Author: Karen Brau

The Rev. Karen Brau serves as Senior Pastor of Luther Place Memorial Church in Washington, DC. Ordained 25 years, Pastor Brau spent the first 18 years of her ministry serving in East Baltimore, where she helped create Amazing Grace Lutheran Church.

Imagining Whole Cities: The Church’s Role in a Gentrifying Neighborhood

What does gentrification look like to a community living inside of it? Brau and Vasquez from Luther Place Memorial Church explore the congregation’s response to gentrification in Washington D.C.’s Logan Circle neighborhood. N Street Village ministries was founded out of the congregation to respond to the needs of the neighborhood. How does a congregation respond when poeple who are not impoverished move in, potentially forcing the poor out?​