Remembering the Past to Build Shalom in the Present

Remembering the Past to Build Shalom in the Present

A resource list on the history of slavery in Boston 

by Megan Lietz, Founding Director, Race & Christian Community Initiative

One lesson reiterated throughout my Christian ministry education was “know your context”: learn the history, community, and concerns of the people you serve. But this discipline is often lost when it comes to cultural and racial issues, especially the history of slavery. Despite the far-reaching social, economic, and spiritual impact the institution of slavery has had on Greater Boston, none of the three Christian institutions I graduated from even mentioned our region’s involvement in the Transatlantic Slave Trade. When Christians avoid this history, we can find ourselves largely unaware of the ways the legacy of slavery continues to impact our communities. We will also be ill-equipped to respond to it as a part of Christ’s redemptive work today.

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By the Numbers

• Slavery was legal in Massachusetts for over 140 years.

• Enslaved Black people made up about 10% of the population of Boston by the mid-18th century.

• Boston was a major port in the North Atlantic Slave Trade, connected to at least 307 separate trafficking voyages.

• Even after slavery was made illegal in Massachusetts in 1783, our region continued to enable and benefit from slavery in the South through our local textile, shipbuilding, fishing, insurance, and finance industries.

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The Church needs to wrestle with our region’s involvement in the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Other than the fact that local congregations were complicit in and directly benefited from the trade, the institution of slavery shaped our theology, practice, and congregational landscape. What is more — like any sin — we must confess, lament, and repent from the sin of slavery to see healing and transformation.

This video, “Remember & Respond: Remembering the Past to Build Shalom in the Present,” captures footage from RCCI’s experiential learning weekend on the history of slavery in Boston. Learn more about this opportunity here. 

Theological Foundation

"For You Were Slaves in Egypt": History, Memory, and Implications for Christian Discipleship: The Bible calls us to remember the past. Dr. Nicholas Rowe explores this biblical mandate and how it can form us as followers of Jesus in the Haymanot Journal, the official publication of the Society of Gospel Haymanot.* 

Slavery and Abolition: How the Early Church Got it Right: One way we can better understand the teachings of Scripture is to see how they were understood and lived out by the Early Church. Check out this video by Mako Nagasawa, director of The Anástasis Center for Christian Education and Ministry, highlighting how Christians who supported slavery deviated significantly from the views and practices of the Early Church. 

The Freedom of the Slaves: Throughout history, the Bible has been used to both defend and oppose the institution of slavery. What do we do with Scripture that seems to support the enslavement of human beings? Explore Chapter 7 of Esau McCaulley’s book, Reading While Black, which offers one perspective on interpreting the biblical passages on slavery while maintaining a high view of Scripture.

Living History: Historical Sites to Visit in Greater Boston

Royall House & Slave Quarters: Walk the grounds of a Northern plantation and learn about the enslaved people who lived and labored in the Medford, Massachusetts, of the 1700s. The Royall House explores the history of slavery through the lens of power and speaks the truth about our history in ways that feel interconnected and intimate. If there’s one site you visit, let this be the one. 

Museum of African American History & African Meeting House: Learn about the contributions of Black people in Boston in the 18th and 19th centuries, including their involvement in the abolitionist movement. Don’t miss the African Meeting House, funded and built by Black people in 1806, also considered the oldest extant Black church building in the U.S.

King’s Chapel: King’s Chapel is one of many historically white congregations acknowledging its connections to the Transatlantic Slave Trade and working to make things right. Watch a video about the history of slavery in the Chapel and consider donating to their memorial to honor enslaved people connected to their congregation. 

Change Makers: Local Organizations Directly Addressing the Legacy of Slavery Today

Boston People’s Reparations Commission: Join the Boston People’s Reparations Commission as they seek apology, reparations, and reconciliation for the legacy of Black enslavement in Boston. These local efforts are part of a more extensive work of repair throughout the nation and state.

City of Boston’s Reparations Task Force: The City of Boston commissioned a task force in 2022 to learn about the legacy of slavery in Boston and make recommendations for reparative justice. Information about how to join upcoming meetings and recordings of past gatherings are available online.

Episcopal City Mission: Episcopal City Mission is setting an example of how to engage a denomination in the ongoing work of repair. Learn how they mobilize congregations to get involved in policy change, reparations, and solidarity economics to shrink the racial wealth gap.

Resources: Learn More About the History of Slavery in Boston

Exhibit on the History of Slavery in Boston: This exhibit provides a concise overview of the history of slavery in Boston. It is available online or for in-person viewing in the basement of Faneuil Hall, a building named after slave trader Peter Faneuil.

Mapping the Enslavement History of the Freedom Trail: Tourists come from around the world to walk Boston’s Freedom Trail. Ironically, many of the sites have connections to slavery. Explore this interactive webpage to learn how the American Revolution was entangled with and dependent on a racial caste system that did not seek freedom for all.

Embrace Boston’s “Harm Report”: The legacy of slavery has had a profound impact that still lives on today. Read Embrace Boston’s “Harm Report” to learn how this legacy continues to shape our city in seven impact areas. Embrace Boston also convenes statewide meetings for those working toward reparations, where anyone can learn about reparation efforts and how you can contribute to repair.

Learning about the history of slavery in our region is not easy. But remembering the pain of the past can help us heal. When God judged Israel with venomous snakes in the wilderness, he told Moses to make a bronze snake that anyone who had been bitten could look at and live (Num. 21:4-9). They had to look at the object that caused harm to receive healing. Similarly, the Church in Greater Boston must look at our region’s history and understand how the legacy of slavery continues to impact us. We must look to the past to build shalom today.

Are there other resources related to the history of slavery in Boston that we should share with others? Please let us know by filling out the contact form below.

Next Steps

Take time to respond to this history through the practice of lament. Learn more and explore tools to guide your own lamentations. 

Learn more about RCCI’s experiential learning weekend on the history of slavery in Boston.

Contact Megan about hosting the experiential learning weekend on the history of slavery in Boston for your community through an immersive experience or course.

Make the learning weekend experience more accessible to future participants by contributing to our scholarship fund. Donate via the link below and put “ELW Scholarship Fund” in the subject line.

Special thanks to the 2024 Experiential Learning Weekend Sponsors whose financial gifts helped make our inaugural weekend possible and supported the creation of this resource page.

Want to learn more about the impact of slavery and racism on Boston? Here is a list of resources on the city’s long and complicated racial history.

