And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”
—Luke 10:27
We are made by our Creator to be in relationship with others. We are loved by God and sent to love and work for the good of our neighbor.
These relationships form us. These relationships are all formed in a place.
Loving Thy Neighbor by Restoring Our Neighborhood
Today, too many children grow up in places that undermine relationships, disrupt their formation, and limit their opportunities.
Knowing this, Lutheran Development Group helps our neighborhoods become places where children are formed through relationships into thriving adults and where all our neighbors can live lives of purpose, in place, for community. Research and lived experience show that a child can only be as healthy as the community that forms them.
It truly takes a village to raise a child. At LDG, our work is centered on:
- Developing healthy, affordable homes for families
- Stabilizing neighborhoods by reducing building vacancy
- Activating public spaces to strengthen social connections
- Partnering with other local organizations, churches, and residents
This approach transforms blocks, strengthens neighborhoods, and restores the built environment, allowing families, children, and relationships to thrive.
Vocational Alignment
Live, Work, Worship, and Engage in your Community
Our approach to community development is grounded in the Lutheran understanding of vocation: the belief that each person is called by God to serve their neighbor and contribute to the well-being of their community through everyday life.
Vocation is not limited to a career or profession. It is lived out across all areas of life, within families, neighborhoods, workplaces, churches, and civic institutions. It reflects a calling to use one’s gifts and talents in service to others.
This understanding is rooted in three primary areas of life:
- Family: relationships of care, support, and responsibility
- Community and Civil Society: participation in neighborhoods, local institutions, and public life
- Church and Spiritual Life: identity, purpose, and shared values
What This Means for Our Work
Strong communities are formed when individuals are able to:
- Live in stable, quality housing
- Work and build careers or businesses
- Participate in and contribute to their neighborhood
When these areas are disconnected, it can lead to instability, a lack of relational depth, or even isolation. When they are aligned, individuals build stronger relationships, invest in their community, and create generational stability.
How LDG Supports Vocational Alignment
We support a highly localized living out of these vocations through:
- Attainable homeownership that allows families to build equity and put down roots in the community
- Mixed-use and neighborhood-based development that connects where people live and work
- Support for small businesses and local entrepreneurs, creating pathways for economic participation
- Community-centered spaces and partnerships that strengthen relationships and shared responsibility
Subsidiarity
Those with capacity closest to a challenge should be empowered to help with the challenge.
We believe decisions should be made as close to the individual and community as possible.
Strong communities are built from the ground up: from individuals, to families, to communities, to cities, and beyond. People are formed as individuals, by families, and in communities. Each level has a role; more distant levels support and build the capacity of those closer to the community.
This approach aligns with public health models of community development that recognize that long-term outcomes are shaped by local conditions, relationships, and environments.
Formation System
People are formed spiritually, relationally, and environmentally.
We seek the holistic formation of children. Every person is shaped by three interconnected spheres of formation:
- Spiritual: identity, purpose, and sense of mission
- Relational: family, neighbors, and community connections
- Environmental: home, place, and the built environment
Spiritual formation happens through relationships, and relationships are cultivated in a place.
When these three areas are aligned, individuals are better positioned to thrive. When one is weak, it impacts the whole system.
If the built environment is chaotic, it is difficult for children to build relationships. A deficit of relationships means a deficit of people investing into a child’s life.
Our work focuses on strengthening the environmental and relational conditions that allow children and families to grow.
The Research Behind Our Approach
Our approach is grounded in research showing that neighborhood conditions and social connections play a defining role in long-term opportunity.
Research from Raj Chetty and Opportunity Insights highlights that where a child grows up and who they are connected to shapes outcomes in income, health, and upward mobility.
Children who grow up in stable, connected neighborhoods with access to quality housing, strong schools, and economic opportunity are significantly more likely to:
- Earn higher incomes as adults
- Experience better health outcomes
- Build long-term financial stability
Even within the same city, outcomes can vary dramatically from one neighborhood to another.
Economic Connection Drives Mobility
Children who grow up in communities where low-income and higher-income families are in community with one another are far more likely to move out of poverty as adults.
Mixed-income communities are essential. Research shows that cross-class friendships significantly improve long-term outcomes. This reinforces the importance of creating neighborhoods with a mix of incomes, housing types, and opportunities where residents can live alongside and learn from one another.
Connection Matters: Proximity Is Not Enough
Simply living near people of different incomes is not enough. Meaningful interaction is what creates opportunity. Neighborhoods that foster shared spaces, community engagement, and everyday interaction are more likely to support upward mobility.
This is why our work doesn’t end with creating affordable housing. It includes:
- Activating public spaces
- Supporting community programming
- Strengthening neighborhood connections
- Encouraging economically diverse development by others
Stability Creates Opportunity
Frequent moves and housing instability can disrupt social networks and limit long-term outcomes. By stabilizing housing and reducing vacancy, we help create the consistency and connection that families need to thrive.
Social Determinants of Health
Public health research shows that factors such as housing stability, neighborhood conditions, access to resources, and social connections play a major role in shaping outcomes over a lifetime. These factors are experienced most directly at the neighborhood level—the level at which LDG works.
By working at this level, we are able to:
What This Means for Our Work
By focusing on the conditions closest to where people live, we can address challenges before they escalate and create lasting change.
In practice, this means:
Lasting change happens when solutions are rooted in the community itself.