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Dear fellow laborers
03.01.2010
Greetings in Christ to you all!
You’re receiving this email as a follow-up to our recent break-out
session at theAM winter conference. First, let me say thank you for
being with us at our Urban Initiative session. Shane, Dale, and Ben
did a fantastic job helping us to get a taste of what urban ministry
feels like. I really appreciate these urban heroes.
I
had hoped to be corresponding with you a few weeks back, but it has
taken me this long to get some ducks in a row. I know we all want to
start getting connected and supported soon, but before we get too far
along, let me remind you that the Urban Initiative (which,
incidentally, we’re calling U&I) has four main goals. Together,
we call these goals FUNC: Mainly because it's easy to remember.
 Almost
as soon as our AM church planters started moving into the cities they
recognized that there just wasn't enough FUNC.
What were they missing? Funding, Understanding, Networking and
Coaching...FUNC.
Our goal is to put the FUNC back into urban ministry by working with
missionaries to raise money, increase understanding among kingdom
partners, develop networks of likeminded missionaries, and get
connected with the very best urban ministry coaches.
So, let me tell you what we’re up to on this end:
1.
We’ve built a BETA website with basic information about U&I. You can
find it at
http://UandIAM.com (or just click any link on the menu bar of this
email)
We’ll fill this out a good bit more in the coming weeks. Right now
we’re looking for a real web pro to take it to the next level of
design and accessibility. If you know someone, or want to take on the
task, please let me know. This site will then be linked to the
Anglican 1000 church plant website as well as theAM site as a
resource. Love to link to a few more blogs too. If you are blogging
urban, send me a link and a photo and we'll get you added to our blog
page.
We’ve also added a Facebook group to allow conversations among
planters to begin quickly. Our new website will host its own community
one day. For now, Facebook is at:
http://tinyurl.com/ylh4qpf
There is another Facebook group called Anglican Urban Initiative…that
is something else (but good to see so many are interested, eh?
2.
I’ve been meeting with professional fundraising and business
strategists in CHI since winter conference. I’m encouraged by their
interest and support for this work. In the next month, we hope to
launch a long-term fundraising campaign designed to put some serious
money into our bank account.
3.
We’re in conversation with some major urban ministries and are in hot
pursuit of a champion-style leader for U&I. If you would like to
recommend someone, drop me a line. While I am an enthusiastic
cheerleader for urban ministry, my schedule will not allow me to
manage the day-to-day interests of a missionary movement. We're also
interviewing coaches with urban experience to join our team.
4.
We’re connected with theAM intercessors now, and will
be greatly blessed to have their support as we begin and grow.
5.
Finally, we’ll be scheduling a full-blown Urban Mini Conference just
ahead of next January’s AM winter conference. The conference dates are
Feb 9-12, 2011.
We will meet on the 8th beginning at
noon
and conclude by
2PM on the 9th. There should not be any charge for this
pre-conference event. (exception, lodging)
Once again, thank you for your interest in and support of our urban
initiative. Needless to say, you’re in on the ground floor…and we’ve
nowhere to go but up. So turn those heads upward and ask God to bless
us all.
Praying for you and your ministry,
Doc Loomis
Missionary Bishop, AMiA
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