nearby college or university, or check out the National Council on Public History’s list of consultants.

Access to banking proves vital to participating in our economy, but many people have little or no access to mainstream banking. They sometimes have little choice but to take out predatory loans at extremely high interest rates—sometimes up to 400%. Exodus Lending in Minneapolis gives people an alternative banking tool to get out of predatory cycles.

Ross talks with their co-founder Meghan Olsen Biebighauser about how the organization started, how it listened to neighbors, and how this ministry opened up other vibrant avenues for loving neighbors in their city. Hear a powerful example of congregational discernment about loving neighbors.

Check out the work of Exodus Lending!