Wanted: Urban Trainers
Parent Church Stories, Philosphy of Church Multiplication, Church Planters | November 2, 2008 No Comments »When I met with Otto Wegner, he told me that he’s concerned about what happens next in the context of urban ministry. He’s seen a lot of people come to the city from suburban and rural communities, compelled by the need, but unfamiliar with the daunting challenges of ministry in urban settings. After years of steady success utilizing students and leadership raised up from the urban harvest itself as well as attempts and deploying imported leadership (leaders who come from suburban or rural settings) Otto is convinced that the most effective urban leaders are born and raised in place.
His challenge is having a enough skilled leaders to train the emerging “in place” leaders. All the “best” leaders are wooed away by great salary packages offered by large suburban churches. Otto wonders what happened to the “pioneers” and “barbarians” who founded this movement. Do the still exist? Neither he nor I would ever imply that the only valid ministry opportunities exist in urbanized settings. But the proportion of people “called” to safe and comfortable suburban settings compared to the smaller number of those willing to go slug it out in the urban places is out of balance. By definition, urban places are where most people are. Yet, oddly enough, it appears that most leaders are called to go where there are less people.
And so he wonders… is God still calling leaders to urban places? And we know that answer has to be “YES!” So where are they? Good question. I know where some of them are… guys like Jay Covert, Ken Brown and Chilly Chilton. You’ve read their stories in this blog. We’ve got some great leaders serving in the tough, unforgiving urban places. But we need more.
Which brings us back to Otto’s question. He doesn’t think importing leaders from outside the urban context will work for the long haul. But he does believe he can import trainers of leaders to equip urban leaders to lead effectively. The combination of good leadership principles together with knowledge gained in the school of hard knocks will help these great testimonies of God’s grace to know how to rise up and lead their communities toward transformation!
So Otto has issued the call… if you are an experienced leader, he’s looking for your help to train leaders in place. He feels like he’s running out of time so if you feel like God might be pointing you in this direction, give Otto a call. You can connect with him through his website.
