Inner City Ministry

I can with no hesitation tell you what inner cities are in need of. Men!! Black men, brown men, yellow men, red men and white men . It should come as no surprise that in those areas of a city where the most amount of single women or grandparents are raising children you will find the most amount of poverty, crime and the most hopelessness. I have taught classes in the inner city and I have spent time in the inner city growing up. It is as obvious as sunlight, you notice the hard work nature of the women there and the lack of men ages 30 to 55 who are the leadership generation. Why did it come to be? Is it racially fixed, is it systemic to cultures or areas( is being poor a generational curse?) Wouldn’t care to argue the point. But I can tell you for sure what will fix it. Men!! That is our hope and call for ministry for the inner city. To go and be a help to the man who is there. To assist him in work, encouragement and to let others know that the lone guy on a tough block needs some help. He needs spiritual help, physical help and he needs financial help! But, it all will begin to improve when you become willing to be a Brother to lean on. That guy doesn’t care what skin color you are or if you totally agree with him about every theological doctrine the two of you might discuss. He just wants you to come and to lend a hand. To care about him and his block. To help rally the world to the realization that if we were meant to live in community, that the lone man on a tough block doesn’t have a community of men. He is alone and frightened and wondering where are all those Christian brothers he reads about ,or hears about but never sees on his block. For him, whether you abandoned the block physically or you just chose never to show up, doesn’t really matter. You’re just missing in action and he really needs to see you.

I can’t tell a person in a war how to fight it, but I can support them from the periphery . We, if we want to be called men, must accept that there are those in our community who serve alone and that’s not consistent with our God nor rational with our experience. Alternative philosophies see our weakness and are consistently and constantly taking advantage of our failure. A cycle of poverty, crime and imprisonment can be broken, but it will take men to do it. Perhaps there could be an awakening of a few warriors of our generation in each community, who can make it their business to serve as men wherever an area in our towns is in need of them. Perhaps you know one, perhaps you can become one perhaps you are one.