History of World Impact

In 1965, Keith Phillips, a student at UCLA, began teaching Youth For Christ Bible clubs in Watts. He began recruiting BIOLA students to volunteer with him and the ministry to the urban poor grew. By 1971, God called Keith to full-time ministry and World Impact was incorporated. Full-time missionaries moved into the communities they served. Evangelism to children expanded to teens and whole families.

News of the ministry spread to other urban areas of the country and by 1972 World Impact was ministering in San Diego, California, and Wichita, Kansas. In 1975, Keith wrote about World Impact’s experiences in They Dare to Love the Ghetto. In 1976, the St. Louis and Newark ministries began and World Impact moved into their present headquarters at 20th and Vermont in Los Angeles. In 1977, the Fresno ministry began.

During the 1970's, while retaining a strong emphasis on evangelism, World Impact became more intentional about discipleship. By 1981, Keith Phillips wrote The Making of a Disciple, still recognized as one of the seminal books on discipleship. Films depicting urban ministry, as well as urban ministry training materials, were developed.

In the early 1980's, World Impact started ministries to the whole person, while keeping its priority of evangelism and discipleship. In 1982, the Los Angeles Christian School was opened and Morning Star Ranch was acquired to disciple young men from the inner city. By 1984, World Impact began job training opportunities (Inner City Enterprises), a thrift shop (The Sonshine Shop), and the Newark Christian School, while writing a culturally-conducive “through-the-Bible” curriculum. Out of these experiences, Keith wrote No Quick Fix, explaining the need for ministry to the whole person and the importance of whole families.

In 1986, the Wichita Village property was acquired, from which the Good Samaritan Clinic was launched, an old Y.M.C.A building was remodeled for ministry in St. Louis, low-income housing was developed in Newark, and God provided THE OAKS camp, 65 miles north of Los Angeles. In 1988, the Chester, Pennsylvania, ministry opened, and ministry centers in San Diego and Fresno were remodeled.

During the 1980's, the efforts of evangelism and discipleship were bearing fruit and new believers were forming into worshiping communities, leading World Impact to plant culturally-relevant churches in the inner city. The massive numbers of immigrants from Central America and Asia, along with the growing numbers of urban poor, underscored the need to not only evangelize and disciple individuals, but to establish new churches among the poor. In 1990, church planting became the primary strategy to evangelize, equip, and empower the urban poor.

In the early 1990's, as national attention was focused on the inner-city during the Los Angeles riot, World Impact acquired Harmony Heart camp in Pennsylvania, began ministry in Oakland and San Francisco, opened schools in Watts and Chester, launched The Urban Ministry Institute (TUMI) and planted its first churches in various cities.

In 1996, World Impact celebrated its 25th anniversary as Deer Creek camp (outside Denver) and the Dallas ministry were added. Keith Phillips wrote about World Impact’s emerging church planting ministry in Out of Ashes. In 1999, World Impact hosted the first of three conferences on urban church planting, called Crowns of Beauty, each of which welcomed over 1200 international delegates.

In 2000, World Impact began hosting its School for Urban Cross-Cultural Church Planting, training urban church plant teams from all over the nation. In 2001, The John Mark Curriculum was published to train cross-cultural missionaries and three TUMI satellite campuses were opened. By 2004, 20 churches had been planted in eight World Impact cities, and an auditorium at THE OAKS Adult Conference Center was completed, dedicated in honor of board member Dr. Jack Hayford.