Real Hope in Chicago

When Wayne Gordon and his wife started a Bible study for high school kids in North Lawndale, Chicago, people warned them that a white couple moving into a black neighborhood as a recipe for disaster. That was twenty-five years ago. Today, what began as the Gordons' seedling Bible study has become the Lawndale Community Church. It has a staff of 150, has renovated more than 100 local apartments, has helped more than 50 young people graduate from college, runs a medical clinic that treated 50,000 patients in 1994, and has become a vital part of rebuilding an inner-city neighborhood into a community of faith and hope. Real Hope in Chicago is Wayne Gordon's inspiring account of how people, white and black, rich and poor, old and young, worked together to transform a decaying neighborhood into a place where love is lived out in practical and miraculous ways. It offers an exciting model for interracial cooperation, urban-suburban church partnering--and real hope for the inner cities of our nation.

Wayne L. Gordon moved with his wife to North Lawndale in 1970 and founded the Lawndale Community Church, which he currently co-pastors with Carey Casey. He founded the Christian Community Development Association with John Perkins. He is co-author of Standing Fats: Ministry in an Unfriendly World.

Randall Frame is director of communications for Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Philadelphia and senior writer for Christianity Today magazine.