Planting Churches among the City's Poor - Volume 1

T HE U RBAN M INISTRY I NSTITUTE • 523

as traditional seminaries have been in raising up qualified leaders for suburban contexts, much traditional theological education programs are simply too cumbersome and out of sync for urban leadership development. Unfortunately, most urban leaders do not qualify for the Christian leadership education available today. It is too expensive, usually offered in venues far from the context of urban churches and their neighbor hoods, and tends to disqualify urban candidates because of academic qualifications. Finally, much of traditional theological development training remains culturally distant from the experience and work of most urban spiritual laborers, and proves not conducive to the needs and issues of contemporary urban life. Since 1995, we have sought to redesign Christian leadership education for the poor. We have taught dozens of seminars, conferences, and seminary-level courses, graduated hundreds of men and women through our academic Certificate program, and created numerous ministry resources for use by urban churches around the world. Our passion is to multiply this excellent training for every urban context, making our resources as affordable, biblically credible, missionally reproducible, and culturally sensitive as possible. At the time of this writing, we have nearly 200 satellites in fourteen countries, representing more than 2,000 students who are being equipped for frontline ministry in some of the most dangerous and neglected neighborhoods on earth. Our structures are designed to enhance this burden for multiplication and accessibility to urban churches and their leaders. Of course, all of our courses, conferences, seminars, and workshops are facilitated by experienced, qualified TUMI faculty, many whom hold terminal degrees in major seminaries and universities, having many years in pastoral care and urban ministry experience. Our strategy is to establish a system that allows local churches and organizations to establish satellite training centers in their own venue and locale. Our intent is to facilitate sound, solid biblical training through our support of churches in their ministry environment. After extensive study of theological and leadership education in America, we have designed processes and mechanisms to allow churches to form training centers which are Christ-centered, Scripture-formed, and ministry-focused. From Idea to Revolution: Equipping Leaders for Ministry around the Globe Empowerment: A New Strategy to Develop Leaders without Debt Where They Live