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*Nicholas Rowe. “For You Were Slaves in Egypt”: History, Memory, and Implications for Christian Discipleship. Haymanot Journal, Vol. 2, 2022, pp. 46-57. 

History of Racism in Boston: A Resource List

History of Racism in Boston: A Resource List

By the RCCI Team, with contributions from Pastor Calvin Fergins

Recent realities, like COVID-19, the heightened publicity of racial violence, and economic downturn, have highlighted racial disparities in our communities. While these pandemics are deepening the chasms of differences in power and opportunity, they did not create them. On the contrary, our current crises highlight inequalities that have been present since before the founding of our nation. 

Boston has a long and complicated racial history. On the one hand, it tells stories of resilience, transformation, and victory. On the other, it reveals deplorable atrocities, subtle power moves, contemporary hate crimes, and well-intended actions that have a racist impact, giving us a veneer of progress while maintaining the status quo. 

As we find ourselves in a time of crisis and opportunity, we have the responsibility to work toward a new Boston, more just and equitable than before. To ensure a better future, we must look to our past. We must understand our history and learn from the mistakes, victories, and examples of those who have come before. RCCI invites you to explore the resources on this list to better understand our collective past so, together, we can move into a more just and equitable future. 

PS: Click here to see a downloadable bibliography of resources that goes well beyond these highlighted titles. 

Resource Write Ups  

Ten Hills Farm: The Forgotten History of Slavery in the North

Did you know that there was a Northern plantation in Medford, Massachusetts? You can still visit it, known as the Royall House & Slave Quarters museum, today. Ten Hills Farm tells the story of five generations of enslavers connected to this labor camp and how it was tied into the larger Transatlantic slave trade.

A People's History of the New Boston

The 1960s and 1970s represented a critical season of rebuilding for Boston following the impact of WWII. While wealthy, White men are often given credit for this transformation, this book tells the story of unsung influencers who, through grass-roots demonstrations, sit-ins, picket lines, boycotts, and contentious negotiations shaped Boston into the city we know today.

The New Bostonians: How Immigrants Have Transformed the Metro Area Since the 1960s

Between 1970 and 2010, the percentage of foreign-born, Boston residents more than doubled due to immigration from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The New Bostonians explores these immigrant communities' invaluable contributions and their crucial role in nurturing Boston's prosperity - the fruits of which have not been equally shared.

Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston

Shut Out is the compelling story of Boston's racial divide viewed through one of the city's most renowned institutions: the Boston Red Sox. This story is told from the perspective of Boston native and noted sportswriter Howard Bryant.

Busing at 50

The Boston Busing Crisis of the mid 1970s garnered national attention as the city experienced mass protests and violence after the Boston Public School system attempted to implement school integration. Sadly, 50 years later, the Boston public education system is still unequal and still segregated. Explore this Boston Globe Series Broken Promises, Unfulfilled Hope that reflects 50 years after the Boston Busing Crisis.

Sarah's Long Walk: The Free Blacks of Boston and How Their Struggle for Equality Changed America 

In 1847, a five-year-old African American girl named Sarah Roberts was forced to walk past five white schools to attend the poor and densely crowded all-black Abiel Smith School on Boston's Beacon Hill. Incensed that his daughter had been turned away at each white school, her father, Benjamin, sued the city of Boston on her behalf. The historic case that followed set the stage for over a century of struggle, culminating in 1954 with the unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education.

Murder in Boston: Roots, Rampage and Reckoning

In 1989, Charles Stuart reported that his white wife had been murdered by a Black man. Boston’s deeply seated racism tainted the investigation and worked the city into a frenzy, before it was revealed that Stuart killed his wife by his own hand. Learn more about the Charles Stuart case - and the long-standing racial tension that shaped it - by watching this three-part docuseries or going deep through Boston Globe podcasts.

Holding Ground: The Rebirth of Dudley Street

Explore how, in 1985, the Dudley Street Neighborhood of Roxbury worked together to overcome barriers of systemic racism and rebuild the fabric of their neighborhood. This community movement gained national attention, set legal precedent, and models how residents, community activists, and city officials can organize for change.

Forever Struggle: Activism, Identity, and Survival in Boston's Chinatown, 1880-2018

Chinatown has a long history in Boston. In writing about Boston Chinatown's long history, Michael Liu, a lifelong activist and scholar of the community, charts its journey and efforts for survival. Liu depicts its people, organizations, internal battles, and varied and complex strategies against land-taking by outside institutions and public authorities. Chinatown is a powerful example of neighborhood agency, the power of organizing, and the prospects of such neighborhoods in rapidly growing and changing cities.

Black Bostonians: Family Life and Community Struggle in the Antebellum North

When published in 1979, Black Bostonians was the first comprehensive social history of an antebellum northern black community. The Hortons challenged the then widely held view that African Americans in the antebellum urban north were all trapped in "a culture of poverty." Exploring life in black Boston from the 18th century to the Civil War, they combined quantitative and traditional historical methods to reveal the rich fabric of a thriving society, where people from all walks of life organized for mutual aid, survival, and social action, and which was a center of the antislavery movement.

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Local Historical Sites

Explore local historical sites that honor the journeys of different groups.

•  A plaque and developing memorial highlighting the Native American internment camp that was held on Deer Island, one of the Boston Harbor Islands. Tours of Deer Island briefly acknowledge this injustice.

• Middle Passage Port Marker on Long Wharf. The Boston Middle Passage Marker looks two ways: Out to Boston Harbor, where enslaved Africans and enslaved Indigenous people arrived and departed, and also inward, down State Street, where these enslaved people and their descendants lived, worked, and fought for freedom.

• The Royall House and Slave Quarters in Medford.

• The Black Heritage Trail, African Meeting House, and African American History Museum in Boston.

• A variety of cultural sites in Chinatown highlighted in videos from the Boston Chinatown Heritage Project, created by teens in partnership with the Chinese Historical Society of New England and others.

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Author’s Note: Resource descriptions are based on language from their respective promotional websites and have been paraphrased for the purposes of RCCI.

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Jamaica Plain's Journey Through Time: History + Resources

Jamaica Plain Over Time: History + Resources

by Rudy Mitchell, Senior Researcher

From progressive education policies in the late 1600s, to the arrival of immigrants and industry in the 1800s, to the establishment of diverse housing projects and churches up to the present day, Jamaica Plain's colorful and action-filled past is worth exploring as part of Boston's unique history.

Some Jamaica Plain Firsts

THEATER  The Footlight Club of Jamaica Plain is the oldest community theater in the country.

