Boston Church Directory

The Boston Church Directory lists Christian churches located within the city limits of Boston, Brookline, and Cambridge.

The Directory may be used for developing relationships between members of Boston's Christian community; referrals; finding a church home; research in church planting; and other scholarly, relational, or spiritual purposes.

Contact Rudy Mitchell, Senior Researcher

Contact Rudy Mitchell, Senior Researcher

Boston Church Directory Map

Boston Church Directory Map

The Boston Church Directory lists Christian churches located within the city limits of Boston, Brookline, and Cambridge.

The Directory may be used for developing relationships between members of Boston's Christian community; referrals; finding a church home; research in church planting; and other scholarly, relational, or spiritual purposes.

Contact Rudy Mitchell, Senior Researcher

Boston Church Directory

What does Boston's population growth mean for ministry in the city?

What does Boston's population growth mean for ministry in the city?

by Hanno van der Bijl, Managing Editor

More and more newcomers are flocking to Boston even as the number of churches appears to be leveling off.

The city's population is now growing at a much faster clip than in past years. From 1980 to 1990, the city added about 11,000 people. The increase grew to about 15,000 from 1990 to 2000. It doubled over the next decade to about 30,000 and then tripled from about 80,000 to 90,000 from 2010 to 2020.

The coronavirus pandemic threw a wrench in collecting data for the latest census. But taking into account recent growth trends, the Emmanuel Gospel Center estimates there are now about 700,000 Bostonians.

For much of Boston's past, the number of churches ran parallel to the city's population growth. That shifted in the 20th century during two periods of immigration from the 1870s to the 1920s and then again after 1980. During that time, the number of churches doubled from about 250 in the early part of the century to about 500 in 2000.

In recent years, that rate has slowed, creating new opportunities for Christian ministry.

“There are areas of the city that are seeing significant new developments and population growth, so, there’s opportunity for churches to do more outreach and for new churches to be planted.”

— Rudy Mitchell, senior researcher at EGC

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What do you think are some implications of population growth for Christian ministry in Boston?

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What do you think are some implications of population growth for Christian ministry in Boston?

Understanding Boston: Background and History Reading List

Understanding Boston: Background and History Reading List

by Rudy Mitchell, Senior Researcher

There are many different aspects of Boston and, therefore, different perspectives and resources are needed to understand the city. Boston has a long and rich history; a fascinating geographical and topographical development; strong educational, technical, and medical components; a history of activism, politics, protest, and organizing; a current and past mix of vibrant social and cultural groups; and a collection of distinctive neighborhoods.

One of the best ways to understand Boston is to walk around the city and its neighborhoods and engage in conversations with residents who have lived here for some time.

Felton, Robert Todd. Walking Boston: 34 Tours Through Beantown's Cobblestone Streets, Historic Districts, Ivory Towers and Bustling Waterfront, 2nd edition. Birmingham, Ala.: Wilderness Press, 2013.

Although this guide does not cover all neighborhoods, it has walks in quite a number of Boston’s neighborhoods.

Sloane, Robert, editor. WalkBoston: Walking Tours of Boston's Unique Neighborhoods. Boston: Appalachian Mountain Club, 2003.

Although this book is now aging, the active organization has a website – www.walkboston.org – with maps of the walks and other resources.

Books and other sources can also be helpful in broadening one’s perspective.

Top Five Books

Lukas, J. Anthony. Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families. New York: Vintage Books, 1985.

O’Connell, Shaun, editor. Boston Voices and Visions. Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2010.

O'Connor, Thomas. The Hub: Boston Past and Present. Boston: Northeastern Univ. Press, 2001. Vrabel, Jim. A People’s History of the New Boston. Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2014.

Whitehill, Walter Muir, and Lawrence Kennedy. Boston: A Topographical History. 3rd edition. Cambridge: Harvard; Belknap Press, 2000.

RELATED: Top 5 Books for Understanding Boston

General and History

Allison, Robert J. A Short History of Boston. Beverly, Mass.: Commonwealth Editions, 2004.

Berenson, Barbara. Boston and the Civil War: Hub of the Second Revolution. Charleston, S.C.: The History Press, 2014.

Bostonian Society and Old South Association (now merged to become Revolutionary Spaces) The website - https://www.revolutionaryspaces.org/ - has videos related to Boston history and information on the Old State House and Old South Church. The organization holds important archival collections on Boston history.

Carr, Jacqueline Barbara. After the Siege: A Social History of Boston, 1775-1800. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2005.

Howland, Llewellyn, III. A Book for Boston. Boston: David R. Godine, Publisher, 1980. Essays, stories and poems by various authors in honor of the city’s 350th anniversary.

