How UTM Breaks the Fatherless Cycle-Part 4 (Training)

March 11, 2019 /  Joel Shaffer  /  2 Comments  /  Blog, Uncategorized

Twenty-seven years ago, I felt frustrated.  As a recent college grad that was drawn towards ministry among the poor, I moved into an apartment above a small Baptist church located in an inner-city storefront.    From then on, I began to use my gifts of mercy, leading worship, teaching, and evangelism within the church’s fellowship. But the church was not healthy. Its leadership (all of whom lived in the outlying suburbs) had brought their cultural baggage and assumptions about the urban poor whom they were serving and in many ways, they were doing more harm than good.  And as I reached out regularly to alcoholics, drug addicts, gang members, and homeless individuals, I was left to fend for myself without any wisdom or guidance from the church’s leadership. Until I met Don Tack from Servants Center. In his lifetime, Don pastored urban churches in Arizona and Missouri and taught at two different Bible colleges. Through several conversations, He invited me to attend a course that he developed for Christians called, “Biblical Foundations for Helping the Poor,” which I enthusiastically pursued. In the class, we examined many of the 2000 verses of Scripture which demonstrated God ’s heart for the poor, the oppressed, the needy, the widow, and the orphan and the response of God’s people. From that moment on, Don mentoring me. Like a shadow, I followed him everywhere, trying to absorb as much of his wisdom.   Whenever he spoke at churches, I was there. Whenever he taught these poverty ministry classes, I was there, Whenever he took small groups of people on “hood-hikes” to open people’s eyes to the needs of the poor and homeless, I was there. Whenever he consulted with churches about how they could help poor people in their community, I was there. Don’s extensive knowledge of poverty issues, his stories, his compassion for the poor, and his gospel-centered, practical Christian response that truly helped the poor without creating dependency deeply impacted me, especially as I transitioned towards ministry among urban, fatherless youth.   So much so that years later when I started UTM, training volunteers, our supporting churches, and the church-at-large in doing poverty ministry and breaking the fatherless cycle was essential in making sure that we could fulfill UTM’s mission.

Therefore, when UTM uses the word Training, we mean “Teaching churches to minister to the fatherless/poor through training workshops, seminars, college-level classes, articles, books, blog-posts, curriculum, internships, consulting, and urban immersion trips.”  In UTM’s fifteen and a half years of existence, we sporadically focused on all of these vehicles of instruction (except for book-writing) under the program that we call the Urban Transformation Institute (UTI) The UTI has enabled churches such as College Park Church of Indianapolis, Kent City Baptist, Rockpoint Ministries of Crawfordsville, Cornerstone Baptist of Ludington, and Northpark Community Church of Ft. Wayne to send high school youth groups and family groups on urban immersion trips where they helped UTM with programs and projects, while learning how we break the fatherless cycle within an urban context.  Through the UTI, the staff of UTM and I led and facilitated workshops throughout Michigan, including: “Can We Talk?  a Candid Conversation about Race Relations and the Church;” “Empowering People out of Poverty within your Benevolence Ministry;” “Mentoring Fatherless Men to be Godly Fathers and Leaders;” and “Gospel-Centered Compassionate Ministry.”  I’ve also written an article for the Baptist Bulletin on the topic of Social Involvement. https://baptistbulletin.org/the-baptist-bulletin-magazine/social-action-without-the-social-gospel/ and an article for Sharper Iron blog forum on the War on Poverty. https://sharperiron.org/article/was-war-poverty-too-ambitious? Under the UTI umbrella,  I’ve been used as an urban ministry consultant and trained volunteers from both Berean Baptist Church, City View Church and New City Church of Grand Rapids and Crosswinds Church of Godwin Heights. Past volunteers and interns that were trained within the Urban Transformation Institute of UTM are serving the urban poor throughout the United States and the world, including: Patterson New Jersey, Nepal, and South Africa. And  I’ve taught college-level classes on Poverty Ministry at Cornerstone University and lectured on the topic of urban youth ministry at both Grace University of Wyoming Michigan and Grand Rapids Theological Seminary. Recently the Urban Transformation Institute of UTM has sponsored “lunch and learns” to connect with church leaders that are doing ministry among the fatherless and the poor within Western Michigan as a place to talk about their struggles and share ideas with each other.   

But UTM wants to do even more training of churches to minister to the fatherless/poor.   UTM is looking to expand the Urban Transformation Institute to include a more powerful social media presence.  Besides my weekly blogging on the UTM website, The UTI is in the process of developing a panel-based discussion Vlog, especially to tackle the difficult subjects such as racial reconciliation, poverty, and justice as it relates to the Gospel.  The UTI is seeking to develop its capacity to host 2-4 urban immersion trips a year for churches that not only desire to serve UTM and our urban church partners but also desire to learn effective gospel-centered ministry among the fatherless and poor.  The Urban Transformation Institute is also toying with the idea of developing a speakers bureau, expanding its Lunch and Learns to include a yearly symposium on Urban Ministry and writing curriculum and books that will benefit the Church-at-large. And if God provides the funding, the UTI will be the catalyst for developing satellites of the ManUP program in cities throughout the Midwest (we’ve already had inquiries from churches within Chicago and Detroit) in partnership with like-minded churches.    

To be honest, UTM wishes it did not have to exist.  We wish that every gospel preaching church had formed loving redemptive relationships with the poor in their community, that these same churches were at the forefront of mentoring fatherless youth and young adults, and were actively pursuing racial reconciliation and justice with their black and brown brothers in Christ.   And while several gospel-centered churches are doing these things, many churches are like I was twenty-seven years ago. Frustrated. Not sure what to do next. Looking for someone to walk alongside them to provide some wisdom and guidance as they do ministry among the fatherless and the poor. And UTM will be there….ready to help.