CitiesCollab history & legacy

From Urban Shalom Society to CitiesCollab: the Story

With gratitude to the many people, networks, and institutions who have stewarded this mission across regions and decades.

Why this story matters

Urban Shalom Society (USS) emerged to help the global Christian community engage cities with theological depth, practical wisdom, and credible presence in the world’s major urban conversations. In particular, USS helped evangelicals show up consistently within UN-Habitat platforms—especially Habitat III and the World Urban Forum (WUF)—and to contribute a constructive, public-good witness.

CitiesCollab carries this work forward. It preserves the best of what was built, broadens the table, strengthens the backbone for collaboration, and turns global engagement into repeatable pathways for learning, cooperation, and local action.

Origins: two streams converge

The roots of USS go back to two complementary streams of work that converged in 2015 at the 6th Micah Global Triennial in Peru:

• International Society for Urban Mission (ISUM), led by Dr. Ash Barker, representing decades of global urban mission practice.

• World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) Creation Care Task Force, led by Dr. Chris Elisara, engaging global institutions on environmental and sustainability concerns, including sustainable urbanism.

That convergence produced a joint umbrella initiative, first named the Urban Shalom Project, and later renamed the Urban Shalom Society (USS).

Habitat III and a foundational statement

Habitat III (Quito, Ecuador, October 2016) became the catalytic moment. Recognizing that the planet’s ecological sustainability would increasingly depend on the sustainable development of cities, leaders engaged the three-year process leading up to Habitat III, where UN member states adopted a new blueprint for urban development: the New Urban Agenda.

Immediately prior to Habitat III, the Urban Shalom Project convened the Gospel and the Future of Cities Summit (October 15–16, 2016) and produced The Gospel and the Future of Cities: A Call to Action. The statement intentionally built on two major evangelical landmarks: The Cape Town Commitment (2010) and Creation Care and the Gospel: A Call to Action (2012).

The Call to Action was signed by organizations and networks including the World Evangelical Alliance, the Lausanne Movement, Micah Global, Tearfund, the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA), A Rocha International, and many other leaders.

From project to society: Singapore and the Faith-Based Urban Thinkers Campus

In 2017, following Habitat III, the Urban Shalom Project hosted an Urban Shalom Forum alongside the first UN-Habitat Faith-Based Urban Thinkers Campus in Singapore. These gatherings focused on assessing the outcomes of Habitat III (the New Urban Agenda) and clarifying next steps for the movement.

That same year the initiative changed its name to the Urban Shalom Society (USS). The Faith-Based Urban Thinkers Campus also produced the Faith-Based Singapore Declaration, emphasizing that faith-based perspectives and working relationships are necessary to the success of the New Urban Agenda.

Sustained engagement: World Urban Forums and regional campuses

USS then built a rhythm of presence and convening across major UN-Habitat gatherings, while also multiplying regional learning spaces.

Year	Place	Milestone
2015	Peru (Micah Global Triennial)	ISUM and WEA Creation Care converge; Urban Shalom Project formed.
2016	Quito, Ecuador	Gospel and the Future of Cities Summit; Call to Action produced alongside Habitat III.
2017	Singapore	Urban Shalom Forum + first UN-Habitat Faith-Based Urban Thinkers Campus; USS name adopted.
2018	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	USS convenes participation in WUF9; hosts another Urban Shalom Forum; focus on implementing the New Urban Agenda.
2019	Nairobi • London • San Jose • Melbourne • Manila	Five regional Faith-Based Urban Thinkers Campuses across continents; over 100 leaders mobilized toward WUF10.
2020	Abu Dhabi, UAE	USS convenes participation in WUF10; hosts third Urban Shalom Forum; contributes to workshops on urban faith and resilience; partners with Hub for Urban Initiatives as fiscal and organizational umbrella.
2022	Katowice, Poland	C@WUF program developed to help Christians engage WUF11 with community, daily prayer, and shared learning.
2024	Cairo, Egypt	Chris Elisara and Jacob Bloemberg collaborate with partners to help organize the Faith Pavilion at WUF12, extending faith-based engagement at WUF.

C@WUF: a guided participation model

USS learned that WUF can be overwhelming—even for experienced leaders. C@WUF (Christians at the World Urban Forum) was designed as a simple, repeatable participation pathway. Drawing on the Christian Climate Observers Program (CCOP), C@WUF offered:

• A supportive community to attend WUF together.

• Daily devotion and prayer.

• A regular time and space to share learnings and compare notes.

• A shared newsletter and communications rhythm for broader networks.

• Orientation webinars on UN-Habitat, global urban agreements, and engagement planning.

People and partners who stewarded the mission

USS has always been a collaborative movement—more table than brand. Its progress depended on the steady stewardship of many people and partners.

Key leaders and stewards (as publicly listed by USS):

• Dr. Chris Elisara — co-founder and long-term leader; represented evangelicals in global institutions and helped anchor USS within UN-Habitat engagement.

• Dr. Ash Barker — ISUM leader whose urban mission stream helped shape the early Urban Shalom Project.

• Dr. Grace Roberts Dyrness — community development consultant and professor; brought participatory planning and development practice.

• Dr. Michael A. Mata — urban pastor-scholar-practitioner; contributed training and leadership development across global contexts.

• Dr. Minh Ha Nguyen — researcher and network leader; developed the Shalom City Index and strengthened research capacity.

Core institutional partners and platforms (highlighted in USS history and materials):

• World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) and its Creation Care leadership

• International Society for Urban Mission (ISUM)

• Micah Global

• The Lausanne Movement

• UN-Habitat (Habitat III, World Urban Forum, and the Faith-Based Urban Thinkers Campus network)

• World Urban Campaign (WUC)

• Hub for Urban Initiatives (fiscal and organizational umbrella for USS, beginning in 2020)

• Networks and signatories such as Tearfund, CCDA, and A Rocha International

From USS to CitiesCollab: what carries forward

CitiesCollab is not a rebrand of USS. It is a strengthened continuation—built to carry the same mission with greater capacity, clarity, and scale.

CitiesCollab carries forward USS’s legacy in four practical ways:

1. Preserve and curate foundational content (statements, forums, tools) so new leaders can stand on proven work rather than start from scratch.

2. Turn global gatherings (like WUF) into repeatable discipleship and learning pathways: prepare, engage, debrief, and apply locally.

3. Expand participation lanes beyond formal partnerships—inviting learners, contributors, conveners, hosts, and sponsors into a shared mission.

4. Strengthen global collaboration between Lausanne and WEA streams so the Church shows up with unity, credibility, and practical contribution.

At its best, the work is simple: gather Christians who love cities, help them learn the global conversation, equip them to contribute wisely, and then send them back to serve their own cities with deeper insight and stronger relationships.

A forward-looking commitment

USS helped demonstrate that evangelical Christians can engage urbanization, sustainability, and the New Urban Agenda with theological integrity and public-good credibility. CitiesCollab now carries that inheritance into a new season—honoring the pioneers, widening the table, and building practical systems that help the next generation participate.

Sources consulted

• Urban Shalom Society archived webpages (Wayback captures, 2022 and 2025): Home; Who We Are; How It All Started; Leadership Team; Our Work; Christians at World Urban Forum (C@WUF).

• The Gospel and the Future of Cities: A Call to Action (released Feb 2018).