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If Jesus were walking with us today and asked, “What do you see? Do you see the need, the depths of despair, and pain?” The Lord would be asking you to look, where? How would you respond?
Biblical Response
According to the Bible, the heart of God responds to the disadvantaged with active compassion. This is the heart of pure/true religion. Compassion is all about connecting with the helpless condition of the hurting world. The spiritual and physical needs of this world are great. Look around, where are the greatest needs? Who is suffering the most? If you are called to Christ, you are called to compassion. What is your response?
Only through the Power of God, the Word of God, and our intentional decision to practice the Heart of God can we develop a heart for the city and its people. Developing a heart for the city and its people means being called to Christ and called to compassion.
…be doers of the Word and not hearers only… but a doer who acts… [control your tongue, care for the afflicted, keep oneself unstained by the world, show no partiality… this true religion]
James 1:23-2:13
Jesus said the people in cities and villages were ‘harassed, weary, or distressed’ meaning: to be flayed open, in hopeless despair, thrown down, to be at the end of oneself – the recurring effects of those who are ‘harassed’ can be pictured as a rock is thrown onto a pond, which results in a seemingly never-ending cycle of ripples and rings, thus illustrating the downward spiral of discouragement and hopelessness felt by the poor and disenfranchised. Jesus was moved with compassion. He saw beyond external appearances into the hearts of the people. He saw that they were unprotected, unsaved, and unguided. Jesus said to pray that God’s people will enter into the pain and suffering of those harassed.
…When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd…
Matthew 9:35-38
Your Response
When you walk down the streets of our cities, when you drive threw neglected, despairing, destitute neighborhoods, when you see crowds of people… How deeply do you see? Are you moved with compassion or revulsion? How would you respond? It is possible for you to do the right thing for the wrong reason or to do the wrong thing for the right reason. How will you respond?
Look at the statistics:
Ray Bakke reminds us in A Theology as Big as the City, “The frontier of missions has shifted to the cities. The greatest number of unreached people is no longer geographically distant but rather culturally distant. You must realize that the nations of the world are coming to the city.“ Today in a new millennium, missions has dramatically shifted in many ways, including from safe to dangerous, from receptive to hostile people groups, from villages and jungles to urban/city jungles. The 2000 U.S. Census revealed: 55-80% of the country’s population lives and will be living by 2050 in metro/urban areas. U.S. now reports, as of 2017, 75-85% of families with children are living in the largest US cities and urban metro areas.
Look at the trends:
Everything from music to fashion, language and politics is dominated by urban trends, says Bob Bufford of Leadership Networks. Sociologists, market analysis, and government officials pay close attention to what happens in urban America. What happens there will influence what happens everywhere.
Look at the task:
There is no easy, painless or inexpensive way to minister in the city today. Urban ministry is nearly always cross-cultural and calls us beyond ourselves into uncharted territory (Psalm 107:23-24). But city ministry is critical! D.L. Moody said, “Water runs downhill, and the highest hills are the great cities. If we can stir them, we shall stir the whole country.”
Look at the Word:
To practice obedience to the Word of God and participate in contemporary missions, we must go inside the city. We must cross, not only an ocean and a continent, but the street with the changeless Gospel. The entire Scriptures, including Jesus earthly ministry, demonstrates this imperative.
Look at the Church:
Where is the Church in regard to this mission field? Do our methods, ideas, and attitudes really impact today’s urban kids? Do they produce devoted disciples for Christ? In Dare to Love the Ghetto, Keith Phillips tells about one particular church, “They took five or ten black boys from the inner-city for a week of camping experience, stuffed them full of the gospel, meticulously recorded each decision and then pitched them back into the ghetto with these words of comfort: God bless you! We’ll send follow-up materials by mail. Hope everything works out.”
How would you respond to the above question: What do you see…? In the next part of Developing a Heart for the City, to be published, consider your responses by these questions:
1. Can you see the Heart of the Father?
2. What does the Bible say about reaching cities?
3. How deeply do you see and is your heart moved for city kids?
John E. Blake
John E Blake — Coaching and mentoring youth in Durham N.C. via tennis on inner city courts! Doc Blake’s More Than Gold Fitness & Sportsreach
Research has found that early positive experiences in sports create a lifelong commitment to an active lifestyle. Tennis is fun for families and kids of all ages and levels. CEF and docBlakeFitness are advocates and facilitators of youth and family tennis through More Than Gold teaching academies, camps, and clinics, which are usually held in the late Spring, Summer, and early Fall. We also offer total body fitness workouts to enhance overall strength, agility, and healthy lifestyles.
