Have you ever seen a personal dream come to life? Today we are seeing things happen through the work of the Mission America Coalition’s City and Community Ministries that have been nearly 10 years in the making. I am grateful to God for how I see Him working in city after city – bringing Christians together to share the Good News of Jesus Christ in word and deed – a personal passion the Lord has given me for more than three decades.
As you may remember, the Mission America Coalition has developed a framework for ministry called Loving Our Communities to Christ. This framework, overwhelmingly approved by Coalition partners, is now being prayerfully explored by leaders in cities throughout the nation. In addition, a Steering Committee for LC2C has been organized. The Steering Committee includes:
- Alan Andrews, U.S. Navigators
- Paul Cedar, Mission America Coalition
- Lloyd Copenbarger, Copenbarger and Copenbarger
- John Dawson, Youth With a Mission
- Danny de Leon, Hispanic Association of Bilingual/Bicultural Ministries
- Steve Douglass, Campus Crusade for Christ Intl.
- Ted Haggard, National Association Of Evangelicals
- Bill Hamel, Evangelical Free Church of America
- Jack Hayford, Intl. Church of the Foursquare Gospel
- James Leggett, Intl. Pentecostal Holiness Church
- Tom Nees, Church of the Nazarene
- Jim Overholt, Mission America Coalition
- Luis Palau, Luis Palau Evangelistic Association
- John Perkins, Christian Community Development Association
- Mary Lance Sisk, National Lighthouse Council
- Thomas Trask, Assemblies of God.
We praise God for this team that He has brought together and ask that you would pray for them as they give leadership to Loving Our Communities to Christ.
After trips to El Paso and St. Louis, two of our potential pilot cities for Loving Our Communities to Christ, we are seeing aspects of this new framework become a reality.
In El Paso, TX, we have been working with the leaders of the El Paso City Impact Roundtable and El Paso for Jesus. They have been gathering Christian leaders in various spheres of influence (i.e. business, civic, education, media and communications, arts, medical, legal, etc.) to learn how to strengthen their transformational impact. In mid-March, I was present when the focus was on how Christians in the law enforcement community can have a positive influence on the quality of life in their community. Sheriff Leo Samaniego said he was reluctant to respond to what he sensed was God’s call on his life to run for Sheriff in 1984. However, he decided to run and was elected. At the time, El Paso had the third highest violent crime rate in the nation. After twenty years in office, Sheriff Samaniego reported that today, El Paso is rated as the second safest major city in the U.S. He gave credit in large part to the faith community for their prayer support for officers through Shield-a-Badge prayer partners and involvement in jail and prison ministry. Samaniego said, “There is always someone in our jails praying for the prisoners.”
As a part of his presentation, the Sheriff told about a letter he recently received which said in part, “Brother Leo, I want to thank you for allowing ministry in the jail…I’m sorry for the crime I committed. I am serving time for my crime and God has given me a ministry right here in prison.”
When Christians pray and work together, we see exciting changes take place in nearly every field in our society. Faith, hope and love in Christ have their impact on people’s lives and transform our world.
In April, Rev. Dr. W. Wilson Goode, the former Mayor of Philadelphia, spoke at our national Mission America City Impact Roundtable conference in St. Louis, MO. Christian leaders from over fifty cities were present to learn how to prayerfully unite the church to improve their witness in word and deed throughout their cities or communities.
When he ran for Mayor, Dr. Goode said he knew that if the church and the business communities could come together behind his candidacy, he could be elected and be successful as the Mayor of Philadelphia. Many leaders from these two spheres of influence helped elect him. During his years as Mayor, Philadelphia brought basic and fundamental changes to impoverished communities throughout the city. In many cases, business leaders provided seed money and churches provided volunteer labor. Leaders from the church and business sectors worked together to:
- Provide retail jobs and shopping centers for those in the city
- Assist with the re-entry of prisoners into the community after their release
- Build new low-cost housing and rebuild existing housing in the city
- Provide job training opportunities in various fields throughout the city.
Rev. Goode said there are 7.3 million children in this nation with one or more parents in prison. If nothing happens, 70% of these children will end up in prison as adults. The church can provide mentors. It costs $40-50,000/year to keep someone in prison. It costs $1500/year to mentor someone.
At age 14, Goode’s own father went to prison. He was mentored by his pastor, who shared Christ with him and intervened in his life, telling him, “You can be anything you want to be.” He went on to become the mayor of the fourth largest metropolitan area in America.
His message was that by becoming mentors for one hour each week, Christians in a city can have an inordinate impact on the future. We can influence the lives of children who may be growing up without one or both parents in the home. Christians all over our nation are embracing this message.
Leaders at our conference in St. Louis heard this message and took it with them to each of their cities.
This is how Loving Our Communities to Christ is meant to work. By exposing leaders from cities and communities across our nation to best practice models like those mentioned, Christian leaders create ministries that meet needs in their own communities. A witness with integrity will bear abundant fruit for the kingdom of heaven and this world will be the better for it.
Thank you so much for your prayers and financial support as this effort goes forward. Please be praying with us as the pilot cities for LC2C are chosen, and as God prepares the hearts and minds of leaders in those cities to work together.
If you have any questions about Loving Our Communities to Christ, please feel free to email me at [email protected]. I also encourage you to visit the City Reaching website to learn more about reaching your city for Christ.
