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KNOW OUR CITY ::

Did you know?
Sometime during the coming year--and for the first time in history--more people will live in cities than in rural areas. In fact, every second, 2 people move from rural areas into cities.

Boston is the kind of city that finds its way into your heart and never leaves. It is rich with history and alive with a vibrant art, music, and theater scene. It is a city of finance, medical breakthrough, and sports fanatics. It is diverse, full of languages and cultures from around the world. Boston’s rich historical and spiritual heritage has been drawing people to its shores for decades.

It’s no mystery why people are drawn to this city. It is known worldwide as a financial hub, a great place to go to school, and has some of the best hospitals in the world. Businessmen and women not only come to Boston for short trips—many stay for years, adding diversity to the business arena as well.

Did you know?
25% of future world leaders are educated in Boston.

There are people from over 150 different nations living here. As you can imagine, this diversity makes Boston a city with great restaurants! However, the cuisine isn’t the only thing made richer by its diversity.

The Cultural Scene::

Diversity also creates a rich culture where the arts thrive. From the specialized schools in the arts to the art patrons whose mansions are now museums, this city is bursting with art. Here are a few of the places you can find the scene:

  • Museum of Fine Arts (MFA)
  • MFA School
  • Symphony Hall with the world famous Boston Pops
  • Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA)
  • Harvard Museum of Natural History
  • Fogg Art Museum
  • Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
  • Berklee College of Music
  • New England Conservatory
  • Salsa music at Johnny D’s
  • Irish music at Greenbrier
  • Blue Man Group at the Charles Playhouse
  • The Wang Theater
  • The Opera House
  • Huntington Theater Company

If the arts aren’t your thing you might want to check out the best baseball team in the world: the Red Sox (we aren't biased at all…). If you don’t know anything about the Red Sox, you should read up, or you can just watch the movie Fever Pitch—probably the best and most accurate depiction of true Sox fans!

Don’t like baseball? Then check out the Patriots (football), the Celtics (basketball), the Bruins (hockey), or the Revolution (soccer).

The College Scene::

It’s true that we love the diversity, we love the heritage, and of course we love the Sox, but what we love most about Boston is its college students. Although Boston is one of America’s largest cities, it is also called America’s College Town. The streets around the campuses are emptier during the summer, and apartment leases often revolve around the influx of students in September.

College students have been making Boston their home longer then anywhere else in the country. Harvard, America’s first University, was founded in 1636. There are over 70 colleges and universities in the Metro area, so whether it's a 4-year or 2-year college, a medical or law school, a business or vocational school, or a school for the arts or sciences, together they form a major international center for higher education. Whatever your field of study, you can be assured there is a school in Boston with a great program in that field. An impressive list of renowned leaders in politics, medicine, literature, and the performing arts spent their formative years in the classrooms, labs and studios of Boston's colleges and universities. A few of these graduates include:

  • John Adams (Harvard University, 1775)
  • John F Kennedy (Harvard University, 1940)
  • Quincy Jones (Berklee College of Music, 1951)
  • Martin Luther King, Jr. (Boston University, 1955)
  • George W Bush (Harvard University, 1975)
  • Paul LaMarche, vice provost Princeton University (Boston College, 1975)
  • Dennis Leary (Emerson College, 1979)
  • Barack Obama (Harvard Law School, 1991)
  • Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase corporation (Tufts University)
  • Conan O’Brien (Harvard University, 1985)
  • Amy Poehler (Boston College, 1993)
  • Nikesh Arora, vice president Google (Boston College, 1995)
  • Natalie Portman (Harvard University, 2003)

Here are a few other facts you may not know about Boston’s colleges and universities:

  • The Boston University Bridge on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston is the only place in the world where a boat can sail under a train driving under a car driving under an airplane.
  • Berklee College of Music has over 700 free concerts a year.
  • Over 55 MIT graduates and faculty members have been awarded Nobel Prizes.
  • Boston College has New England's only major Division 1 athletic program, achieving national prominence in football, basketball, and hockey, while successfully maintaining high academic standards for student athletes.
  • Tufts University’s mascot is Jumbo, the elephant, named after PT Barnum’s Circus Elephant.
  • Boston University is the city’s second largest employer.
  • Northeastern University is a pioneer in cooperative education with the world’s largest program.

Now, for all you history buffs ::

Boston, originally Shawmut, was founded in 1630 with John Winthrop as its first Governor. Upon the city’s beginning Winthrop gave a sermon entitled A Model of Christian Charity and declared Boston to be “a city on a hill”, a light for Christ to the new world. It was settled by Puritans who were official colonists and not separatists like their neighbors the Pilgrims.

England’s attempts to control the colonies through avenues such as taxation caused an uproar in Boston. Often called the “cradle of liberty” for the part it played in the beginning of the American Revolution, Boston is home to many significant historical events like the Boston Tea Party, Boston Massacre, the “shot heard round the world”, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and Paul Revere’s Ride. A great way to experience some of this early history is by walking Boston’s Freedom Trail.

Until the late 1800s Boston was a center of finance, trade, industry, and culture. Expanding its physical borders by filling marshes, Boston tripled in size between 1630 and 1890. Rivers and streams allowed for textile mills to thrive. And it is home to such renowned writers, thinkers, and industrialists as: Hawthorne, Emerson, Longfellow, Holmes, Lowell, Everett, Agassiz, Whittier, Motley, Bancroft, Prescott, Parkman, Ticknor, Channing, Parker, and James.

In an ironic twist the winds of change in Boston led it to be known as a city that banned radical thinkers, books, and art in the late 1800s. The early 1900s saw the industry boom begin to fade as companies moved south. However, the city saw a revival as a financial and service industry hub in the mid 1900s.

Although it’s religious roots were established with the Puritans, transcendental thought, which originated in Concord, Massachusetts in the 1830s, quickly spread. This drastically changed the religious landscape in Boston from traditional Protestants such as Congregationalists, Methodists, and Baptists to Universalism. This transition can be seen in universities such as Harvard and Boston University, which were started as seminaries to train ministers of the gospel. Though they still have seminaries or theological schools today, they proclaim a wide variety of doctrine with a large dose of pluralism.

Boston has changed a lot since its first days. And believe it or not, with everything that has happened, our desire is really for Boston to return to its roots. 250 years ago a man named George Whitfield came to Boston and began to preach in the Boston Commons. History records that 30,000 people gathered to listen that day, and 4,000 came to faith in Jesus.

If you look at Boston before that day and compare it to the Boston of TODAY, it will actually look really similar—then there was a lack of truth, lack of understanding of God, lack of reverence for His Word. The same is true today; you’ll find many different religions, philosophies and theories, most of which do not reflect Jesus as Savior.

When Whitfield came and preached, thousands came to know Jesus, and for a while, Jesus was famous in our city. Not only that, but crime rates dropped, unity in the Body of Christ was strengthened, and Boston was changed. The only thing that could explain it was the move of God’s Spirit.

And so we pray. We pray that God would move among us. We pray that we will be faithful to spread His glory to every corner of our city. We pray with all that we are that Boston will once again be known as a place where Jesus is famous. And as we pray, the words of Habakkuk echo in our hearts: “Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.”(Habakkuk 3:2)

Will you join us? Will you pray along with us that God would say of Boston, “…this city will bring Me renown, joy, praise and honor before all nations on earth that hear of all the good things I do for it; and they will be in awe and will tremble at the abundant prosperity and peace I provide for it.” (Jeremiah 33:9)

Yes, Lord, let it be!


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