Whenever I watch news stories about violent urban riots unfolding, my heart becomes deeply grieved. Unfortunately this has happened too much over the past year. The events that led to these riots are even more unfortunate, and I have come to realize that my heart grieves for a couple of reasons.
The first is the element behind violent urban riots is a marginalized people who feel voiceless, un-empowered, and believe that they have no other options to showcase their own grief and pain. I know firsthand the complex issues that cause a people to carry the burden of being marginalized within under-resourced communities. Marginalization can come from systems and dysfunctional institutions within urban settings that stand in the way of empowerment. It can come from a broken family system that sometimes is connected to larger broken systems. Marginalization can also become internalized in a way that goes beyond how an individual is impacted by broken systems. An internalized marginalization on this level can keep a person from taking advantage of opportunities right around them that could lead to a positive life of mission and purpose.
The second reason I grieve—whether it’s over violent riots, gang violence, the murder of unarmed young men and women, or even the way abortion impacts the urban community—is because I reflect a lot on what would be different if more people in poor communities were fully empowered in knowing themselves as the beloved of God. I wonder what cities would look like if the Poor were equipped and empowered to serve as change agents in their own neighborhood. This reflecting has both defined my ministry calling and the mission of World Impact.
World Impact was birthed out of the Watts Riots in the mid 1960’s. Out of this violent riot—which started from an altercation between the Police and an African-American family—a ministry began to bring an empowering Gospel to the unreached urban Poor. The ultimate end of this missional approach to urban ministry is to raise-up indigenous leaders who would transform their own cities. Could it be that a Christian-based, collaborative strategy that empowers the Poor would lead to a revolutionary transformation of the city? At World Impact we say the answer is, “YES!”
This is why Resourcing Urban Leaders is one of our Focus Areas. Our Global Ends Statement is: “the empowered urban poor advancing the Kingdom of God in every city through the local church.” This is more than just a statement. It’s both a transformative vision and the fruitful work that we’ve been about for over 40 years. Through incarnational evangelism, leadership and church planter development, discipleship programs for the incarcerated and mentor-based reentry initiatives, we are raising up an army of indigenous leaders with the moral compass and changed mind set to dismantle broken systems and build up beloved communities.
We must no longer look at the poor, marginalized and lost with judgement or pity. We must employ the compassionate and empowering love of Christ in order to raise up an army of resourced change agents. Although they don’t appear enough on the news, there are stories of indigenous urban leaders planting churches, starting businesses and leading other ministry effort. Join us at World Impact to create more stories so that we might transform communities together.
