by Dan Greer
A 2011 University of New Mexico study report says, “Neighborhoods with churches present will have lower levels of crime than neighborhoods without churches.”
At the National Fellowship Meeting in Detroit I accompanied several leaders of the BBFI to one of the most crime-ridden areas in one of the most economically depressed cities in the nation. As we drove through the area, my soul groaned to see row houses, businesses, and schools that had been boarded up due to the economic collapse of that section of Detroit. You couldn’t help but sense the darkness, the lack of hope, and the need.
David Janney, pastor of Orlando Baptist Church, led our expedition to a large vacant building that used to be the Packard showroom there in Detroit. Janney’s organization, World Hope, has acquired the building to launch a BBFI church plant that will develop a unique outreach center bringing spiritual, economic, and social revitalization to that region of the city. We met Jerel Bland who has recently moved within blocks of the facility with four other families for a church that was launched on September 28, 2014.
Their vision is to make the church the hub of an outreach-rescue center that can offer services such as a youth activity center, a children’s center, a shelter, a feeding center, a job search center, a skills workshop, a workout room, and an entrepreneurial development program where potential investors will consider projects from potential entrepreneurs that come through the center. Janney says he is contacting businesses owned by committed Christians such as the Greens of Hobby Lobby to set up distribution centers in the district to fuel economic growth by employing hundreds of residents living there.
The city of Detroit is divided into seven districts. We visited District 5, and we were moved with compassion for residents living there. I am convinced God has handed our movement an opportunity to partner with Him to do something that government cannot do. I would like to claim District 5 for the BBFI movement.
Jerel Bland, John Gross, David Janney, and I have begun talks to establish a partnership between this new church plant and the church planting division of the BBFI. K-LOVE radio has already partnered with the effort, helping to raise enough funds to sustain the operational needs of the ministry for some time, but the immediate need is to get the facility up and running and help facilitate the church plant.
The center needs a roof and an HVAC system within the next month at an estimated cost just over $50,000. In the months to follow, BBFI churches, state fellowships, and local fellowships from across the country will be able to send construction volunteers, funds, and materials to the district on mission trips in a showcase of God’s love.
Inner-city Detroit needs the BBFI at a time such as this. To get involved you may call BBFI Church Planting Director John Gross at (832) 748-8528, contact Dave Janney at davejanney@weareworldhope.com, or email me at dan@cbcwoodlands.org.