ANIMAL WELFARE  In 1868 George Angell published the first magazine on the humane care and welfare of animals, “Our Dumb Animal Friends: We Speak for Those Who Cannot Speak for Themselves.” He was also the founder of the M.S.P.C.A. whose animal hospital is on South Huntington Avenue.

MEDICAL  On Oct. 16, 1846, Dr. John C. Warren, a Jamaica Plain resident, performed the first surgery publicly demonstrating the use of ether on a patient.

Historical Overview

Map of Jamaica Plain showing sub-neighborhoods. Boston Redevelopment Authority, Jamaica Plain District Profile…, Boston, 1979, 5

Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood was a part of the separate town of Roxbury from 1630 until 1851. An influential center of West Roxbury, the town was annexed in 1874 to the city of Boston. Early settlers, like William Curtis who built his house in 1639, were mostly farmers and fruit growers.

The Eliot School was established in 1676 with a grant of land from the Thomas and Ruggles families and later an endowment from Rev. John Eliot, Apostle to the Indians. The donors “stipulated that the school be open to all children, white, black, and Indian.” [1] The current Eliot School building dates to 1832.

The first church in Jamaica Plain, the Third Parish in Roxbury, was established in 1769. Rev. William Gordon, its first pastor, served as chaplain in the Provincial Congress in 1775. 

The Loring-Greenough House was built in 1760 for Joshua Loring, a British Naval Commodore and loyalist appointed to the governor’s council. In 1774 after opposition from his neighbors, Loring fled from his house to join with the British in Boston. The home was later used by Washington's troops as a hospital during the Revolutionary War.

[1] Eugene Green, Jamaica Plain. Boston 200 Neighborhood Series (Boston: Boston 200 Corp., 1976), 7.

Early Infrastructure: Water Supply & Transportation Systems

In 1796 after the Revolutionary War, the Jamaica Plain Aqueduct Company developed an important water supply system from Jamaica Pond to Fort Hill serving Boston’s water needs. The system used gravity flow from the pond through miles of wooden pipes. 

Transportation developments in the 19th century influenced the growth of Jamaica Plain. The Boston and Providence Railroad was constructed through Jamaica Plain in 1834 with a station at Green Street opening in 1841.

By the 1870s horse drawn street cars were serving the growing community, and later electric streetcars took their place. For more insights on the impact of these on neighborhood development see Sam Bass Warner’s book, Streetcar Suburbs.

Early Factories

Also during the late 19th century and early 20th century various factories and 24 breweries were built in Jamaica Plain, mostly in the Heath Street and Stoney Brook areas.

In 1876 the B. F. Sturtevant fan company expanded and moved to Jamaica Plain, and by 1901 it was employing 650 men and manufacturing many products.

The Thomas G. Plant Shoe Company had one of the world’s largest shoe factories on the site of the current Stop and Shop plaza from 1896 to 1976. In the 1920s the Moxie soft drink company developed a factory complex called Moxieland nearby at the site of today’s Bromley Heath Housing Project. In those days Moxie outsold CocaCola.

Iglesia Metodista “San Andres” (St. Andrew’s Methodist Church)

Immigration, Population Growth & Churches

Immigrant groups from Ireland, Germany, Latvia, and other countries contributed to neighborhood growth and provided workers for these industries. 

Several large churches and many smaller ones started up to serve the spiritual needs of the growing population. The German churches included the First German Baptist Church (now River of Life Church), the German Methodist Episcopal Church (now St. Andrew's Methodist), and the German Reformed Christ Church. Other churches started during the 1800s including St. John’s Episcopal (1841), Central Congregational (1853), Boylston Congregational Church (1879), First Baptist (1842), Blessed Sacrament Church (1891), and St. Thomas Aquinas Church (1869).

Jamaica Plan: Population vs. Year

Boston Redevelopment Authority Research Division, Historical Boston in Context: 1970-2000 Decennial Census, Boston: B.R.A., 2015. 2010 information from 2010 U.S. Census, STF 1, B.R.A. Research Division analysis. 1950 and 1960 data from B.R.A., Jamaica Plain Profile, 1988 (boundaries may vary from later boundaries). 2015 data from “Neighborhood Profiles,” August 2017.

Although the population of Jamaica Plain continued to grow during the first half of the 20th century, many of the factories and breweries experienced declines, fires, closures, or relocation. The elevated Orange Line tracks along Washington Street had a negative impact on nearby businesses and residences. The 1930s Depression and later redlining also had negative impacts on housing and housing construction in the community.

An important new development in housing took place with the opening of the Heath Street public housing in 1942 and the Bromley Park housing project in 1954. Although Bromley was opened with some fanfare and tours in 1954, it later developed a variety of problems. 

Primera Iglesia Bautista Hispana was started in 1975.

By the 1960s and 1970s many Spanish speaking immigrants from Cuba, Puerto Rico, and other places were moving into Jamaica Plain. These new residents started many small businesses along Centre Street and Washington Street. 

Spanish speakers also added vitality to the spiritual life of the neighborhood by starting many new churches, including Primera Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal (1969), Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal “Roca de Consolacion” (1969), Iglesia Metodista “San Andres” (1971), Primera Iglesia Bautista Hispana (1975), and Iglesia Comunitaria de Boston (1988).

 While Jamaica Plain’s population was becoming more diverse during the 1960s and 1970s, it was also declining during that period.

Jamaica Plain IN RECENT DECADES: Current & Future Developments

J.P. Licks ice cream shop

In recent decades the elevated Orange Line was taken down. The scars left from demolition for the never-built Southwest Expressway were healed with the Southwest Corridor Park and new building development.

These physical changes along with other improvements have brought renewal in Jamaica Plain. Some older industrial buildings have been renovated, and newer businesses like J.P. Licks (ice cream shop and café) have made Centre Street an attractive and lively neighborhood center.

The future Jackson Square Recreation Center.

Recently, transit-oriented housing developments have sprung up around the Forest Hills MBTA train station. Hundreds of new residential units have been completed or are under way.

The JP/Rox Plan for the Washington Street and Columbus Avenue areas is likely to bring additional changes in the coming years. While Jamaica Plain continues to transition into the future, its beautiful green spaces will keep it true to its nickname as the “Eden of America.”

Map of Jamaica Plain, Boston Planning and Development Agency

Recommended Resources

Green, Eugene. Jamaica Plain. Boston 200 Neighborhood Series. Boston: Boston 200 Corporation, 1976.

This 24 page booklet weaves oral histories together along thematic lines and adds some early history of Jamaica Plain. Pictures and illustrations from many eras enhance the text.

