Engaging Effectively with the Social Systems of Cities: A Case Study of the Emmanuel Gospel Center and Living System Ministry

EMQ » Jan – April 2026 » Volume 62 Issue 1

Summary: This is a case study of Emmanuel Gospel Center in Boston and its Living System Ministry approach, particularly in its outreach to refugees and other immigrants. It seeks to answer, “What is LSM, and how does it empower others in mission in the city?” This research sheds light on how a Christian organization or a church can engage the city more effectively. Staff members were interviewed, and an analysis of LSM is given.

By Alan Totire

Over the years, it has been recognized that changing demographics in North America has resulted in a substantial number of immigrants from non-Christian backgrounds who have made their home here. Since then, a number of books and articles have recognized Diaspora Missiology as a new paradigm for missions.[i] This becomes more urgent when it is reported that 1,100 unreached people groups (UPGs) reside in the West, with the United States ranking third in having the most numbers of UPGs.[ii] While some have advocated for specially trained missionaries to reach refugees and other transnationals, others envision churches representing the best potential for outreach. However, many churches are culturally and logistically ill-equipped for this task.[iii]

It can be safely assumed that the experience of diasporas everywhere includes cultural hybridity and re-establishment of identity in the host country. It can also be assumed that they may benefit from a church or missionary organization that reaches out with the biblical values of hospitality, justice, and compassion. When it comes to outreach in the city to immigrants or refugees, the literature often frames it as an opportunity for the church. It assumes such people have either newly arrived and/or have no other support systems or networks to help them navigate and establish a sense of being and belonging in the host country. Hence, this is a missionary opportunity for the church. However, many transnational people, whether newly arrived or fully set up, find themselves adapting to the new country, establishing networks, and joining various communities and organizations, often before a Christian ministry arrives. In this case, Christian outreach to immigrant groups may need to acknowledge already existing organizations and community groups.

How might churches and other Christian organizations contextually approach such people in the city, with its multiple systems, organizations, and other stakeholders? Moreover, what role does a Christian ministry play in a complex urban environment where government programs and nonprofits also serve the needs of the disadvantaged? To help answer this question, this research focused on a case study on the Emmanuel Gospel Center (EGC) in Boston and its Living System Ministry (LSM) This organization and ministry employed a contextual approach that takes living ecosystems seriously. Having worked with churches and other organizations in ministry outreach to refugees and immigrant communities in Chicago, I wanted to learn more about EGC and its LSM ministry approach. This research was completed in 2021 during the pandemic, where several of the staff were interviewed regarding EGC’s outreach into the city. This case study provides Christians with a framework for navigating these relationships and living systems.

The EGC was set up as a rescue mission in 1938. In 1964, under the leadership of the new directors Doug and Judy Hall, EGC’s mission statement was changed to nurturing the vitality of urban churches and communities and focusing on church-planting, homeless ministries, and urban education.[iv] Two important influences greatly impacted their urban outreach strategy. The first was Jay Forrester’s book Urban Dynamics. It introduced the Halls and other staff to systems thinking and helped them better understand the dynamics of doing urban ministry. A second insight was the realization that spiritual vitality was alive in Boston’s ethnic churches. The comparison of a Boston church directory with earlier church surveys showed that from 1965, despite a general population decline in Boston, the number of churches had been multiplying significantly among the minority populations. This was called “The Quiet Revival” because it was under the radar of established Christian denominations.[v]

After several years of ministry experience and applied research in urban ministry, the Halls had gone beyond Jay Forrester’s work. They developed Living System Ministry (LSM) which they felt was more contextual to the living ecosystem of the city.[vi] In 2010, they published The Cat and the Toaster.[vii] This is a personal journey/devotional/organizational textbook that seeks to teach Living System Ministry (LSM) to individuals as well as organizations towards effective change within the city.

LSM was derived from the works of Jay Forrester’s Urban Dynamics[viii]and Peter Senge’s The Fifth Discipline.[ix] Systems thinking helped the Halls notice how businesses, organizations, cities, and cultures are affected by the entire system they interact with rather than focusing on isolated fragments or single events. Without this perspective, real change cannot take place. Senge’s work also provided some impactful concepts for the Halls. These included the learning organization, mental models, building a shared vision, and dialoguing, which forms the basis for systems thinking.

