From John Nellis
In this past year, the Philly Metro experienced sustained momentum in two ministry arenas: urban partnerships and missional communities.
Urban Partnerships
Philadelphia churches had a healthy representation at Spectrum’s recent African-American Congress on Discipleship (AfAm2008) in Harlem back in March. A Navstaff with Spectrum, here in Philly, facilitated the participation of approximately 80 people from several urban churches.
We are fully engaged with the Kingdom Care Re-entry Network (KCRN), a partnership of over 65 congregations and prison ministries providing mentoring, housing referrals, job training and placement, education and family counseling to ex-inmates. The Lord has blessed KCRN to become the premier faith-based mentoring organization for reentry in the city and to become a contract partner to the Mayor’s Office of Reentry. Chaired by Church of God in Christ bishop, Rev. Ernest McNear, KCRN has become part of a unique early release partnership with the Philadelphia Prison System, the adult probation/parole department of the Municipal Court, the Philadelphia Defenders Association and the District Attorney. On the strength of its success in recruiting and training church-based mentors, KCRN has also been sought out by the Federal Reentry Court to begin providing mentoring services to inmates returning to Philadelphia from prisons all across the US. The Navigators are ideal partners for this kind of urban ministry because of God’s calling and enabling the Navs to develop effective mentoring and discipleship strategies and tools for this intensive person-to-person ministry of aftercare. Several NavStaff are participating in this opportunity.
Missional Communities
There are several ongoing missional communities in the Philly metro area, including a neighborhood Bible reading group, a b2g group, and a suburban church with a missional community emphasis.
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...