Community Well is a Christian based organization developed to empower, enlighten, and train church leaders and their members to better connect, evangelize and serve their communities with a focus on youth and young adults. Community Well’s ministry emphasizes spiritual salvation but also focuses on reaching the youth in our communities according to their specific needs. We propose to accomplish this through specialized training for church leaders and members alike. Our goal is to connect the churched with the un-churched by creating common ground among those who appear to have nothing in common. We will achieve this by developing relationships between churches and their surrounding communities. Community Well’s long term vision is to create partnerships between churches and local businesses to establish community centers, particularly in inner city communities. This action will help to strengthen and solidify our commitment to establishing lasting relationships between churches, businesses, and communities. Our resolve is not to build another church but to strengthen existing churches to build up our communities.
The implementation of Community Well will be achieved in three phases:
- Phase 1 – Educating and Informing
- Phase 2 – Reaching out and Hosting community events
- Phase 3 – Establishing community centers
Phase 1- Educating and Informing
The objective of Phase 1 is to provide seminars, workshops, and other teachings to train youth leaders, teachers, parents and workers to connect with youth and young adults both inside and outside of the church. Youth retreats, revivals, and other events often inspire our youth and attract others from the community; however, too often, those planning these events fail to develop systems that will continue to connect, inspire, and disciple these young people. Youth leaders, workers, and parents of youth are the key to revamping and revitalizing a system that is often broken and/or outdated. Community Well’s workshops and seminars will provide insight and training to assist in developing such a system, implementing effective witnessing strategies and discipleship initiatives. The primary teaching tool to be used is Ricardo Palmer’s recently released book, Jesus the Christ, Greatest Rapper of All Time—A Guide to Evangelizing Hip Hop Culture. Topics will include:
- Doctrine of Hip Hop Culture: Understanding the doctrine of Tupac Shakur (thug theology) and its effects on our youth
- Well Talk: Creating and initiating dialogue in a Hip Hop Community
- Hip Hop and the Church: Helping the church see the connection between King David and Hip Hop culture
- Looking for Legion: The call for evangelism–connecting the church to the community
- Making Hip Hop Giants Serve Us: Using their life stories, their mistakes, and the messages of hip hop icons to enlighten and admonish our youth
- Connection Without Compromise: Understanding what it is to connect to hip hop without crossing the lines of compromise
- Our Wisdom, Their strength: Encouraging leaders to develop their youth’s gifts and talents as tools in overcoming the unique challenges and battles that their generation faces
Phase 2 – Reaching out and Hosting community events
In Phase 2, Community Well’s focus will be in building partnerships with churches and businesses in various communities. Through the combined resources of these networks, we will stage special events to address the many diverse needs of the communities. These events may include organizing a “Fun Day” in the park to build unity, a “Back-to-School” drive to provide school supplies, a “Health Fair” to raise awareness of health needs, and a variety of other events. No one location will be a home base or headquarters for Community Well, however, established local churches and businesses will be asked to host events and activities catered to youth in their communities. Organizing these events will be an introduction to those with whom we will work in the future to establish Community Well community centers and will provide insight for possible locations for these centers. It will also give us more opportunity to study the demographics and the needs of the people in these communities.
Phase 3 – Establishing Community Centers
In Phase 3, churches, businesses and communities will collaborate to build community centers in inner city communities. As opposed to centers being constructed and owned by a particular church, Community Well centers will be created through the efforts of several churches and businesses and “owned” by the community. With so many youth, particularly in inner city communities, facing a myriad of what seem to be insurmountable obstacles (i.e. single parent homes, lack of mentors, absent fathers, limited funds and resources, and no recreational outlets), it is absolutely imperative that our churches and businesses take the initiative to address the devastating effects of these issues.
This is a job that is much too grand for one church, one sponsor, one business, or one organization. This project will require community leaders to come together on one accord with the common interest of serving youth in the communities in mind. Many children live in such dire situations they can’t even afford the opportunity to dream. Our children are living in neighborhoods where survival prevails over recreation. Without books, computers, and oftentimes even food in the home, the odds are definitely against them. We may not be able to put laptops in every home, but we can develop a center which is furnished with laptops; we may not be able to put a father in every home, but we can bring in mentors as role models; we may not be able to afford home schooling, but we can bring in volunteer tutors who are willing to assist. Becoming a constant, consistent presence in our communities is the only way of changing the direction of our communities.