Numbers don’t tell the whole story, but they can help provide perspective on how the Kingdom of God is advancing through the local church across America’s inner cities. Here are a few numbers that stand out from our Focus Area of Planting Healthy Urban Churches in 2015.
Dean School. The Urban Ministry Institute (TUMI) hosted World Impact’s first Dean School in August. Twenty-four deans attended, all committed to training church planters in their cities across the United States.
Two Church Planters. Meet two of the most recent World Impact church plant partners, Rev. Dr. Yucon Chiu and Pastor Cedric Nelms. Rev. Chiu is a veteran church planter who is now planting a multi-ethnic church in the City of New Brunswick. The Church’s name is Ethnos Church and it is committed to the holistic transformation of its community. The church plant was chartered on October 30th and is being coached by Rev. Bob Engel.
Four thousand miles to the West, Pastor Cedric Nelms was commissioned to plant Chosen Generation Church on December 27th in Los Angeles. The name “Chosen Generation” is drawn from I Peter 2:9, and the church’s stated vision is to be a multigenerational and multicultural church. Pastor Nelms recently completed an internship under World Impact’s Los Angeles City Director, Rev. Pete Watts. Rev. Watts is serving as Pastor Nelms’ church plant coach.
Three Regions. World Impact’s ministry is divided into three regions across the United States: East Coast, Midwest, and West Coast. Together these three regions commissioned nineteen new church plants in 2015. These church plants are all currently active bringing the transformation of God’s kingdom to inner-city communities across the nation.
Four new resources for church planters! TUMI produced four important resources for church planters in 2015. The Ripe for Harvest guidebook is used as a textbook for church planters wanting to plant among the urban poor. TUMI also produced a two-volume anthology set entitled Planting Churches among the City’s Poor; it contains more than 1,200 pages of missional resources for urban church planters. A fourth book entitled The Evangel Dean Handbook: A Guide to the ABCs of Equipping Urban Church Planters was also produced but is only available to those who participate in an Evangel Dean training.
We could continue adding to these numbers with many more. There are now 53 Church Plants Commissioned toward our goal of 300 new church plants to be planted by 2021. The total number of church plants launched by World Impact or in partnership with others is now at 178. Next year we look forward to seeing these numbers continue to increase. Thank you for your prayer and partnership in seeing urban communities transformed through the local church.