Kay, Jane Holtz. Lost Boston. Expanded edition. Amherst, Mass.: University of Massachusetts Press, 2006.

In addition to 350 rare photos, this book contributes to understanding the history, development, and built environment of Boston through its narrative text.

Kirker, Harold, and James Kirker. Bulfinch’s Boston, 1787-1817. New York: Oxford University Press, 1964.

Klein, Christopher. Discovering the Boston Harbor Islands: A Guide to the City’s Hidden Shores. Boston: Union Park Press, 2011.

See also Snow, Edward Rowe. The Islands of Boston Harbor. Centennial edition. Updated by Jeremy D'Entremont. Boston: Commonwealth Editions, 2008.

Labaree, Benjamin Woods. The Boston Tea Party. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1979 (Originally Oxford Univ. Press, 1964). For a shorter account, see Robert J. Allison’s The Boston Tea Party. Beverly, Mass.: Commonwealth Editions, 2007.

O’Connell, Shaun, editor. Boston Voices and Visions. Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2010.

O’Connor, Thomas. The Athens of America: Boston 1825-1845. Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2006.

Archer, Richard. As If An Enemy’s Country: The British Occupation of Boston and the Origins of Revolution. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

O’Connor, Thomas H. Civil War Boston: Home Front and Battlefield. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1997.

O'Connor, Thomas. The Hub: Boston Past and Present. Boston: Northeastern Univ. Press, 2001. Philbrick, Nathaniel. Bunker Hill: A City, A Siege, A Revolution. New York: The Penguin Group, 2013.

Rogers, Alan, and Lisa Rogers. Boston: City on a Hill: An Illustrated History. Sun Valley, Calif.: American Historical Press, 2007.

Rutman, Darrett B. Winthrop’s Boston: A Portrait of a Puritan Town, 1630-1649. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1965. Published for the Institute of Early American History and Culture.

Vrabel, Jim. A People’s History of the New Boston. Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2014.

A history of activism in Boston during the 1960s and 1970s. Vrabel reveals how grassroots leaders and the common people were involved in protests and community organizing which contributed significantly to the renewal of Boston.

Vrabel, Jim. When in Boston: A Time Line and Almanac. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2004.

Very short descriptions of events year by year throughout Boston’s history.

Winsor, Justin, editor. The Memorial History of Boston. 4 volumes. Boston: Ticknor and Company, 1881.

This is the standard multi-volume history covering the years up to 1881.

Wright, Conrad Edick, and Katherine P. Viens, editors. Entrepreneurs: The Boston Business Community, 1700-1850. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, Northeastern University Press, 1997.

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Top 5 Books for Understanding Boston

Top 5 Books for Understanding Boston

BY RUDY MITCHELL, Senior Researcher, Applied Research and Consulting

No one book or even a handful of books can fully cover the many facets of the city of Boston over its nearly 400 year history. Many books cover highly specific topics, present photographic highlights, or serve an academic readership. However, the following five books give distinctive insights, diverse perspectives, and general overviews. I recommend these five because they provide a variety of viewpoints, are general in nature, and can best serve most readers in understanding Boston.

A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE NEW BOSTON

BY JIM VRABEL

Although many books about Boston focus on the city’s mayors, urban planners, and prominent leaders, Vrabel focuses on community activists, the poor, and working class men and women whose protests and community organizing played an unsung role in shaping the “New Boston” over the last fifty years. This important book, based on many interviews and extensive research, covers a range of issues from housing and urban renewal to education and jobs, as well as protests against a proposed Southwest Expressway and airport expansion.

COMMON GROUND: A TURBULENT DECADE IN THE LIVES OF THREE AMERICAN FAMILIES

BY J. ANTHONY LUKAS

The Pulitzer Prize winning Common Ground probes the roots of issues related to race, class, educational disparity, and income inequality which are still critical to understand and address. This brilliant work of historical nonfiction reads like an epic novel. In the foreground are three families: the black Twymons, the Irish McGoffs, and the Yankee Divers. The larger picture is not limited to Boston during the decade of court-ordered school integration through busing of students, although the book brings that era to life in intimate detail. Lukas paints a complex picture rich with details and explorations into the historical roots of the issues. Great works like this often draw on the details of one specific place and time to understand the larger, enduring concerns of American society and its cities.

THE HUB: BOSTON PAST AND PRESENT

BY THOMAS O’CONNOR

The Hub is the best general, one volume history of Boston. O’Connor draws on a long career of research and writing about Boston to distill his insights on Boston’s resistance and adaptations to political, social, religious, and economic changes over the centuries. While creatively adapting to major changes, the city and its neighborhoods have maintained their distinctive and historical qualities without becoming frozen in time. However, O’Connor defines the current challenge facing the city as retaining “its own distinctive identity as a city whose moral standards, civic virtues, and intellectual accomplishments once inspired a nation (xiii).”

