A month ago we attended the funeral of a dear lady we have known for the past 30 years. She was a godly grandmother who left a legacy in how she helped raise many of her grandchildren. How she lived her life and cared for her grandchildren influenced them to also follow after Christ.
Many of her grandchildren grew up in our Bible clubs. Two of her grandsons were in my husband Andy’s group of guys that he helped lead in Bible clubs from pre-junior high through high school. Both of these men continue to follow the Lord; one of them is now a preacher. Donovan, one of the two, gave the message at his grandmother’s funeral service. His grandmother would have been very proud. Donovan now is investing into others the way his grandmother, Bible club leaders, and others in the church invested into him!
Growing up in the city is difficult. Raising kids in the city is difficult. Our many years of Bible clubs came alongside families and churches to help invest in the city’s most valuable assets, the children. Our ministry continues to have Bible clubs and partners with our urban church plants in ministry outreach to children, but it is no longer our sole focus in ministry.
In our early ministry years, we lived out the Great Commission through evangelizing, discipling and equipping youth primarily. We now continue to live out the Great Commission by equipping and resourcing urban leaders and pastors to plant and sustain healthy urban churches. When a community has healthy, growing, and reproducing churches, it is transformed. We have witnessed this reality in the different communities where we have lived in Wichita and Los Angeles and across the country.
Now, through our church planting initiatives and through resourcing initiatives like The Urban Ministry Institute (TUMI), we are able to recruit, train and equip many urban leaders like Donovan to plant churches and be strong lay and pastoral leaders in urban contexts all over this country and around the world. It is truly exciting to see what God can do through one dedicated and committed man or woman of God in the city!