When the interviews were made over 40 years ago, the protests to stop the Southwest Expressway were fresh in people’s minds. This and other issues of those days are brought to life in the oral histories recorded here.

Hirsch, Kathleen. A Home in the Heart of the City: A Woman’s Search for Community. New York: North Point Press, 1998.

Kathleen Hirsch's first-hand account of Jamaica Plain in the 1990s is well-written. The author writes about finding and building community in an urban neighborhood, as well as many perennial concerns like balancing career and parenting.

Although Hirsch encounters and writes about the diverse aspects of Jamaica Plain, her perspective is basically that of a professional from the Back Bay who is trying to connect with the everyday life of a gentrifying neighborhood. Some of her writing explores the spiritual dimension of community, at least in a general way.

She writes, “When I moved here, I didn’t expect that my quest for community would lead me to craftsmen, much less drug dealers or humble Xerox-shop managers, or that a world of Mondays would come to echo the wisdom of the Psalms” (86).

After getting a coffee on Sunday morning at Sorella’s café, she reflects on the meaning of Sabbath rest, “To be at rest is to observe the bones of God’s work through man in the world laid bare. To be at rest is to see with clarified vision. And this vision forces me to contemplate not what I am meant to do with my days in this place on earth, but what I am meant to be. To what, here and now, am I to be faithful” (79)?

Hoffman, Alexander von. Local Attachments: The Making of an Urban American Neighborhood, 1850-1920. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1994.

No other book presents such a detailed historical and social analysis of any Boston neighborhood as Hoffman’s Local Attachments does for Jamaica Plain. The author concludes, “if ever we are going to cope with the problems of our cities, we need to understand better the historic neighborhood and how it functioned within the urban system of late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries” (248). 

The book mines many primary sources including church records to develop a full picture of the social networks and civic spirit that composed a strong sense of local community and public culture in this neighborhood. Its historical perspective “traces the dramatic transformation of Jamaica Plain into a modern urban neighborhood” (xxii).

Hoffman explains and documents  how “the most important voluntary institutions in any late nineteenth-century American community, and especially in the historic land of the Puritan, were those connected with religion” (122).

While Jamaica Plain has continued to change significantly in the last twenty years, this book is still essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the neighborhood.

Von Hoffman, Alexander Carl. The Making of the Modern City: The Development of Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, 1632-1920. Ph. D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1986.

Rogovin, Janice. A Sense of Place/ Tu Barrio: Jamaica Plain People and Where They Live. Translated by Yolanda Rivas. Boston: Mercantile Press, 1981.

The text (in English and Spanish) is by various JP residents, with editing and photos by Janice Rogovin.

Many of the stories bring to life the experiences of residents in the late 1970s up to 1981 as they reflected on community life, their homes, and being forced to move when new people bought the buildings they were living in. The book includes many photos and glimpses into the lives of families who were facing difficult times.

Sammarco, Anthony Mitchell. Jamaica Plain. Images of America Series. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 1997. Reissued in 2004.

Topics covered in the chapters of these books include churches, schools, natural features, community service organizations, transportation, early settlers and their estates and houses. Pictures of the early years of the Boston Children’s Museum illustrate the valuable educational role it played in the community.

At one time German groups, clubs, and churches served immigrants working in the neighborhood. Clubs such as the Jamaica Club and the Tuesday Club were once more prominent than today. Churches also sprouted up all over the neighborhood as the population grew. Other important institutions documented with pictures include hospitals such as the Faulkner Hospital and the Veteran’s Administration (VA) Hospital.

If you are curious about the history of the Loring-Greenough House or Curtis Hall or you wonder about the origins of Jamaica Plain names like Spring House and Peter Parley Road, these books will give you brief answers.

Sammarco, Anthony Mitchell. Jamaica Plain: Then & Now. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2003.

The pictures in this volume often repeat the ones in Sammarco’s Images of America book on Jamaica Plain. However, as the title suggests, this work also pairs up old photos with modern photos of more or less the same view.

Whitcomb, Harriet Manning. Annals and Reminiscences of Jamaica Plain. Cambridge, Mass.: The Riverside Press, 1897. 64 pages.

Whitcomb shares many details of pioneering families and their homes in Jamaica Plain. In the process she connects the community to many historical events in Boston and America.

Hay, Ida. Science in the Pleasure Garden: A History of the Arnold Arboretum. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1995.

This well illustrated and comprehensive work details every aspect of the arboretum and its history. The book touches on both science and history in tracing the development of one of North America’s most important arboretums.

WEB SITES

Remember Jamaica Plain blog – http://rememberjamaicaplain.blogspot.com/

Jamaica Plain Historical Society – www.jphs.org

Understanding Boston's Quiet Revival

Resources for the urban pastor and community leader published by Emmanuel Gospel Center, Boston

Emmanuel Research Review reprint
Issue No. 94 — December 2013 - January 2014

Introduced by Brian Corcoran

Managing Editor, Emmanuel Research Review

Boston’s Quiet Revival started nearly 50 years ago, bringing an unprecedented and sustained period of new church planting across the city. In 1993, when the Applied Research team at the Emmanuel Gospel Center (EGC) began to analyze our latest church survey statistics and realized how extensive church planting had been during the previous 25 years, resulting in a 50% net increase in the number of churches, Doug Hall, president, coined the term, “Quiet Revival.” This movement, he later wrote, is “a highly interrelated social/spiritual system” that does not function “in a way that lends itself to a mechanistic form of analysis.” That is why, he theorized, we could not see it for years.* Perhaps because it was so hard to see, it also has been hard to understand all that is meant by the term.

One of the most obvious evidences of the Quiet Revival is that the number of churches within the city limits of Boston has nearly doubled since 1965. Starting with that one piece of evidence, Steve Daman, EGC’s senior writer, has been working on a descriptive definition of the Quiet Revival. It is our hope that launching out from this discussion and the questions Steve raises, more people can grow toward shared understanding and enter into meaningful dialog about this amazing work of God. We also hope that more can participate in fruitful ministries that are better aligned with what God has done and is continuing to do in Boston today. And thirdly, we want to inspire thoughtful scholars who will identify intriguing puzzles which will prompt additional study.

*Hall, Douglas A. and Judy Hall. “Two Secrets of the Quiet Revival.” New England’s Book of Acts. Emmanuel Gospel Center, 2007.  Accessed 01/24/14.