SOCIAL BENEFITS
- New friends
- Quality time with family
- Positive learning environment
- Learn teamwork and communication
HEALTH BENEFITS
- Stay active with aerobic and anaerobic exercise
- Enhance flexibility and coordination
- Increase bone and muscle strength
- Creates mental and physical awareness and well being
PSYCHOLOGICAL BENEFITS
- Learn sportsmanship and fun competition
- Develops character and integrity
- Builds discipline and work ethic
- Improves relational skills and decision-making
SAMPLE SCHEDULE (40 min sessions)
- Warm up and stretch
- Cardio and strength conditioning
- Racket grip, balls types, court etiquette
- Skills tutorial and/or Play Tennis Skillastics®
- Forehand off toss/hit – Run – elimination
- Backhand off toss/hit – Run – elimination
- Overhead off toss/hit – Run – elimination
- Dodgeball repeat skills – Run – eliminate
- Conditioning via Line Hops – Stop-Start Runs
- Strokes with partner – Keep Score – rotate
- Strokes with 5-some – Keep Score – rotate
- Play – Keep own score – rotate – eliminate
- What did we learn today?
BECOMING AN ACTIVE PARTICIPANT
Incorporating the 10 Keys of the Kingdom
Go: CEF staff, volunteers, collaborators, churches
Pray/Bless: CEF staff, club volunteers, churches, pastor/minister prayer groups, PrayDurham, Transformation RDU, various coalitions, ekklesia prayer and action groups
Fellowship/Listen: CEF staff, club volunteers & coordinators, collaborators, church partners, housing authorities, urban networking partners, prayer movements, and mentoring groups
Proclaim: CEF staff, club & event volunteers, church partners, ministry collaborators
Identify assets/Meet needs: CEF staff, volunteers, collaborators, asset-based community developers, cultural competency trained, deconstructing racism trained, and housing authorities
Develop/Enrich: CEF staff, club leaders & volunteers, collaborating churches & ministries
Capacity Building Principles
INFRASTRUCTURE
- It’s costly up front (i.e. time, energy, money, patience, emotions, etc.)
- No short term emotional rewards when building
- Most people celebrate the finished or functional breakthroughs
- Celebrate everything M.P.
YOU HAVE TO START SOMEWHERE
- If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing badly. H.W.
- Don’t let the fear (aka twisted faith) in your life control or hinder you.
THE TENSION OF TWO TRUTHS
- Freedom: Discover God’s boundaries for your life. Psalm 16:5-6
- Truth: It’s the most equal opportunity employer out there… It’s the same for everyone. Tension when choosing both/and vs either/or.
OPPORTUNITY COST
- The cost of being in the baseball hall of fame is striking out. B.R.
REFOCUS
I realized the focus of Jesus ministry and the heart of God was on people. Their worth, dignity, and living situation dictated ministry. My vision was sharpened on how God valued the people we were reaching, even in the most resource-challenged communities of Durham. As our team refocused, no longer were the people seen as objects or goals of our ministry, but essential conduits and leaders for the transformation of their own communities.
The vision of CEF Durham is a 10+ year block-by-block spiritual transformation of city kids and their families living in 10 of Durham’s most resourced-challenged communities. This vision statement is articulated and realized by using and achieving the 10 Keys of the Kingdom.
During the past several years, both ministers and residents have been enriched when they prayed, blessed, listened, learned, and ate together. This biblically-relational approach has allowed us more effective evangelism, discipleship, and leadership development. Spiritual transformation becomes evident when these ten expressions of the Gospel are implemented. Collaboration with other ministries, churches, organizations, and groups is necessary – even mandatory for success.
2 Tim. 2:2 …commit to faithful men who can teach others also… Psalm 107:23-25, 28-31 …put your faith in action
Now everything CEF Durham does will be community-based and guided by these 10 Keys of the Kingdom. The purposes of Child Evangelism Fellowship are being fulfilled more effectively by following Jesus’ Model of ministry. Our ministry plan is year-round rather than seasonally. Making disciples is the focus. Changed lives, communities, and our city is the goal.
Most city kids when asked: Is the world getting darker or lighter? They almost unanimously answer: DARKER! Why? They, like you and I, just know that the sadness, despair, crime, economic challenges, and broken families of this world feels dark. It’s discouraging and depressing. Children, youth, and their families are struggling to navigate life in such a world.
