Analyzing And Evaluating Urban Ministry

I am taking this class in order to learn and know more about urban ministry so that I can evaluate our church ministry programs to make them become better, and prepare myself to be a better leader in the future. The opportunities of site visiting in different churches in this class allow me to reflect and rethink about our ministry and think about the struggles of being a leader.
The church I attend is a city outreach ministry (COM) of our home church, which located in suburban area. COM exists because people in the home church saw the needs of the Chinese students in the Boston area. It starts with a small Bible study group of ten people to today’s five fellowships with around 150 people on Friday nights’ Bible study groups. Though number

These pastors and the churches consider themselves as part of the community. They serve the neighborhood to create an influence on them and leave the good image of Christians. The way these leaders adjust themselves to the context is a transforming way of doing leadership. In our church, because the majority is students who come to Boston for school and leave here when they graduate, the church members consistently change. Different people have different needs. We may create new ministry program for students if necessary. The way of doing leadership changes to meet different needs as well. Cimperman call this kind of leadership as adaptive and creative leadership. This kind of leadership is necessary and fit in our church situation. However, since most of the Chinese students in this generation are spoiled, other than creating programs for them to learn and grow, we hope they can learn how to care others, be responsible, and faithful. Transforming is a core word in our ministry program and my leadership concept. Like the American churches that do social service to improve people’s living conditions, our church’s purpose is to cultivate the students to grow and transform spiritually, physically, and emotionally by creating ministry programs for them and support

First, people in the home church saw the needs of the Chinese students in Boston so they sent people to the city to start a Bible study group here. Second, since we mainly focus on the students, we provide many supports for our students. Before the new students come to Boston, we arrange people to pick them up from the airport and help them adjust to the new environment. Every fall semester, we have a tea party, gifts, fall retreat (3 days), COMband (a musical program), Thanksgiving dinner, and Christmas dinner for students. Students can enjoy a lot of activities in the church or outside of church to feel comfortable and connect with people. We divide students based on their ages so that they have more opportunities to communicate with peers. For our Friday night’s Bible study, people from different fellowships and small groups take turns to set up equipment and prepare the food for the entire church. This ministry helps them to learn how to be responsible, learn how to cook, how to set up projects and sound control. The bonding starts when they work with each other. Through learning in the kitchen with chef, they learn and become independent. Third, students are trained to lead the Bible study in the small groups. This is a good way to motivate them read Bible closely. Students in the student fellowship almost take care of themselves and are able to help other fellowship when