What is the Quiet Revival?

by Steve Daman, Senior Writer, Emmanuel Gospel Center

What is the Quiet Revival? Here is a working definition:

The Quiet Revival is an unprecedented and sustained period of Christian growth in the city of Boston beginning in 1965 and persisting for nearly five decades so far.

What questions come to mind when you read this description? To start, why did we choose the words: “unprecedented”, “sustained”, “Christian growth”, and “1965”?  Can we defend or define these terms? Or what about the terms “revival” and “quiet”? What do we mean? And what might happen to our definition if the revival, if it is a revival, “persists” for more than “five decades”? How will we know if it ends?

These are great questions. But before we try to answer a few of them, let’s add more flesh to the bones by describing some of the outcomes that those who recognize the Quiet Revival attribute to this movement. These outcomes help us to ponder both the scope and nature of the movement:

The number of churches in Boston has nearly doubled since 1965, though the city’s population is about the same now as then.

Today, Boston’s Christian church community is characterized by a growing unity, increased prayer, maturing church systems, and a strong and trained leadership.

The spiritual vitality of churches birthed during the Quiet Revival has spread, igniting additional church development and social ministries in the region and across the globe.

From these we can infer more questions, but the overarching one is this: “How do we know?” Surely we can verify the numbers and defend the first statement regarding the number of churches, but the following assertions are harder to verify. How do we know there is “a growing unity, increased prayer, maturing church systems, and a strong and trained leadership”? The implication is that these characteristics are valid evidences for a revival and that they have appeared or grown since the start of the Quiet Revival. Further, has “the spiritual vitality of churches birthed during the Quiet Revival… spread, igniting additional church development and social ministries in the region and across the globe”? What evidence is there? If these assertions are true, then indeed we have seen an amazing work of God in Boston, and we would do well to carefully consider how that reality shapes what we think about Boston, what we think about the Church in Boston, and how we go about our work in this particular field.

Numbers tell the story

The chief indicator of the Quiet Revival is the growth in the number of new churches planted in Boston since 1965. The Emmanuel Gospel Center (EGC) began counting churches in 1969 when we identified 300 Christian churches within Boston city limits. The Center conducted additional surveys in 1975, 1989, and 1993.¹ When we completed our 1993 survey, our statistics showed that during the 24 years from 1969 to 1993, the total number of churches in the city had increased by 50%, even after it overcame a 23% loss of mainline Protestant churches and some decline among Roman Catholic churches.

That data point got our attention. At a time when people were asking us, “Why is the Church in Boston dying?” the numbers told a very different story.

Just four years before the discovery, when we published the first Boston Church Directory in 1989, we saw the numbers rising. EGC President Doug Hall recalls, “As we completed the 1989 directory and began to compile the figures, we were amazed to discover that something very significant was occurring. But it wasn’t until our next update in 1993 that we knew conclusively that the number of churches had grown—and not by just 30 percent as we had first thought, but by 50 percent! We had been part of a revival and did not know it.”² It was then Doug Hall coined the term, the Quiet Revival.

Fifty-five new churches had been planted in the four years since the previous survey, bringing the 1993 total to 459. EGC’s Senior Researcher Rudy Mitchell wrote at the time, “Since 1968 at least 207 new churches have started in Boston. This is undoubtedly more new church starts than in any other 25-year period in Boston’s history.”³

In the 20 years since then, church planting has continued at a robust rate. EGC’s count for 2010 was 575, showing a net gain since the start of the Quiet Revival of 257 new churches. The Applied Research staff at the Center is now in the beginning stages of a new city-wide church survey. Already we have added more than 50 new churches to our list (planted between 2008 and 2014) while at the same time we see that a number of churches have closed, moved, or merged. It seems likely from these early indicators that the number of churches in Boston has continued to increase, and the total for 2014 will be larger than the 575 we counted in 2010, getting us even closer to that seductive “doubling” of the number since 1965, when there were 318 churches.⁴

Regardless of where we go with our definition, what terms we use, and what else we may discover about the churches in Boston, this one fact is enough to tell us that God has done something significant in this city. We have seen a church-planting movement that has crossed culture, language, race, neighborhood, denomination, economic levels, and educational qualifications, something that no organization, program, or human institution could ever accomplish in its own strength.

Defining terms

Let’s return to our working definition and consider its parts.

The Quiet Revival is an unprecedented and sustained period of Christian growth in the city of Boston beginning in 1965 and persisting for nearly five decades so far.

“Quiet”

The term “quiet” works well here because of its obvious opposite. We can envision “noisy” revivals, very emotional and exciting local events where participants may experience the presence of the Holy Spirit in powerful ways. If something like that is our mental model of revival, then to classify any revival as “quiet” immediately gets our attention and tempts us to think that maybe something different is going on here. How or why could a revival be quiet?

In this case, the term “quiet” points to the initially invisible nature of this revival. Doug Hall used the term “invisible Church” in 1993, writing that researchers tend “to document the highly visible information that is pertinent to Boston. We also want to go beyond the obvious developments to discover a Christianity that is hidden, and that is characteristically urban. By looking past the obvious, we have discovered the ‘invisible Church.’”⁵

An uncomfortable but important question to ask is, “From whom was it hidden?” If we are talking about a church movement starting in 1965, we can assume that the majority of people who may have had an interest in counting all the churches in the city—people like missiological researchers, denominational leaders, or seminary professors—were probably predominantly mainline or evangelical white people. This church-planting movement was hidden, EGC’s Executive Director Jeff Bass says, because “the growth was happening in non-mainline systems, non-English speaking systems, denominations you have never heard of, churches that meet in storefronts, churches that meet on Sunday afternoons.”⁶

Jeff points out that EGC had been working among immigrant churches since the 1960s, recognizing that God was at work in those communities. “We felt the vitality of the Church in the non-English speaking immigrant communities,” he says. Through close relationships with leaders from different communities, beginning in the 1980s, EGC was asked to help provide a platform for ministers-at-large who would serve broadly among the Brazilian, the Haitian, and the Latino churches. “These were growing communities, but even then,” Jeff says, “these communities weren’t seen by the whole Church as significant, so there was still this old way of looking at things.”⁷ Even though EGC became totally immersed in these diverse living systems, we were also blind to the full scale of what God was doing at the time.

