Plant Healthy Urban Churches
Our missionaries are always looking for indigenous leaders to equip, train, or encourage in our urban communities. Missionaries Jordan and Kathryn King are doing just that and share the following about their experience with a local pastor.
A number of months ago I (Jordan) met Jerry Acosta for lunch. He was not the picture of a traditional pastor. When I met him for lunch he was covered in tattoos wearing a t-shirt and jeans, in between digging ditches for the company he worked for during the day. He had formerly been in prison for a number of years and had come to Christ in prison in a miraculous way. After his release he followed the Lord's call to become a pastor. Over time it became clear he was called to plant a church and that World Impact would encourage and resource him. Our family has quickly become good friends with Jerry and his wife Lori and their four boys. We have shared many meals and laughs in our home as we support and come alongside Jerry and Lori. When asked how World Impact has most impacted Jerry he said, “Simply believing in me and my calling through Christ our Lord. Offering prayer, guidance, advice, and peer support have been the most significant!” We love ministering out of our home with those we are connected with in the city. We are looking forward to moving into a Hispanic area of Wichita, KS, in January and using our home as a host home for ministering in the neighborhood.
Develop Missional Partnerships
We have so many new contacts that we are following up and each one represents the gospel reaching further and deeper into the urban neighborhoods of the Midwest.
We partnered with three other organizations and churches to serve 135 Thanksgiving meals in Dallas, TX. We met with nineteen pastors in the Fort Worth area that have interests in SIAFU, church planting, TUMI, Urban Church Associations and more! We are going inside multiple prisons and jails in Wichita, Hutchinson, Topeka, Lansing and more. Our partnerships exponentially expand our reach, all for Kingdom building.
Resource Urban Leaders
We host a variety of leadership-focused conferences across the region that help sharpen urban church leaders in areas like discipleship, pastoring, leading, equipping and more.
In 2015, the Midwest hosted approximately 150 leaders at conferences to receive this vital fellowship and training. We are also training leaders behind the walls of prisons and jails with the Capstone Curriculum and the Fight the Good Fight Workbook. Some of these emerging leaders have caught the vision and have started SIAFU groups inside. Many of them are preparing to be involved in urban missions upon their release, most in the very neighborhoods they come from and we work in! We look forward to getting inside women’s prisons and jails soon.
Over 150 pastors and leaders in local, urban neighborhoods are being trained in the Capstone Curriculum, the finest affordable urban seminary curriculum available. We are honored to walk with these leaders as they fulfill the calling that God has placed on their heart to see the Kingdom expand through the ministry of the local church among the urban poor!
Demonstrate Compassion and Justice
There are a wide variety of reasons that people attend the Legal Aid Clinics that World Impact Wichita hosts twice a month. Whether it’s seeking the next steps in how to get custody of their children, wondering what to do in a hurtful family situation involving a loved one’s estate, or wanting to know how to fill out confusing legal paperwork… many who come to the clinic are in the middle of vulnerable and difficult situations. Lawyers from the Christian Legal Aid Society provide people with free legal advice. They also have the opportunity to provide a caring, listening ear to people who desperately long for someone to hear their stories. They treat the clients with dignity and respect and many times are able to provide a glimmer of hope to difficult situations. It is a delight to see people leave the clinic with a smile on their face and hope in their eyes.
