Holy Change

This book – the revision of a completed doctoral project – is a systemic approach to community transformation and revitalization that examines and evaluates the multiple factors related to the development and implementation of a neighborhood revitalization initiative. A primary premise of the book is that community transformation should be a priority and churches should be engaged in it and revitalization efforts. The author suggests that this engagement is necessary because the subject communities are prodigals from God’s purposes for them. This work considers as an example a successful partnership primarily between the Chestnut neighborhood and the David Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in Austin, Texas. The relationship of the neighborhood and church is grounded in a neighborhood plan.

Another primary premise of this work is that churches that are engaged in neighborhood revitalization sometime proceed with their own vision for the community and without a true partnership with the affected neighborhood. The primary aim of this book is to offer the use of a neighbor

Dr. Joseph C. Parker, Jr., a native of Birmingham, Alabama, is a longtime community transformer who has given leadership to the Chestnut Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative in Austin, Texas, among other community development initiatives. He is the Senior Pastor of the David Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in Austin, Òa church with a heart for the communityÓ since 1992; and has distinguished himself in ministry, law and civic leadership. KFIT Radio Station in Austin selected him as the Ò1998 Pastor of the Year.Ó He has been inducted into the Board of Preachers of the Martin Luther King, Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College and serves as president of the Texas Congregations United for Empowerment, Inc. (TCUE). He has also written articles for the Baptist Standard and the on-line Smyth & Helwys Uniform Series Bible Study. Dr. Parker is also a Texas attorney and mediator, formerly practicing law as a civil litigator. He has served as the first African American president of the Travis County Bar Association, being named as a Trailblazer by the State Bar of Texas, and Chair of the Board of Advisors of Baylor UniversityÕs George W. Truett Theological Seminary. He has taught preaching at the Truett Theological Seminary and taught Advanced Civil Litigation in the Trial Advocacy Program of the University of Texas School of Law. His training and background in public administration, law, theology, and urban ministry inform his ministry and community involvement. He is a graduate of Morehouse College, University of Georgia, Baylor UniversityÕs George W. Truett Theological Seminary, University of Texas School of Law, and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.