Gregg Detwiler, director of Intercultural Ministries at EGC, calls this blindness “a learning disability,” and says that many Christian leaders missed seeing the Quiet Revival in Boston through sociological oversight. “By sociological oversight, I am pointing to the human tendency toward ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism is a learning disability of evaluating reality from our own overly dominant ethnic or cultural perspective. We are all susceptible to this malady, which clouds our ability to see clearly. The reason many missed seeing the Quiet Revival in Boston was because they were not in relationship with where Kingdom growth was occurring in the city—namely, among the many and varied ethnic groups.”⁸

The pervasive mental model of what the Church in Boston looks like, at least from the perspective of white evangelicals, needs major revision. To open our arms wide to the people of God, to embrace the whole Body of Christ, whether we are white or people of color, we all must humble ourselves, continually repenting of our tendency toward prejudice, and we must learn to look for the places where God, through his Holy Spirit, is at work in our city today.

We not only suffer from sociological oversight, Gregg says, but we also suffer from theological oversight. “By theological oversight I mean not seeing the city and the city church in a positive biblical light,” he writes. “All too often the city is viewed only as a place of darkness and sin, rather than a strategic place where God does His redeeming work and exports it to the nations.” The majority culture, especially the suburban culture, found it hard to imagine God’s work was bursting at the seams in the inner city. Theological oversight may also suggest having a view of the Church that does not embrace the full counsel of God. If some Christians do not look like folks in my church, or they don’t worship in the same way, or they emphasize different portions of Scripture, are they still part of the Body of Christ? To effectively serve the Church in Boston, the Emmanuel Gospel Center purposes to be careful about the ways we subconsciously set boundaries around the idea of church. We are learning to define “church” to include all those who love the Lord Jesus Christ, who have a high view of Scripture, and who wholeheartedly agree to the historic creeds.

If we can learn to see the whole Church with open eyes, maybe we can also learn to hear the Quiet Revival with open ears, though many living things are “quiet.” A flower garden makes little noise. You cannot hear a pumpkin grow. So, too, the Church in Boston has grown mightily and quietly at the same time. “Whoever has ears to hear,” our Lord said, “let them hear” (Mark. 4:9 NIV).

“Revival”

What is revival? A definition would certainly be helpful, but one is difficult to come by. There are perhaps as many definitions as there are denominations. All of them carry some emotional charge or some room for interpretation. Yet the word “revival” does not appear in the Bible. As we ask the question: “Is the Quiet Revival really a revival?” we need to find a way to reach agreement. What are we looking for? What are the characteristics of a true revival?

Tim Keller, founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, has written on the subject of revival and offers this simple definition: “Revival is an intensification of the ordinary operations of the work of the Holy Spirit.” Keller goes on to say it is “a time when the ordinary operations of the Holy Spirit—not signs and wonders, but the conviction of sin, conversion, assurance of salvation and a sense of the reality of Jesus Christ on the heart—are intensified, so that you see growth in the quality of the faith in the people in your church, and a great growth in numbers and conversions as well.”⁹ This idea of intensification of the ordinary is helpful. If church planting is ordinary, from an ecclesiological frame of reference, then robust church planting would be an intensification of the ordinary, and thus a work of God.

David Bebbington, professor of history at the University of Stirling in Scotland, states in Victorian Religious Revivals: Culture and Piety in Local and Global Contexts, that there are several types or “patterns” of revival. First, revival commonly means “an apparently spontaneous event in a congregation,” usually marked by repentance and conversions. Secondly, it means “a planned mission in a congregation or town.” This practice is called revivalism, he notes, “to distinguish it from the traditional style of unprompted awakenings.” Bebbington’s third pattern is “an episode, mainly spontaneous, affecting a larger area than a single congregation.” His fourth category he calls an awakening, which is “a development in a culture at large, usually being both wider and longer than other episodes of this kind.” In summary, “revivals have taken a variety of forms, spontaneous or planned, small-scale or vast.”¹⁰

These are helpful categories. Using Bebbington’s analysis, we would say the Quiet Revival definitely does not fit his first and second patterns, but rather fits into his third and fourth patterns. The Quiet Revival was mainly spontaneous. While we can assume there was planning involved in every individual church plant, the movement itself was too broad and diverse to be the result of any one person’s or one organization’s plan. The Quiet Revival seems to have emerged from the various immigrant communities across the city simultaneously, and has been, as Bebbington says, “both wider and longer than other episodes of this kind.” The Quiet Revival was and is vast, city-wide, regional, and not small-scale.

Since at least the 1970s, and maybe before that, many people have proclaimed that New England or Boston would be a center or catalyst for a world-wide revival, or possibly one final revival before Christ’s return. But even that prophecy, impossible to substantiate, is hard to define. What would that global revival actually look like? Scripture seems to affirm that the Church grows best under persecution. That is certainly true today. Missionary author and professor Nik Ripken¹¹ has chronicled the stories of Christians living in countries where Christianity is outlawed and gives remarkable testimony to the ways the Church thrives under persecution. Yet it would seem that what people describe or hope for when they talk about revival in Boston has nothing to do with persecution or hardship.

Dr. Roberto Miranda, senior pastor of Congregación León de Judá in Boston, has revival on his mind. In addition to a recent blog on his church’s website reviewing a book about the Scottish and Welsh revivals, he spoke in 2007 on his vision for revival in New England.¹² Despite the fact that few agree on what revival looks like and what we should expect, should God send even more revival to Boston, the subject is always close at hand.

Again, it is interesting that so many Christians would miss seeing the Quiet Revival when there were so many voices in the Church predicting a Boston revival during the same time frame. Many of them, no doubt, are still looking.

“unprecedented”

As mentioned earlier, EGC’s Senior Researcher Rudy Mitchell wrote in 1993, “Since 1968 at least 207 new churches have started in Boston. This is undoubtedly more new church starts than in any other 25-year period in Boston’s history.” What Rudy wrote in 1993 continues to be true today, as it appears the rate of church planting has not fallen off since then. Never before has Boston seen such a wave of new church development. God, indeed, has been good to Boston.

“sustained”

The EGC Applied Research team will be able to assess whether or not the Quiet Revival church planting movement is continuing once we complete our 2014 survey. It is remarkable that the Quiet Revival has continued for as long as it has. The next question to consider is “why?” What are the factors that have allowed this movement to continue for so long unabated? What gives it fuel? We may also want to know who are the church planters today, and are they in some way being energized by what has gone on during the previous five decades?

Rev. Ralph Kee, a veteran Boston church planter, and animator of the Greater Boston Church Planting Collaborative, wants to see new churches be “churches that plant churches that plant churches.” He says we need to put into the DNA of a new church this idea that multiplication is normal and expected. He has documented the genealogical tree of one Boston church planted in 1971 that has since given birth to hundreds of known daughter and granddaughter and great-granddaughter churches. Is the Quiet Revival sustained because Boston’s newest churches naturally multiply?