When the foundations are being destroyed, what are the righteous to do? Psalm 11
Many students, even parents and teachers, feel helpless or clueless of how to combat the perpetual onslaught of hatred, violence, cyber-bullying, or disrespect, just to mention a few forms of darkness in their world. But this narrative of darkness is changing! Students are hearing and accepting the truth of their immense and incredible value.
They’re rejecting the lies and false labels of words and attitudes thrown towards them like poisonous darts and bringing light to their world (schools) as world changers. Students and teachers, independently and together, are leveraging their God-given value and power to make choices that will make their school better and flourish.
Read the rest of this entry »The vision for City Kids is simple – to visit resource-challenged communities and deliver a comprehensive gospel impact. We are faced with many questions in our calling, but it is in our search for the answer that we strive to spread the Gospel to all. Is God powerful enough to keep kids away from gangs? Does the Word of God still accomplish what it says in the current day & age? What if The Church at Durham took seriously its responsibility for taking the Gospel to city kids and youth? What if for 10 years a collaboration of churches and ministries comprehensively served the 10 most physically and spiritually needy communities of Durham?
In our area, we face communities where crime and evil have dominated life for way too long. Communities where kids are not expected to succeed. These are the communities where the words: at-risk, under-resourced, and marginalized are experienced everyday by its residents. These are the communities where God has been rejected, yet screams out to be glorified! This is where the Lord desires that the residents welcome Him back into their lives, homes, and their communities.
We’re about reaching city kids and youth for Christ with the whole Gospel to benefit the whole child and their family throughout the whole year.
CEF Durham along with partnering ministries and local Christians are developing an Urban Missions Network for new strategies and strengthening best efforts, which will focus on these 10 identified communities for the next 10 years. A simple strategy of biblical, holistic discipleship will be used. Our vision is to see city kids and families transformed by the Gospel. Indigenous residents will be enabled to lead their own communities in biblical transformation and Christian community development. This would include, but not limited to, evangelism, discipleship, character development, academic tutoring, creative arts, sports/recreation, medical services, life skills, and economic/job training.
Want to talk more about City Kids, offer some insights, question?
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Chuck Swindoll wrote a book back in the 1980s entitled Strengthening Your Grip. It was a huge help to me as a young man whose walk with the Lord was growing rapidly. After 20 years of seeking God’s direction, God led me to direct the mission of CEF in the Durham area which in turn taught me to become a missionary to families as well as kids. 
As a practitioner of the Gospel, I’ve realized that we hold a tighter grip on the Words and Ways of God some times more than others. I’m also thankful that I’ve learned and trained our mission team to operate in the truth that it is God Himself that maintains the grip and holds us.
Thus, our grip upon reading, studying, memorizing, meditating, and applying the Words of God strengthens our grip on the reality of His power and presence in our lives. When we pray and serve the Lord, there is an outflow, or loosening, of this “grip” which helps to minister God’s love, value, and desire for others to know Him for who He is and what He has done. This is a season in which we are experiencing this truth. CEF’s desire and manifestation of a stronger grip has become apparent as it collaborates weekly with local churches and individual Christ-followers for the sake of children and many local communities. I write today that you can know the heart of the CEF work and to ask, “How is your (our) grip?” CEF is one of many places where you can strengthen your grip.
Check out the “7MIT Song” on YouTube (writers: John & Sean Blake, posted by: Anita McGee) via “7 Most Important Things”, Good News Club song from Child Evangelism Fellowship (www.cefonline.com)
2013 summer interns make mark on CEF® urban ministries
Summer can be a great time off for travel and hanging out with friends before returning to school for most college students. CEF Durham enjoyed a dozen college interns with The City Project via the Summit Church this summer as in the past. What did they do? Travel and hang out with friends. While doing so, these 12 students touched the lives of city kids within various neighborhoods of Hillsborough and Durham. The Gospel was the centerpiece for everything attempted and accomplished by these student-interns who allowed John Blake to disciple them for Christian living and inner city ministry. Bible clubs, teen leadership classes, setting up a computer
Gateway Apts in Hillsborough July 3, 2013
lab/library, sports, and other community development tasks were led by these interns. Whether rain or shine, this dynamic dozen were daily dedicated to the Gospel and the city kids they ministered to, like these (below) at the Gateway Apts in Hillsborough.
This was a block party/celebration on their last day with these kids. They stuck it out through rain, lightning, and high winds. Despite being soaked, they never lost their smiles and the party continued after the storm. Over a dozen kids accepted the Lord as Savior. These students also traveled and hung out together in New York City and cities in 5 other regions of the world.
John Blake shares his "Heart for City Kids" 