Here's Life Inner City

The Here's Life Inner City strategy recognizes the immense complexity of the causes, symptoms and solutions to inner-city poverty. It does not seek to impose a comprehensive plan upon inner-city communities.

Rather, the plan is one that is built from the bottom up. It starts with a historically stable institution within the inner city, the church, and ends as a movement, a movement sensitive to the needs of its community, empowered by the Holy Spirit, and energized by a unified Body of Christ.

Into the fabric of all that we do are woven five basic operating principles. These principles, distilled from hundreds of hours of interviews with inner-city leaders, cannot be violated if we are to be successful in our mission:

Effective urban ministry is empowering, not paternalistic, offering resources to existing ministries to help them fulfill their potential of ministering to the people of the inner city.

Effective urban ministry is wholistic in scope, the ministry needs to be committed to addressing the needs of the whole person, body, soul, and spirit.

Effective urban ministry emphasizes relationships as a foundation for programs, investment in long-term relationships, not short-term programs, ultimately leads to lasting change.

Effective urban ministry addresses the root causes of problems, not just their symptoms, biblical issues of poverty, injustice, greed, and power must be addressed.

Effective urban ministry affirms cultural diversity , resources and training must be delivered in a culturally relevant context.