The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father. John 1:14

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InnerCHANGE is a Missionary Community among the Poor

 

As missionaries, we proclaim the Kingdom of God among the poor, one neighborhood at a time, through the raising up of leaders for church planting, church renewal, and community transformation.

Our Challenge

The challenge before the Church is that 60 % of the world is poor by U.S. standards, 20-30 % desperately so. Yet only a tiny fraction of missionaries serve incarnationally among the poor.  These figures constitute a “math problem” that is difficult to justify.  In an age that is quick to speak of the need to minister to unreached people groups, the poor remain, ironically, the single most under-reached people bloc in the world.  Said another way, poverty is keeping more people out of the Kingdom than any peculiarity of geography, language, culture, or ethnicity.

We believe Christ grieves over this disparity and is busy addressing it. InnerCHANGE is simply one effort to follow our missionary God as He compassionately builds His Kingdom among the poor. 

Our Privilege       

Certainly ours is a missionary calling of compelling need.  A side-street journey on foot through the average mega-city confirms the gravity of that need, and brings it up close and personal.  But ministering among the poor is also a life-sustaining privilege.  The Bible states repeatedly that the person who works among the poor is blessed (Proverbs 19:17, 22:9, 14:21) and enjoys an enduring credibility in Christian witness (Isaiah 58:6-12).

So despite the enormity of the task, the InnerCHANGE community does not pursue this missional lifestyle with a long face.  Rather, we rejoice in our opportunity to be messengers of the King as He invites the poor to His banquet table (Luke 12:12-24).

We believe Christ when He says, “Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the Kingdom.”  That being said, we do not romanticize the poor or sentimentalize poverty.  Neither do we join with those who imply that poverty might somehow mysteriously excuse people for not knowing Christ.  Poverty has spiritual merits, but in and of itself it cannot redeem.  In InnerCHANGE, we do not make the poor our first concern because they are best.  We make the poor first because the world makes them last.

This is the urgency which compels us as missionaries in InnerCHANGE—the poor and downtrodden consistently remain the people least touched by the Good News of Christ.