Reaching The City: City Impact, San Francisco, CA

Twice over the last month I have had the
opportunity to visit City Impact, an intriguing ministry in the middle the
Tenderloin district of San Francisco, CA. The Tenderloin is the burro of San Francisco where most of
its homeless population and urban poor are located. The Tenderloin is also home to a very unique urban housing
situation; 500 apartment buildings that house SRO’s or single room occupancy units. SRO’s are usually
about the size of a 10’x10’ room furnished with not much more than a bed. Sometimes these units have a bathroom,
in other situations there is one bathroom per floor or ever two floors. The occupants of these SRO’s usually
receive some sort of government subsistence check for various reasons that covers
the rent and maybe a little grocery money. The occupants of these buildings are not the same as the homeless
you may see walking around on the streets of the Tenderloin. In fact many of the residents of the
SRO buildings are scared of and avoid the people on the street as you or I
might.
It is into this broken situation that City Impact has stepped. City Impact has several aspects to
their ministry. Currently they
have a school, a homeless shelter, a thrift store, a church, and a building adoption
program. In each and every one of
these ministries the Gospel has been put front and center.
On my first visit to the Tenderloin and City Impact, I along with Bryan Catherman of
Saltybeliever, were given a great tour of City Impact’s newly renovated
building (all done by volunteers and support raised through prayer) which
houses their school. Currently
they are the only school in the tenderloin and serve children that live in these
SRO buildings. The school has over
90 kids and now has the capacity to go up to 350 kids. City Impact’s prayer is that they would
fill the school to capacity. Next
on the tour we walked around the corner to a traditional homeless shelter run
by City Impact. Inside
participants can get two meals a day after hearing an impassioned Gospel sermon
and altar call. In addition, the
homeless shelter has a clinic where the homeless can receive basic medical
care. Up the street from the
homeless shelter is an unmarked thrift store. Here the poor and homeless can buy clothes and household
items for cheap. There is nothing
at the thrift store that indicates it is a part of City Impact and this is on
purpose. City Impact uses the
thrift store as a means to reach the homeless and down and out that are most
adverse to anything religious.
After building a relationship through contact at the thrift store, CityImpact pastors are able to minister to even the most hardened hearts of the
Tenderloin. One amazing and
humbling fact about the pastors at City Impact is that each and every one of
them lives right in the Tenderloin.
They do not drive home every evening and leave the chaos of the City,
but instead they have invested themselves in the City by living there with
their families.
Now
all the ministries I have just described I am sure sound familiar to you. There is nothing out of the ordinary
here, but there is one aspect of City Impact that I am most excited about. I
had to wait until my second visit to the Tenderloin to experience the building adoption program. Here is how this program
works. City Impact has selected
15-18 buildings so far that they have adopted. They assign a team leader for each building and begin
praying for these buildings. They
pray for the adopted building for several weeks and then it is time to go into
the particular SRO building and reach out to its residence. City Impact goes door to door in these
SRO buildings bringing some food or general supplies as a peace offering and
knocks on each and every door trying to build relationships, share Christ, and
pray with people. The goal of this
endeavor is to see a home church started in each one of these buildings. In addition to the teams that go into
these buildings each and every week, there is a network of people around the
globe praying for this work. In
fact you can become part of this network HERE.
When
I returned on my second visit to the Tenderloin and City Impact’s ministry,
they informed us that there had been 5 murders and two suicides in the two
weeks since my first visit. In
fact, one of the suicides occurred right on the sidewalk in front of the CityImpact’s building. A man from the
neighboring building had jumped out of the window and landed on the sidewalk
below.
On
this second visit I was able to participate with the building adoption
program. Every Sunday afternoon
the City Impact Building teams gather at 2:00pm for praise and worship. I brought my church youth and college
staff with me to the building outreach to see how City Impact is doing
ministry. We worshiped for thirty
minutes with everyone going out into the buildings that Sunday and then we were
assigned a building team to assist.
There was a prayer for the filling of the Holy Spirit, opportunity to
share the Gospel, and protection as we went out, sheep among wolves. In addition to the teams that go out,
there is a prayer team that stays behind and covers those going out for the
entire two hours. I had the
opportunity of visiting a building with Sean Brakey. Sean is one of the pastors at City Impact. Sean took us door to door in a building
he has been working in. Many of
the residents knew Sean or asked to talk with members of the team that usually
visit them. To see people living
in these SRO units is depressing.
They are small, sparsely furnished, and usually dark with the light off. Most of the residents spend all their
time in these 10’x10’ rooms alone.
If you ever want a picture of our human depravity and brokenness, this
is it. Several of the residents we
visited poured their hearts out to us and gave us their weekly update on life,
others we engaged with the Gospel, and some we met for the first time. After two hours of visiting,
evangelism, and relationship building, we returned to City Impact’s building to
hear the days report from the other teams and closed in prayer.
I
always walk away from short-term missions or days of evangelism with a renewed
since of how easy it is to share the Gospel; just open your mouth. Bringing Christ into the city and to
those we would least likely encounter helps us to see those that are in need in
our own cities. City Impact
started with one homeless man that was saved by Christ and looked around to see
how he could make a difference.
His
ministry has grown into a great example of what it means to meet the needs of
people and share the Gospel. City Impact will agree that they make mistakes, but they keep trying to find the
best means of bringing the Gospel to the City. City Impact has done well infusing every aspect of their
ministry to the urban poor with the Gospel.
If
you are ever in the San Francisco, CA area I highly encourage you to stop by and
visit City Impact’s ministry and take a look around. If you have time on a Sunday I encourage you to participate
with their building outreach program that occurs from 2pm-5pm every week. If you want to come for longer, they
host mission teams all the time that stay in their building right in the heart
of the Tenderloin and participate in the different aspects of their whole
ministry. I have no doubt time
with City Impact with help you to see urban ministry in a new light and give
you ideas to take home to your own city.
To listen to two podcasts about my experience with City Impact, please select from the audio below:
Missions and the Tenderloin audio
Jared Works With City Impact audio
Leave a Comment