I can still remember meeting Bobby Ortiz. It was the day of our Backyard Boogie—one of our first attempts to engage our neighbors as well as invite our family and friends into the work of planting Emmaus San Bernardino.
On April 10 of last year, a man walked into a special needs classroom at North Park Elementary in San Bernardino. He then opened fire. The man killed the teacher and wounded two students.
Outside The Walls (OTW) Church launched last March after the team was equipped and commissioned through the Evangel School of Urban Church Planting.
It was an early Monday morning in December when I heard the news about the would-be suicide attacker who detonated a pipe bomb strapped to his body in the heart of Manhattan’s busiest subway corridor.
“Astonishing!” is all that the certified dean said about the Evangel Dean School of Urban Church Planting. The Spirit of the Lord was in our midst.
Being asked to be a coach at the Evangel Dean School of Urban Church Planting combined two of my favorite things, church planting and coaching.
This summer, we sent a church plant team from Fresno to the Evangel School of Church Planting at the Oaks. The team leader was Jacob, a radically committed Jesus-loving evangelist.
The Spirit of the Lord is moving in so many incredible ways as we faithfully and aggressively move on our vision to identify, equip, and release indigenous urban leaders to plant churches and facilitate church planting movements.
In Fall of 2000 I was an overzealous urban church planter in the Over-The-Rhine neighborhood of Cincinnati. Not too many thought it was a bright idea to start a church there.
I didn’t know what to expect when I attended the Evangel School of Urban Church Planting.
Three key individuals attended the Newark Evangel School of Urban Church Planting this summer. Their plans are to plant churches in Connecticut, Queens, Brooklyn, Northern New Jersey, Newark, and, Jamaica.
As our family continues the adventure of planting a church in a poor urban area of Dallas, I know firsthand the victories and great challenges of being the church in the city.
