About Urban Outreach

Urban Outreach’s entire raisón d étre is to support qualified leaders and organizations called to help God’s poor succeed while being a resource for the local church to better engage these organizations and the poor in general. I want to use my experience to teach interested persons how to avoid some of the issues I faced on my own journey. Specifically, Urban Outreach will support these leaders and organizations by offering the following services:

➊  Consulting

Urban Outreach will help leaders / organizations implement fair and objective accountability standards for the staff, organizational as a whole, and board of directors while offering leaders and ministries spiritual, physical, administrative, organizational and financial support once these standards are implemented.

➋  Training

1. Fundamentals of poverty 101.  This training will help the student understand the class differences between those with means and those without, the most effective way of engaging the poor in their city, the do’s and don’t of trying to help the poor, what to do to help the man or woman we see on the street corner, the importance of commitment, the issue regarding the tithe, and the importance of understanding our calling.
2. Discipleship 101 will discuss the stages of discipleship, the assessment process, what it means to be a Christian, the importance of being in a discipleship relationship, understanding spiritual gifts and a Christian’s generic calling.
3. Discipleship 202 will discuss behavioral maturity, the importance of part time missionary work to mature us as disciples, what it means to become a leader to train other disciples, the importance of time and money in the life of a disciple and a process to discovering a more specific calling.
4. Discipleship 303 will discuss preparedness for missionary work, the importance of being grounded before stepping out, what it means to count the cost, the issue of calling, an affirmation process, and obstacles to mission.
5. Discipleship 404 will be the final step before one engages in missionary work, including the issue of culture classes, the importance of immersion, the need for support, what to do about the issue of money, and behavior issues affirming the disciples level of maturity matches their desire to engage.

➌  Assessments

Urban Outreach will offer a pre-designed assessment process for leaders – a “filter” for both indigent urban leaders and educated leaders who do not yet have experience with urban ministry work.  Assessments will also be available for small group leaders, congregants and for the organization itself.

These are the areas in which Urban Outreach will teach/consult:

1. The complexity of poverty and the benefits / inherent challenges working with leaders who come from generational poverty.
2. How to effectively deal with the parachurch model that puts parachurch leaders in competition with the local church.
3. The depth of discipleship required for the Lord to transform another life.
4. The required funds / support needed to build an organization according to high standards of excellence without forfeiting Christian values.
5. Proper assessment of leaders that do the work and assist in the work of the church (which includes the parachurch organizations) that is critical to the success of the work of the church.
6. How to include both professional (middle-class) leaders and experienced grassroots leaders transitioning from poverty onto a successful leadership team (and the proper balance).
7. How to effectively collaborate with the local church for long-term success and the risk of a lack of collaboration.
8. How to help middle-class Christians that want to engage with the poor to do so in the most effective manner.
9. Training and assessment of church group leaders.
10. Discovery of spiritual gifts and calling and an affirmation process for church leaders.