Urban Light was started by a few adults and a bunch of kids who lived in the same neighorhood together. In the beginning, we didnt really reflect the diversity of our community real well. But we were moving toward the vision God had given us to reconcile people to God and to each other and to raise up leaders from within the community. God was faithful and did what he said he would do he raised up an unlikely group of people from all kinds of different backgrounds with all kinds of different issues to lead his church.
In the early days, we had just a small group of adults who met for Bible study and worship. We bought some rough houses in the neighborhood, fixed them up, and lived in them. We were starting small businesses such as window washing and house cleaning with the hope of hiring people who needed a second chance or who had been overlooked by the system. We planted a community garden and infiltrated our neighborhoods with flowering fruit trees. We had backyard Kids Bible Clubs and BBQs. But stuff couldnt stay small for long. The 10-15 people who breathed a bunch of Kerosene fumes in the drafty garage on Madison St. (the historic line of segregation in Muncie) grew into a group of worshippers who met together in some cabins in our nearby inner-city park.
Our gospel choir was formed, our childrens ministry grew, new people either moved in to our community or joined the church from the community. People came out of drug addictions and prostitution. Demons were cast out of people. We did some serious community organizing and kicked off a huge annual block party that is more like a street fair with inflatable games, hip-hop, BBQ, B-ball tourneys, rock climbing wall, and more. As residents, a bunch of us tracked through the county building and convinced the alcoholic beverage commission to revoke the liquor license of our local strip club, which was a haven for prostitution, drug dealing, and violence. Afterward, we purchased the property and tore the rat-trap down. We formed a partnership with another local urban church: Deliverance Temple, which has been ministering on the south side for years. Together, we run two addiction-recovery and prisoner re-entry houses, the Conley House for men and the Urban Lighthouse for women. Our ministries are a model of what it looks like when people come together across race and neighborhood barriers to love people with the love of Jesus.
We partner with a local charter school, Hoosier Academy, to provide education through our Urban Light Academic Coaching Program for urban students who may have been falling through the cracks of the local public school system. Through Youth Blast, kids earn tickets for community service, good behavior, and Scripture memorization in order to take part in educational and cultural (and just plain fun) field trips. And we rent from the Boys and Girls Club for our Sunday worship service and meal because we outgrew the little cabins with the outside plumbing. Today, a diverse group of children, youth, and adults all meet together for a celebration of worship, preaching of the Word, eating together, shooting hoops, forming community, and learning about Jesus. But Sunday is only one part of what we do, as we are Jesus with skin on all through the week.
Urban Light Community Church is part of the Christian Community Development Association, a group of like-minded, culturally-diverse inner-city ministries all across the world. We have learned a lot from them and are founded on many of their philosophies. www.ccda.org
Urban Light is affiliated with the Churches of God, General Conference in Findlay, OH (www.cggc.org ). We are part of the Midwest Region (www.midwestcggc.org ). We are not your typical Church of God, but the denomination has been nothing but supportive. A lot of our funding to get started came from them and they are still a support in so many ways today.
Urban Light was planted with the help of Muncie Alliance Church, a Christian and Missionary Alliance Church from which a lot of our founding members came (www.munciealliance.org ). We still meet every week with other pastors from a networked group of churches that we call The Movement. We fund and plant new churches together and take part in teaching pool: a study group through which each church preaches from the same Scripture passage each Sunday, teaching through the Bible chapter by chapter.
Though Urban Light is not perfect, God is so faithful and is doing exactly what he said he would do through our church. It is amazing to be a part of. We are so blessed. For most of us, there is nowhere on earth we would rather be than in Muncie, IN, being a part of what God is doing in our urban community.