Thinktanks & Leadership Networks in Secular Society
Strategizing for Evangelisation and Transformation
Urban Leadership is a think-tank, and network catalyst for urban missions, city leadership teams, and Christian leaders in public roles. It is uniquely positioned to call the global church into partnerships to the least evangelized and poorest cities of the world.
Phase 1: Urban Church-planting ('69-'81). When he entered Manila's squatter settlements in the 1970's, New Zealander Viv Grigg had to forge new patterns in evangelical theology and pioneer new urban missions strategies. The challenge was to find a way that met people's spiritual needs in context of dealing with their poverty. This was one of several urban fellowships that Viv had pioneered among students, professionals, and then the urban poor.
Phase 2: Urban Poor Missions ('81-'91). In the 1980's, he established four mission societies of people living among the mega-city poor, bringing religious and socio-economic change. These now number over 200 workers. He helped catalyze a Brazilian mission which has workers in the slums of 11 cities in South America, North Africa, and Asia. Ieda and he personally pioneered a team of workers into Calcutta which initiated slum fellowships in that city.
Urban Leadership was structured around Viv as a small prophetic nucleus of workers, a "virtual reality corporation" (now you see it, now you don't) that generates vision and networks to serve these missions and other partnerships into the mega-cities. It does not seek to integrate these into a mega-structure under its control. As churches and missions have been pioneered, vision imparted and leadership established, they have been spun off from Urban Leadership Foundation to develop their own indigenous patterns.
Phase 3a: Catalyzing the Global Church ('91-2000). Since 1991, Urban Leadership has been catalyzing and empowering teams of city leaders, based on models developed in Calcutta, North India and New Zealand. As coordinator of the AD2000 cities network globally he has lead consultations for numbers of city leaderships around the world, seeking to mobilize partnerships into the 1700 least evangelized cities.
Phase 3b: Modelling City-State Leadership Development for Transformation (96-2000): With Viv back in his home base of New Zealand, Urban Leadership has been facilitating the N.Z. city leaders' network, Vision for Auckland, and in encouraging a national network of evangelicals involved in transformation of society , linked to the national VisionNZ movement.
In the last thirty years the greatest migration in human history has occurred.
One billion people have moved from rural poverty to the mega-city slums, squatter areas, favelas and bustees. These migrant poor now make up 40% of the world's cities and their numbers will double in the next ten years. Existing missions strategies have largely ignored both these burgeoning cities and the urban poor.
In the year 2000 A.D. there will be:
Of these, we have classified 1734 as "least evangelized" (without movements of churches sufficient to reach them). Most fall within the "10/40 Window" a geographical region between Morocco and Japan, covering North Africa, the Middle East, Northern India and China. History shows that the key to reaching a city is to begin with the poor. Beyond the poor of these cities, one finds the political and social elite who determine the nature and structure of the cities. For real and long lasting transformation to occur, we must challenge the leadership structures of these cities. Inspiring and resourcing indigenous leadership is a central element in evangelizing and transforming these cities. Enlightened leadership brought together from different cities or within cities, encouraged to define a vision, and equipped with knowledge, networks and resources can rapidly accelerate the process of bringing the Kingdom of God. "
If we reach the cities ,we reach the nation. But if we fail in the cities , they become a cesspool that will infect the entire country." D.L. MOODY
The mission of Urban Leadership Foundation is to facilitate the emergence of leadership infrastructures with strategies for evangelism and for the transformation of the soul of cities and nations.
GOALS
Our aim is to catalyze missions partnerships and indigenous leadership teams in 300 mega-cities and 1000 least evangelized cities.
We seek to build teams, of Christian leaders in both the church and secular society by inspiring them with a vision, and enabling them to develop strategies for the evangelisation and transformation of their cities.
We build networks of these leaders globally, across continents and within countries to enable cross-fertilization of ideas, multiplication of models and peer group development.
1. RAISING VISION
* Urban Research
* Writings and Publications
* Think-tanks and Strategy Consultations
Working Groups
Best Way to Develop Leaders
2. City Leadership Team Formation
of Pastors and Leaders in Society Evangelisation and Transformation
3. Leadership Networks and Partnerships
Urban Poor Strategies and Mobilization
2. International: Urban Leadership / Cities Network Partnership
3. International: Expand Existing Urban Poor Missions Models
Virtual Reality: The organizational structure of the mission is deliberately limited. The international office has traditionally been lean, in keeping with the ethos of a mission committed to the poor. It expands and contracts as it builds and spins off each movement.
Internal Structure: The International Board oversees the ministry, setting policies. The NZ admin. committee on the board now is responsible for legal and financial issues. There is an advisory board consisting of key national leaders and specialist advisors. The operational side of the mission is the responsibility of the international director. The Cities Network is a separate ministry that has been catalyzed, administered and funded by Urban Leadership Foundation.
Networks: In this chart the various parts of the organization are designated as being either an essential part of the Urban Leadership Organization or as being a network link, even if in some cases ongoing organizational support is sustained.
