The Urgent Need for Hope
In my experience, ministry on the ground in the urban context has not been for the faint of heart. There is no amount of education that could have prepared me for the gritty realities that I have faced while ministering among the poor and fatherless. As Director of Outreach, I’ve had the privilege to serve Christ, His Church, and the community of Fairfield in my role. Although it is a humbling privilege to be called by God to work in the community I was shaped in, it has come with many challenges, and sometimes those challenges can be excruciatingly painful.
I spend a large portion of my ministry time discipling young men, between the ages of 18 and 35 years old. Unfortunately, most of the men I work with come from broken, fatherless homes. The statistics regarding outcomes for children from these environments paint a grave picture (reference the graphic below). I have seen the ramifications of this data on fatherlessness play out in living color in my own life and with the young men I encounter. I’d like to share a few stories with you of recent encounters with some of the men I minister to in hopes that I, you and many others will continue to feel the undeniable need to beg the Lord to do a mighty work in communities like ours.
This first young man was one I had been working with for over a year. When I originally met him, he wandered into church one Sunday and smelled of alcohol. After the worship service, he asked if he could have help getting a meal, so I gave him a ride to McDonald’s and purchased some food for him. During that time together in the car, he shared that he had been let go from his job and did not have a place to live. He was squatting in an abandoned house and didn’t have much of anything in way of possessions. He asked if there was any way I could help him with some clothes and shoes, so we set up a time for me to meet him the next day and I brought multiple pairs of shoes and pants to him from my closet. That was how our relationship began. I invested in him through both Word and deed over the course of the next year, such as connecting him with job opportunities, giving him rides, buying him food, paying his phone bill, sending him scriptures, inviting him to church, answering his late-night phone calls, praying for him and with him, etc. His most pressing issue though was his alcohol addiction, so I connected him with a ministry partner who specializes in helping individuals find freedom from alcohol and substance abuse. So, over many months, we jointly worked with him and encouraged and counseled him to detox and enter rehab. One day after he had been recently released from jail, we had a joint meeting with him to make one final plea with him to go to rehab. All the pre-work had been done and the facility was ready to take him in. All he had to do was finally agree to go and we would have taken him right away. Instead, he rejected our plea after proclaiming that he loved alcohol, shook our hands, and walked out the door. I haven’t seen him since, but I recently found out that he is currently in jail again awaiting trial for domestic abuse.
The second young man was introduced to me by a prosecutor who is a Christian and knew about the work we do with young black men in Fairfield. This prosecutor didn’t want to simply put the young man and his other friends into the system even though they had committed the crimes that put them in front of him. There were four young men, one was 18 and the other three were 19 years old. It’s a long story in regards to my engagement with the other three, but I want to focus on one of the 19-year-olds in particular. After weeks of trying to lock something down, we were finally able to meet for lunch after I picked him up one day. It was a Friday afternoon and after getting to know him a little bit, I asked him a very straightforward question: “Where do you see yourself in ten years?” He looked up into the distance slightly and said, “I can see myself married with kids and away from Birmingham.” I knew what he meant by “away from Birmingham” because that’s how I felt growing up; that I needed to get away from the broken, unstable, and dangerous environment that left me feeling so hopeless. After our conversation, I believe we both walked away with some hope for his circumstances and agreed to meet again the following Thursday. He was supposed to start a new job the next Monday, so he told me he would call to confirm that he could still meet. That Wednesday morning, I got a call from his phone, but when I answered, it was not him, it was his mother calling to tell me that he had been murdered that Monday. It was a devastating blow and having to receive that news from his mother was even more heart-wrenching. It made me question whether I did a good enough job of pointing him to Jesus and brought me to realize that I may only have one shot with some of the guys in this environment. There is an urgent need for hope in the rescuing power of the gospel unto salvation while serving in inner-city hoods like Fairfield.
These losses are always extremely discouraging. They take a toll on all who are on the ground in the heat of the battle waging war against the kingdom of darkness. The spiritual warfare in these urban strongholds has proven to be particularly intense and not one single battle included in it can be won by natural means. We must fight in the spiritual realm with weapons of warfare that are from above. That being said, part of my role on staff is expanding to include taking over leadership of the prayer ministry within our church. I beg you to be in prayer for me to lead that ministry well. I ask that you would pray for me to practice a disciplined and intense prayer life with my Heavenly Father and that I will work diligently to integrate the same fervor for prayer into the life of our church as a whole. These particular means of grace are vitally important if we hope to see any success for the Kingdom in this context. We need Spirit-led preaching of the Word and Spirit-led prayer at all times, without ceasing. If you will do anything to partner with our church and efforts here in Fairfield during this season of our church, please pray urgently for God to break strongholds and to continue to empower Urban Hope to keep our hands to the plow. This, brothers and sisters, is nothing more and nothing less than urgent.
