To equip leaders
Although we live in a culture where leaders are often openly disrespected and the very idea of leadership is sometimes seen as oppressive and restrictive, we believe that leaders are of fundamental importance in all of human life. Nowhere is this more important than in the life of God's Church.

The "Hope School of Ministry" at The Urban Ministry Institute exists to equip leaders who are serving and investing in others. These leaders may be formal or informal, pastors or lay leaders, men or women. They may be mothers or fathers, evangelists, missionaries, Sunday School teachers, worship leaders or those who visit the sick. We are interested in anyone whom God has gifted and called to lead in his Church at any level of responsibility.

For the Urban Church
Believing strongly that effective ministry cannot take place apart from the body of Christ, the Urban Ministry Institute is committed to enriching the life and outreach of urban congregations and their servant-leaders. All of our prognll11s and materials are designed to equip men and women effectively to serve in the context of a local assembly. Applicants must be actively participating in a church body in order to be considered for acceptance into our programs.

Half of the people alive today live in cities, and that number is constantly grow­ing. This calls for a special focus on urban churches, especially in those has which historically been neglected, or to have large concentrations of people who have not been reached with the Gospel of Christ.

The Urban Ministry Institute's Mission Statement and Objectives

Equipping leadership for the urban church for the urban church

Our Mission
The Urban Ministry Institute equips leadership for the urban church, especially among the poor, to advance the Kingdom of God.

Our Objectives

• To use distance education programming to equip urban Christian leaders who will evangelize and make disciples in urban America
• To create a network of training centers in urban means that can provide excellent and affordable ministry education that is sensitive to urban culture
• To facilitate the multiplication of healthy, reproducing urban churches especially among the poor
• To promote and apply a biblical understanding of freedom, wholeness and justice for the city
• To provide a forum for discussion, research, and publication that compassionately addresses the aspirations and challenges of the city
• To stimulate dialogue and cooperation among churches and urban ministries who seek to serve the city

The Vision of the Urban Ministry Institute

Servant leadership Focus
We strive to identify, equip, and support servant leaders whom God has called and gifted to evangelize the lost and shepherd the flock in urban poor communities furthest removed from access to the Good News of Jesus Christ and his Kingdom.

Church Multiplication Movement
We provide vision, training, and leadership in order to facilitate a strategic, aggressive, and dynamic indigenous movement of kingdom advancement that will result in the multiplication of Christ-centered, Spirit-empowered, and Kingdom-oriented evangelical churches in every unreached urban poor neigh­borhood in America, and from there, to the ends of the earth.

Furthermore, we do all in our power to ensure that qualified servant leaders and shepherds are deployed in every parish and church touched by this movement, and that each congregation is connected to a larger group of healthy assemblies supporting one another in fellowship and mission.

Innovative leadership Resources
On behalf of urban churches and their leaders called to serve the city, we design leadership training resources that are historically orthodox, culturally conducive, personally affordable, and completely accessible to urban pastors and servant leaders in their own lives and ministry contexts.

• To facilitate the multiplication of healthy, reproducing urban churches, especially among the poor.
• To promote and apply a biblical understanding of freedom, wholeness, and justice for the city.
• To provide a forum for discussion, research, and publication that compassionately addresses the aspirations and challenges of the city.
• To stimulate dialogue and cooperation among churches and urban ministries who seek to serve the city.

Program Goal: Wisdom

We believe that the end goal of Christian leadership training is wisdom. "Everything is permissible for me but not everything is beneficial" (1 Cor. 6.12). Therefore, those who train Christian leaders must, like Paul, "proclaim [Christ] admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ" (Co!. 1.28).

Christian leadership training is intended to contribute to the formation of men and women who possess godly wisdom and Christ-like character. In helping to prepare these leaders, the goal of "Hope School of Ministry" at The Urban Ministry Institute is not just that they become "smarter" leaders. Our deepest prayer to God is that they might become wiser leaders, able to discern the leading of the Holy Spirit, to possess the mind of Christ, and to apply the teaching of the Scriptures in their own unique ministry context.