The first major contribution to the Halls’ work in developing LSM was the result of ethnographic analysis of Boston’s south end ethnic populations. This revealed that people differentiate relationships based either on primary or secondary culture. Primary culture is one where most of the people rely on personal, primary relationships and show characteristics such as oral communication, learning by modeling, identifying with extended family systems, and a spiritual approach to life. On the other hand, secondary culture is characterized by impersonal, secondary relationships. These are characterized by as individualism, a preference for written communication over the spoken word, emphasis on a nuclear family rather than large, extended family groups, a preference for formal learning rather than modeling, and a scientific rather than spiritual approach to life.[x]

As a result of systems thinking, LSM was developed so that Christians from primary and secondary cultures could work effectively together. The Halls had learned from experience that the Holy Spirit was already moving in the city among people from primary cultures. Yet, churches and ministry organizations (working in the secondary culture paradigm) were often tempted to try and control what God was already doing, thus quenching the Spirit. Instead, systems thinking was instrumental toward developing a missiological posture for secondary culture Christians, enabling them to identify where God was already at work. The first insight gained through this was that any real, long-lasting change must come from within the system. As Hall noted, “People don’t respond well to an outside-in or a top-down approach. If you want to see change in the system, you first have to be inside the system, living as an integral part of the system in which you are working.” This usually means getting involved in an existing local ministry, volunteering where needed, and living in the place of ministry.

The interviews that I conducted were among several of the staff at EGC, including two staff members involved in intercultural ministries and leadership development. I asked questions that probed the effectiveness of LSM, particularly as it related to outreach to refugees, the immigrant community and their churches, or other organizations. I asked participants how they were introduced to LSM at EGC, and to describe the ways that EGC promoted LSM. Interviewees described being taught both formally and informally. Ideas and concepts were brought up at staff meetings, and staff were encouraged to read The Cat and the Toaster and The Fifth Discipline. In addition, staff reported that they found the concepts immensely helpful. They actively taught certain aspects or tools to those they partnered within their different ministry spaces. This promoted a shared vision and language for inter-ministry partnerships.

To try and understand the distinctive of LSM, I asked interviewees to describe LSM in their own words. They responded by stating that LSM is “a frame of reference,” “a paradigm,” “a way of thinking and viewing the world,” “a toolbox,” “a story,” and, “LSM is a pathway to critical thinking…especially as the church is reimagining itself.”

With respect to articulating the difference LSM made to their ministry, all of them said it helped them to see the different systems in the city, and to recognize that God is already at work in them. They became aware that they were not the only actors in the system, and it was important to find and collaborate with other actors. As one interviewee explained:

One of the things that we have always taught in EGC is if you’re going to work in these social systems, you’ve got to work with the whole system, which means you’re working with churches and ministries, but you’re also working with the secular organizations and the families and the individuals, and you’re working with everybody. And then you say, “OK, I see my part. I understand the value of your part also, and they wound up with respect for each other that they hadn’t had before.

Another value of LSM is that it helps participants know how to engage with the world around them:

LSM has empowered me to be more effective at knowing how to engage and where to engage, so in some ways I do feel like I understand how to work with the diversity of people what I work with, whether with churches, or even the community leaders that I meet. I’m able to build trust with these various people.

I also asked interviewees to evaluate how well LSM empowered them for mission. This could be for themselves or for others they were working with. Responses included “getting us out of our defensive postures to have those harder conversations in ministry,” “empowering me to be more effective at where to engage and when to engage,” and “helping me to be able to take into account all of the factors and stakeholders and building trust.”

While the participants affirmed that LSM is useful in empowering for mission, they were able to give specific examples of how LSM has either empowered them or others to be more effective in ministry. The ongoing discussions at EGC regarding LSM and tools used in ministry show that ministry effectiveness is taken seriously.

Learning from EGC and LSM’s Experience

Overall, there were several takeaways from this study. First, because of how EGC promotes the values of LSM, EGC demonstrates a culture which would be characterized as a learning organization. Members are given opportunities to learn, grow, and reflect on appropriate mental models. They discuss and dialogue with one another about the effectiveness of tools and their proper implementation in an organization that does so with sensitivity and encouragement.

Second, LSM promotes a posture of humility. While many talented people were on staff at EGC, with everyone bringing their personal expertise to the table, LSM helped to promote an awareness that there are other systems and stakeholders working together. Many of these come from diverse cultural backgrounds and have different expressions of what leadership looks like.