Another reason the Quiet Revival has continued for decades may be the introduction of a contextualized urban seminary into the city as the Quiet Revival was gaining momentum. EGC recently published an interview with Rev. Eldin Villafañe, Ph.D., the founding director of the Center for Urban Ministerial Education (CUME), the Boston campus of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and a professor of Christian social ethics at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Dr. Villafañe confirmed CUME was shaped by the Quiet Revival. But as both are interconnected living systems, CUME also shaped the revival, giving it depth and breadth.

“One of the problems with revivals anywhere,” Dr. Villafañe points out, “is oftentimes you have good strong evangelism that begins to grows a church, but the growth does not come with trained leadership, educated biblically and theologically. You can have all kinds of problems. Besides heresy, you can have recidivism, people going back to their old ways. The beautiful thing about the Quiet Revival is that just as it begins to flourish, CUME is coming aboard.”¹³

CUME was in place as a contextualized urban seminary to “backfill theology into the revival,” as Jeff Bass describes it, training thousands of local, urban leaders since 1976, with 300 students now attending each year.

“Christian growth”

We use the words “Christian growth” rather than “church growth” for a reason. We want to move our attention beyond the numbers of churches to begin to comprehend how these new churches may have influenced the city. Surely it is not only the number of churches that has grown. The number of people attending churches has also grown. One of the goals of the EGC Applied Research team is to document the number of people attending Boston’s churches today.¹⁴

But as we look beyond the number of churches and the number of people in those churches, we also want to see how these people have impacted the city. “Christians collectively make a difference in society,”¹⁵ says Dana Robert, director of the Center for Global Christianity and Mission at Boston University. Exploring and documenting the ways that Christians in Boston have made an impact on the city, showing ways the city has changed during the Quiet Revival, would be an important and valuable contribution to the ongoing study of Christianity in Boston.

“city of Boston”

We mean something very specific when we say “the city of Boston.” As Rudy Mitchell pointed out in the April 2013 Issue of the Review, one needs to understand exactly what geographical boundaries a particular study has in mind. “Boston” may mean different things. “This could range from the named city’s official city limits, to its county, metropolitan statistical area, or even to a media area covering several surrounding states.” Regarding the Quiet Revival, we mean Boston’s official city limits which today include distinct neighborhoods such as Roxbury, Dorchester, Jamaica Plain, East Boston, etc., all part of the city itself.

Boston’s boundaries have not changed during the Quiet Revival, but when we have occasion to look further back into history and consider the churches active in Boston in previous generations, we need to adjust the figures according the where the city’s boundary lines fell at different points in history as communities were absorbed into Boston or as new land was claimed from the sea.

EGC’s data gathering and analysis is, for the most part, restricted to the city of Boston, as we have described it. However, the Center’s work through our various programs often extends beyond these boundaries through relational networks, and we see the same dynamics at work in other urban areas in Greater Boston and beyond. It would be interesting to compare the patterns of new church development among immigrant populations in these other cities with what we are learning in Boston. There is, for example, some very interesting work being done on New York City’s churches on a Web site called “A Journey Through NYC Religions” (http://www.nycreligion.info/).

“1965”

We chose 1965 as a start date for the Quiet Revival for two reasons. First, there seems to be a change in the rate of new church plants in Boston starting in 1965. Of the 575 churches active in Boston in 2010, 17 were founded throughout the 1950s, showing a rate of less than 2 per year. Seven more started between 1960 and 1963 while none were founded in 1964, still progressing at a rate of less than 2 per year. Then, over the next five years, from 1965 to 1969, 20 of today’s churches were planted (averaging 4 per year); about 40 more were launched in the 1970s (still 4 per year), 60 in the 1980s (averaging 6 per year), 70 in the 1990s (averaging 7 per year), and 60 in the 2000s (6 per year). Again, we are counting only the churches that remain until today. A large number of others were started and either closed or merged with other churches, so the actual number of new churches planted each year was higher.

Another reason for choosing 1965 as the start date was that the Immigration Act of 1965 opened the door to thousands of new immigrants moving into Boston. Our research shows that the majority of Boston’s new churches were started by Boston’s newest residents, and that that trend continued for years. For example, of the 100 churches planted between 2000 and 2005, about 15% were Hispanic, 10% were Haitian, and 6% were Brazilian. At least 5% were Asian and another 7% were African. Not more than 14 of the 100 churches planted during those years were primarily Anglo or Anglo/multiethnic. The remaining 40 to 45% of new churches were African American, Caribbean or of some other ethnic identity.

Throughout the first few decades of the Quiet Revival, most, but not all new church development occurred within the new immigrant communities. At the same time many immigrant communities experienced significant growth in Boston, the African American population was also growing, showing an increase of 40% between 1970 and 1990. Between 1965 and 1993, although 39 African American churches closed their doors, well over 100 new ones started, for a net increase of about 75 churches. Among today’s total of 140 congregations with an African American identity, 57 were planted during those early years of the Quiet Revival between 1965 and 1993. Many of these churches have grown under skilled leadership to be counted among the most influential congregations in Boston, and new Black churches continue to emerge.

The year 1965 was a year of much change. While we point to these two specific reasons for picking this start date for the Quiet Revival (the change in the rate of church planting in Boston and the Immigration Act of 1965), there were other movements at play. A charismatic renewal began to sweep across the country at that time starting in the Catholic and Episcopal communities on the West Coast. Close on its heels was the Jesus Movement. Vatican II, which was a multi-year conference, coincidentally closed in 1965, bringing sweeping changes to the Roman Catholic community. Socially, the civil rights movement was front and center during those years.

It seems obvious from the evidence of who was planting churches that one of the main influencing factors was the Pentecostal movement among the immigrant communities. It may also be helpful to explore some of the other cultural movements occurring simultaneously to see if other influences helped to fan the flames. We may discover that in addition to immigration factors, various other streams—whether cultural, Diaspora, theological, or social—were used by God to facilitate the growth of this movement.

Boston’s population

Some may wrongly assume that the growing number of new churches in Boston must relate to a growing population. This is certainly not true of Boston. The population of the city of Boston was 616,326 in 1965 and forty-five years later, in 2010, was very nearly the same at 617,594. During those years, however, the population actually declined by more than 50,000 to 562,994 in 1980. This shows that this remarkable increase in the number of churches is not the result of a much larger population.

