He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6

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Our Vision

“Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up your hand; forget not the afflicted.. . . O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.”  “Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan, I will now arise, says the Lord; I will place him in the safety for which he longs.”  (Ps. 10:12, 17-18; 12:5)

We envision a group of kindred-hearted men and women driven by a passionate love for Jesus and his kingdom, joined together for the purpose of giving themselves to a kingdom rising through the reproduction of disciples, churches, church planters and church planting teams.   This vision has encouraged us to form a church planting team called Rising, which partners our InnerCHANGE community with others outside of InnerCHANGE, to plant simple, organic churches, sharing a priority to do so among the urban poor.

 

Our Context

The InnerCHANGE team of Minneapolis is located in the Phillips neighborhood (the near south side).  Historically, this neighborhood has been home to both the city’s native and immigrant poor as well as some of the city’s wealthiest families.  Today, as the largest neighborhood in Minneapolis, Phillips continues to be home to a rich diversity of cultures that include Native Americans, African Americans, Somali (largest population in the U.S.), Latino (over 500% growth since 1990) and a wide variety of immigrant families. It is a neighborhood that has experienced rapid change in recent years.

 

Our Strategy

Because Phillips has historically been one of the most impoverished neighborhoods in Minneapolis, there exists a number of social service agencies whose aim is to meet the many and varied needs of the neighborhood.  But even though many material needs can be met through these agencies and a wide variety of assets exist in the neighborhood, what is often missing for those on the margins are long-term, stable, healthy relationships with those who are willing to share life together.  Therefore, our priority has been to establish simple churches that will foster these kinds of relationships centered on our commitment to love and follow Jesus.

The various arenas in which we seek to serve others in our community have as their priority aim, to build relationships in which the good news of the love of Jesus can be shared and a community of believers established.  Most often we have found ourselves learning, serving and partnering with existing organizations to carry out this purpose.  This has led our team to serve among various people groups in areas such as: job mentoring, education, youth and adult sports, mentoring men in prison and men who are receiving help for addictions, and mentoring women seeking to leave the sex industry.