Another point that LSM contributes is the importance of empowering others in ministry. For example, one of the ministries that EGC supports is outreach to refugees. Interviewees expressed the need to respect and empower immigrant-led organizations, whose primary mission is refugee outreach and resettlement. By coming alongside, EGC staff could assist such organizations to function more effectively. In addition, as staff engaged with churches and other ministry partners in the city, LSM provided a shared language and conceptual framework. As such, it helped foster better communication, built trust, and helped everyone within the same organization, or from different organizations, work together. This, in turn, helped staff members to communicate concepts and ideas to others in their respective ministry spaces, aiding communication and understanding, and facilitating greater collaborative efforts.

LSM also provided a means of engaging with the secular world. It provided practitioners with the posture and a framework so that people from sacred and secular spaces could work together by building common ground for action without sacrificing their principles. For example, a staff member who led the Boston Education Collaborative stated, “we’re trying to help mobilize and support churches to be involved in serving schools and after school programs, urban schools and after school programs to really support students and their families…to…kind of open up the educational opportunities for urban students.”

As EGC staff worked to bring churches, secular non-profits, schools, and other institutions together, it helped Christians know how to engage with, not only their own neighborhoods, but secular stakeholders in different organizations as well. It also had the potential to encourage churches and ministries towards community engagement, avoiding marginalization and the unfortunate split between sacred and secular spaces.

Overall, drawing upon insights from systems thinking, LSM represents a particular approach, or frame of reference, which promotes a reflective approach to ministry. It employs a number of organizational tools that empower Christians to minister together with different churches and other organizations. This research focused on how a Christian organization could effectively reach out to a city’s immigrant and refugee populations. The advantages of utilizing LSM include developing an understanding of an urban ecosystem, and working alongside and encouraging other ministry leaders who are already working within that system. It provides tools to help the organization or church become a learning organization in which critical questions about ministry effectiveness can be explored. Its most important contribution is enabling a ministry posture that includes other stakeholders, particularly those who are working in secular relief or aid agencies. This could potentially open opportunities for sharing faith with others. Too often, churches or other Christian ministries assume that their vision for ministry is not shared by anyone else. LSM provides a frame to help practitioners empower others to work together for greater kingdom effectiveness.

Considering this brief overview of LSM’s approach, here are some practical suggestions for starting a similar approach in another city. First, become familiar with the resources that the city has, including nonprofits, churches, or other organizations that might be involved in the same ministry. This helps to better understand one’s own ministry, its limitations, as well as its own potential to be a blessing when working together with others. In addition, pray for guidance to see where God is already moving in the city. Also, since LSM is a framework that encourages strategic partnerships, it helps Christians navigate the secular world without losing their gospel witness. Finally, the book The Cat and the Toaster offers not just insights about utilizing LSM, but also many tools that help strategic partnerships flourish as they collaborate in reaching out to refugees and vulnerable populations.

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[i] See for example, Joy Tira Sadiri and Juliet Lee Uytanlet, A Hybrid World (William Carey Publishing, 2020); Enoch Wan, Diaspora missiology: Theory, methodology, and practice (Western Seminary, 2011).

[ii] JD Payne, Apostolic Imagination: Recovering a biblical vision for the Church’s mission today (Baker Academic, 2022), 168.

[iii] See for example the discussions in Lorance “Reflections of a church-planter among diaspora groups in metro Chicago” in Diaspora Missiology, 2011, 263-287; Howell “Multiculturalism, immigration and the North American church” Missiology: An International Review 39, no. 1(2011):79-86; Payne, Apostolic Imagination, 169-177.

[iv] https://www.egc.org/  

[v] New England’s book of Acts, 2007, 5. https://sites.google.com/a/egc.org/newenglandsbookofacts/history

[vi] LSM was adapted from the Living Systems Model in works such as Senge’s The Fifth Discipline, 2006.

[vii] Douglas A. Hall, Judy Hall and Steve Daman, The Cat and the Toaster (Wipf and Stock)

[viii] Jay Wright Forrester, Urban Dynamics (MIT Press, 1969)

[ix] Peter M. Senge, The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization (Doubleday, 1990)

[x] Hall, Hall and Daman, The Cat and the Toaster.8.

 

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EMQ, Volume 62, Issue 1. Copyright © 2026 by Missio Nexus. All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced or copied in any form without written permission from Missio Nexus. Email: [email protected].