Gina N. Brown

Ethnography:   Shalom International Ministries We visited Shalom International Ministry last week, understanding that this is a Christian ministry for refugee families in the Clarkston area, “the most diverse square mile in America” [1] ; but what we discovered was much more than was expected!   The church building which houses Shalom belongs to Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church (MDPC).   Although MDPC is an active congregation in PC(USA), the size and ability of the congregation has been dwindling since the 1980s, due to an aging population, less financial resources, and an overall shift in demographics of the area that it serves [2] , which includes Clarkston and Stone Mountain zip codes.   Therefore, MDPC has become the grounds for Memorial Drive Ministries, which is an umbrella church-based nonprofit organization “that fosters diverse worshipping communities, innovative social services, and transformative relationships” [3] .   Shalom is only one part of this relatively new,

Introduction During the years between 1992 and 2005 the faith community of  Dillard Memorial Church was a dynamic evangelistic force in the faith community of the Greater Tri-State Area of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and as well as in their home state.   This fellowship consisting predominately of college undergraduates and led by Sara X, became the coveted example of how to attract and utilize young people in a Pentecostal, holiness and apostolic tradition.   However even with youth, the touted panacea for aging congregations, the Church began to wane and eventually died.   An analysis of this fellowship will show how even a church pregnant with promise can die.   The Descriptive-Empirical Task DMC, as it was affectionately called, started off as a Bible Study in the home of Sara X who was a very popular Evangelist out of the Assembly of  God Christian Sabbath keeping reformation.  Evangelist X in support of her freshman son became the adviser and overseer of the gospel c