BOSTON VOICES AND VISIONS

BY SHAUN O’CONNELL, ED.

The editor of this anthology of historical and literary excerpts about Boston has selected richly descriptive pieces as well as selections that consider the high purpose and vision set forth for the city.  These selections convey the flavor and everyday life of the city over the centuries, but also interpret, critique and praise the ideas, attitudes, and ideals of Boston. The book includes a wide range of authors from John Winthrop (1630), to Oliver Wendell Holmes (1831), to W.E.B. DuBois (1960), and Patricia Powell (2004).

BOSTON: A TOPOGRAPHICAL HISTORY. 3RD EDITION.

BY WALTER MUIR WHITEHILL AND LAWRENCE KENNEDY

While the title of this classic work may suggest a narrow focus, Whitehill’s book is actually an excellent introduction to the general development of Boston. The changing face of the Boston landscape and its built environment are concisely covered and generously illustrated with many pictures and maps. Some newer books go into more depth on the filling of the Back Bay and the process of urban renewal, but this work is especially helpful in understanding the first three centuries of central Boston history. Although the book does not cover the social and religious aspects of Boston in any depth, it provides a remarkable amount of detail about the city’s buildings and physical development, all in a very readable style.

For more recommended reading on Boston and its history as well as resources for walking the city, here is a fuller list of resources.

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Where to Plant a Church in Boston: Areas of Growth

Where to Plant a Church in Boston: Areas of Growth

by Rudy Mitchell and Steve Daman

Want to know where to plant a church in Boston? You might consider Boston’s newest or soon-to-be-built residential growth sites. New neighborhoods and new residents mean new opportunities for planting new churches.

Take a look at these eight neighborhoods of current or immanent growth, based on public and private development plans. Given the general population trends, these are priority areas for outreach and new churches.

Map showing plans for potential expanded neighborhoods, from Imagine Boston Expanding Opportunity, City of Boston, Draft November 2016, p. 25

Neighborhood change is ongoing. Boston’s new neighborhood development will not happen all at once. Some areas have residential developments in process or already completed, like the Seaport District, the South End, Jamaica Plain, and to some extent Allston-Brighton. Other areas, like South Boston and Charlestown, already have many new young professionals and some new housing, but much more will be built in the next five years. Other areas, specifically Suffolk Downs and the Beacon Yards part of Allston, will most likely take more than five more years to develop.

Your geographic and demographic focus. Of course, reaching into newer neighborhoods is not for everyone. Ministry leaders should prayerfully select their geographic focus and adapt their strategies to the types of residents they are called to serve. The church in the city can be adapted in countless ways, and church planters can reach and serve a diversity of current and newer residents because the Gospel is for all people. Congregations may—by their form, style, or language—be better equipped to reach specific groups of people with whom they can make the most impact.

Church planters seeking primarily to reach specific immigrant groups like Nigerians, Brazilians, or Vietnamese, for example, need to know where these nationalities are more concentrated. Churches seeking to serve college students need to find meeting space within walking distance of campuses or in reach of public transportation while being sensitive to the needs, concerns and culture of students. Leaders seeking to reach and serve Boston’s new population growth areas will need to take the time to understand the characteristics, cultures, work, and interests of the people who will be living there.

Here’s a look at eight of the bigger residential development areas across the city:

1. Seaport District by the Waterfront. While there are many new high-rise housing and office buildings being built here, there are very few churches in the area.

2. South End. The northeastern and eastern parts of the South End from the Ink Block to the Boston Medical Center between Albany and Washington Streets will soon have hundreds of new apartments and condos which are being planned and built. Will the South End churches be ready?

3. South Boston from Andrew Square to the Broadway MBTA stations. Although still in the future, “Plan: South Boston Dorchester Avenue” calls for 6,000 to 8,000 new housing units. DJ Properties is also building Washington Square, a mixed use development near Andrew Station with 656 residential units. The nearby Widett Circle and New Market/South Bay areas are also potential major development sites proposed by the City of Boston. Currently there are already many new housing units and new residents around Broadway and in South Boston generally. The neighborhood has few Protestant churches.

Nine-building Washington Square Development with 656 residential units approved and to be completed in the next four years.

4. Charlestown – Sullivan Square and other areas. The Sullivan Square area is one of the six main areas the City of Boston has proposed for major housing expansion. Meanwhile the 1,100 units of the Bunker Hill Housing Development will be totally redeveloped into 3,200 units of mixed housing. Charlestown has very few Protestant churches.

