“The Pilgrim Journey to the Promised Land”
The photo above was the first architectural rendering of our new church building in downtown Fairfield which was open for public worship services in October of 2021. The first official activity that we had in this building was a wedding on September 12, 2021, before the building was even completed. It was the wedding of Ced B Mahaffey and his longtime girlfriend Santana McCord. Ced was a Christian, a member of UHCC, a husband, a father and a small business owner. On August 20, 2022, less than a month shy of his one year marriage anniversary, Ced became a victim of the chronic gun violence plaguing the urban communities throughout America. I refer to these communities in our vision statement as “Egypt”, where the groaning is nonstop and the edict from Pharaoh to kill all of the boys has never been rescinded.
As a church planter, pastor and visionary, I have had many opportunities to quit on this pilgrimage to the promised land that I wholeheartedly believe God has placed in my heart. The journey is filled with sorrows, setbacks, heartaches and many disappointments, but none greater than to see a member, mentee and friend lose his life before his 30th birthday. In the midst of such sorrows, the joys come in the form of the things you learn about yourself and the deep abiding trust and intimacy you gain with the savior. With this deeper trust, you just know that God is faithful and He is not in the business of wasting any circumstances or events and there must be a reason why Satan is killing so many young men like Ced in our urban environments and continuing to take the stability of leadership out of these communities and the households therein.
Therefore, “I will press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” The goal the Lord has placed on my heart is focusing all of my energy on being a good husband, a loving father, a shepherd to my church flock and being faithful to disciple young 18-35-year-old African-American men from the urban context. We do this in many ways at Miles College, Fairfield High School and in our outreach and benevolence ministries, but in an attempt to bring more co-laborers into this work, we have started the Urban Hope Leadership Initiative (UHLI). This is a one-year residency program for young African-American men who will spend a year with Urban Hope focusing on four key areas of development: discipleship, leadership, vocation and contextual urban ministry. Going into the fall of 2022, we have four young African-American men who started their UHLI experience at the end of August. They are now living in Fairfield in a house located directly across the street from Sandra and me until our lofts in downtown are completed around the end of the year.
In its essence, our vision is to see the transformation of our fractured urban communities by growing and discipling young black men like Ced Mahaffey, our Miles and Fairfield High School students and like those who will complete our UHLI residency. I remain committed to pressing towards the promises that are fully realized in Christ Jesus. He continues to produce fruit through the faithfulness of those laboring with Him in our community. Three years ago, there was no church building, no lofts, no elders or deacons or church staff. Now all of those things exist. We were a church of 15-20 members for the first 7 years of ministry in Fairfield and over the last three years, God has grown our flock nearly four times over. We know and see that He is faithful to keep his promises and we continue to pray that He will intervene in the continual violence and chaos in communities like Fairfield. The need to address the issue of violence in our city has reached pandemic levels. The mayor of Birmingham has a curfew in effect because of the number of homicides happening among the city’s young black men. The curfew is not issued for Hoover, Homewood, Vestavia or Mountain Brook. It’s the urban communities, like Fairfield, Ensley, West End, Gate City and others that have seen this pandemic of violence escalate to unprecedented levels in recent years and it’s communities like these that the Lord has impressed upon my heart and the heart of our church to reach through word and deed.
This journey to my own personal promised land started over 30 years ago and God has been there with me every step of the way. I have no doubt that He will complete the journey with me. As it stands today, we are trying to raise $600,000 for the completion of the UHLI loft project in downtown Fairfield, two-doors down from our church building. The more I read al.com and other Alabama news outlets, the more I see men and friends being killed by other men, the more I am convinced that we need this building and program to house, train and prepare young black men for the work that needs to be done in these inner-city “Egypts.” We are striving to address the issues from within and praying that the Lord would raise up an army of men to go into and among their cultural contexts to win many more sons to Glory, in Jesus’ name!
If you are interested in supporting our efforts with the UHLI Building Fund or any other ventures at Urban Hope, you can give online at www.urbanhopecc.com/give or mail support to our address at P.O. Box 53, Fairfield, Alabama 35064. Our phone number is 205-514-3715 and our email is info@urbanhopecc.com. Thank you for your love, prayers, support and concern for our church and our ministry here in Fairfield and we pray that the Lord continues to draw you and others into proximity of the work that is happening here on the ground for His kingdom’s sake.
Grace and Peace,
Alton Hardy, Founder and Visionary, Urban Hope the Movement