While the population total was about the same in 2010 as it was in 1965, the makeup of that population has changed dramatically through immigration and migration, and this is a very significant factor in understanding the Quiet Revival.

One issue that still needs to be addressed is Boston’s church attendance in proportion to the population. Based on our current research and over 40 years’ experience studying Boston’s church systems, we estimate that this number has increased from about 3% to as much as perhaps 15% during this period. EGC is preparing to conduct additional comprehensive research to accurately assess the percentage of Bostonians who attend churches.

The other indicators

How do we know there is “a growing unity, increased prayer, maturing church systems, and a strong and trained leadership”? What evidence is there that “the spiritual vitality of churches birthed during the Quiet Revival has spread, igniting additional church development and social ministries in the region and across the globe”?

The work required to clearly document and defend these statements is daunting. These issues are important to the Applied Research staff, and we welcome assistance from interested scholars and researchers to help us further develop these analyses. In a future edition of this journal, we may be able to start to bring together some evidences to support these assertions, but we do not have the time or space to do more than to give a few examples here.

We have compiled information relevant to each of these specific areas. For example, we have evidence of more expressions of unity among churches and church leaders, such as the Fellowship of Haitian Evangelical Pastors of New England. We continue to discover more collaborative networks, and more prayer movements, such as the annual Greater Boston Prayer Summit for pastors, which began in 2000. We can point to churches and church systems that have grown to maturity and are bearing much fruit in both the proclamation of the Gospel and in social ministries, such as the Black Ministerial Alliance of Greater Boston. We are aware of several excellent organizations and schools where leaders may be trained and grow in their skills, in knowledge, and in collaborative ministry.¹⁶

For the staff of EGC, this is all far more than an academic exercise. We work in this city and many of us make it our home as well. It is a vibrant and exciting place to be, precisely because the Quiet Revival has changed this city on so many levels. Doug and Judy Hall, EGC’s president and assistant to the president, have been serving in Boston at EGC since 1964, and they have observed these changes. A number of others on our staff have also been working among these churches for decades, including Senior Researcher Rudy Mitchell, who started studying churches and neighborhoods in 1976. Doug Hall says that in the 1960s, it was hard to recommend many good churches, ones for which you would have some confidence to suggest to a new believer or new arrival. Not so today. Today in Boston there are many, many healthy and vibrant churches to choose from all across the city. Our understanding of the Quiet Revival is not only a matter of statistics, it is our actual experience as our work puts us in a position to constantly interact with church leaders representing many different communities in the city.

It appears from this vantage point that the rate of church planting in Boston continues to be robust as we approach the 50-year mark for the Quiet Revival. We are looking forward with excitement to see what the new numbers are when the 2014 church survey is complete. It also appears from the many evidences gained through our relational networks across Boston that these additional indicators of the Quiet Revival also continue to grow stronger.

Notes

(If the resources below are not linked, it is because in 2016 we migrated from EGC’s old website to a new site, and not all documents and pages have been posted. As we are able, we will repost articles from the Emmanuel Research Review and link those that are mentioned below. If you have questions, please click the Take Action button below and Contact Rudy Mitchell, Senior Researcher.)

¹We have written in previous issues about these surveys. See the following editions of the Emmanuel Research Review: No. 18, June 2006, Surveying Churches; No. 19, July/August 2006, Surveying Churches II: The Changing Church System in Boston; No. 21, October 2006, Surveying Churches III: Facts that Tell a Story.

²Daman, Steve. “1969-2005: Four Decades of Church Surveys.” Inside EGC 12, no. 5 (September-October, 2005): p. 4.

³Mitchell, Rudy. “A Portrait of Boston’s Churches.” in Hall, Douglas, Rudy Mitchell, and Jeffrey Bass. Christianity in Boston: A Series of Monographs & Case Studies on the Vitality of the Church in Boston. Boston, MA, U.S.A: Emmanuel Gospel Center, 1993. p. B-14.

⁴We estimate the number of churches in 1965 was 318, based on information derived from Polk’s Boston City Directory (https://archive.org/details/bostondirectoryi11965bost) for that year and adjusted to include only Christian churches. In 1965, many small, newer African American churches were thriving in low-cost storefronts and many of the smaller neighborhood mainline churches had not yet closed or moved out of the city (but many soon would). While there were not yet many new immigrant churches, the city's African American population was growing very significantly and also expanding into new neighborhoods where new congregations were needed.

⁵Hall, Douglas A., from the Foreword to the section entitled “A Portrait of Boston’s Churches” by Rudy Mitchell, in Hall, Douglas, Rudy Mitchell, and Jeffrey Bass. Christianity in Boston: A Series of Monographs & Case Studies on the Vitality of the Church in Boston. Boston, MA, U.S.A: Emmanuel Gospel Center, 1993. p. B-1.

⁶Daman, Steve. “EGC’s Research Uncovers the Quiet Revival.” Inside EGC 20, no. 4 (November-December 2013): p. 2.

⁷Ibid.

⁸Emmanuel Research Review, No. 60, November 2010, There’s Gold in the City.

⁹Keller, Tim. “Questions for Sleepy and Nominal Christians.” Worldview Church Digest, March 13, 2013. Web. Accessed January 27, 2014.

¹⁰Bebbington, D W. Victorian Religious Revivals: Culture and Piety in Local and Global Contexts. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. p.3.

¹¹Ripken, Nik. personal website. n.d. http://www.nikripken.com/

¹²Miranda, Roberto. “A vision for revival in New England.” April 7, 2006. Web.

¹³Daman, Steve. “The City Gives Birth to a Seminary.” Africanus Journal Vol. 8, No. 1, April 2016, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Center for Urban Ministerial Education. p. 33.

¹⁴We wrote about the difficulties national organizations have in coming up with that figure in a previous edition of the Review: No. 88, April 2013, “Perspectives on Boston Church Statistics: Is Greater Boston Really Only 2% Evangelical?”

¹⁵Dilley, Andrea Palpant. “The World the Missionaries Made.” Christianity Today 58, no. 1 (January/February 2014): p. 34. Web. Accessed: January 30, 2014. Dilley quotes Robert at the end of her article on the impact some 19th century missionaries had shaping culture in positive ways.

¹⁶A number of educational opportunities for church leaders are listed in the Review, No. 70, Sept 2011, “Urban Ministry Training Programs & Centers.”

TAKE ACTION

We have mentioned throughout this article that we would welcome scholars, researchers, and interns who could help contribute to our understanding of this movement in Boston. 

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