Planting Churches Among the City's Poor - Volume 2

116 • P LANTING C HURCHES AMONG THE C ITY ’ S P OOR : V OLUME 2

The SIAFU Network (pronounced see-AH-foo) is a practical means to enable urban disciples to stand together for Christ in the city!

Forming a Great Army: The SIAFU Network We adopted the siafu ant as our model for the network. The writer of Proverbs spoke of the wisdom and ingenuity of ants who, as they worked together, could accomplish great things for themselves. “Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest” (Prov. 6.6-8). Although small and vulnerable as single creatures, they become a mighty and fearsome army when they stand together as one!

The SIAFU Network is a national association of Chapters anchored in local urban churches, organizations, and/or ministries specifically designed to identify, equip and release spiritually qualified urban servant-leaders to reach and transform the poorest unreached communities in urban America.

The mission of the SIAFU Network is to establish a viable, effective network of urban Christian men and women whose goal is to inspire each other to take full responsibility for one another’s lives and well being, for their marriages and families, for their churches and congrega tions, and for their communities to advance the Kingdom of Christ in the city. Our desire is to empower urban Christians to both befriend and mentor one another in order to equip each other to evangelize our unchurched family members and friends, to follow up and disciple new Christians to live the Christian life, and to serve as faithful stewards and servants in our respective Christian churches as outposts of the Kingdom where God has placed them. We also hope to collaborate together in order to identify, train, and release godly, spiritually qualified laborers who can plant churches and help spawn church planting movements which will target the unreached urban neighborhoods of America. Why the Name SIAFU ? The name for this new and exciting collaboration of urban Christians is taken from the example of the African siafu ant community, hailed by the Discovery Channel as the world’s fiercest and mightiest social community. A powerful example of community builders, their nests can hold up to twenty-two million members, making them the world’s largest social community and easily one of the most productive,