Bunker Hill Housing Development Plans

5. Allston Brighton – Beacon Yards. This is one of the six major areas proposed by the City for development into new expanded neighborhoods. The Boston Landing Campus of New Balance is an area with new residential units and Stop & Shop will be building 1,000 new housing units. Other major housing developments are in the works as well.

Boston Landing in Allston near New Balance (NB Development Group and HYM)

Residential development with 295 units for 2018 opening.

6. Roxbury – from Dudley Square area to Ruggles MBTA station. Coming up in the next several years is the recently approved $500M Tremont Crossing development with over 700 apartments. The nearby Whittier St. Housing Project received funding for a full redevelopment into an expanded mixed income development. Other significant residential developments are also in the works, and Northeastern University is expanding in the area with high-rise dorms.

Tremont Crossing, just one mile from EGC

Whittier Choice redevelopment with 387 units of mixed income housing in three new buildings.

Whittier Choice redevelopment near Ruggles Station.

7. Jamaica Plain – Forest Hills Station. This area is booming with several large new housing developments in various stages of planning and completion. Also, the nearby Washington Street corridor recently completed a new (and controversial) plan which includes potential new residential development in addition to what is already being built in the area. Although there are some thriving churches in this area, because there will be so many new residents there is room for more churches not only here, but throughout Jamaica Plain.

The Residences at Forest Hills

8. Suffolk Downs. In the future, this former racetrack will likely become a whole new community. This massive 161-acre site is one of the six major areas proposed by the city for expansion, and was recently purchased by a developer, HYM Investments. This could become one of the largest developments in the whole region.

Planting now for future harvest. As these new communities emerge across the city, the need to plant new congregations should be high on the list for Christians in Boston as we think about the witness and work of the Kingdom of God over the next few decades.

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Learn more about the City’s plans for housing new residents.

Connect with the Greater Boston Church Planting Collaborative.

Christianity in Boston 2030: What's The Church's Vision?

Christianity in Boston 2030: What's The Church's Vision?

by Rudy Mitchell and Steve Daman

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?

“Boston needs dreamers.”

Rev. Ralph Kee, veteran church planter and animator of the Greater Boston Church Planting Collaborative at EGC, thinks Boston needs dreamers. “God has a big dream,” he says, “and people have dreams. When people start to share their dreams, that builds enthusiasm.”

THE TASK AHEAD

Imagine Boston 2030 has articulated goals in the social, economic, cultural, and physical realms. Through the Prophet Jeremiah, God instructed exiled Israelites to “seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” Urban Christians can seek the prosperity of our city and the success of these goals, finding ways to join in.

At the same time, we have the privilege and mandate to discern together goals and desires God has for our city.

Population growth alone should get our attention. With significant growth in Boston’s population recently and projected into the future, Boston’s churches will need to consider how to expand their outreach and service, as well as replication into new congregations.

Between 2010 and 2030, Boston could add from 84,000 to more than 190,000 new residents. Reaching and serving that many new people would require growing our present churches and planting new ones.

Image from Imagine Boston 2030 draft, p. 19; data source: ACS 1-Year Estimates (2011-2015), U.S. Census Bureau; BPDA Research Department, September 2016

DREAM INNOVATION  

What church solutions would best fit the city in the coming decades? More meeting spaces would be a must—though many new churches may never own a building.

Learn More About Space Sharing: Under One Steeple

“More meeting spaces would be a must—though many new churches may never own a building.”

New churches could take a variety of forms, including small groups, house churches, and cafe churches. Larger traditional churches could meet in a variety of traditional and nontraditional spaces and contexts.

A collaborative of churches could own or rent some multi-use space in Boston’s new neighborhoods. Some developers may already be creating community meeting spaces in new neighborhoods that could be rented by local church groups.

Can we start to envision the possible? What would it take to make the dreams happen?

“Should we convene Christians to talk about Boston 2030,” Ralph Kee asks, “including bankers, architects, real estate agents, construction executives? Can these leaders get together? The city is going to grow. Even what was Suffolk Downs is going to be a mini city. How are we going to get churches there?”

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What is your vision for Christianity in Boston in 2030? Would you weigh in by filling out a brief survey? We’d love to hear from you!

Share your Thoughts

Share Your Thoughts

Contact Rudy Mitchell, Senior Researcher, to continue the conversation.

Connect

Contact Rudy Mitchell

Get to know veteran church planter Rev. Ralph Kee and plan to visit the next Greater Boston Church Planting Collaborative gathering.