Why you should consider doing the Urban Ministry Program reason 5

Reason 5: You won't lose your missionary power doing it. We've all seen people who used to have a strong London accent and wear a tracksuit, go off to Bible college only to come back with a more posh accent, chinos, and much worse at communicating to people on their estate. This isn't just a London problem though, its happened to people from estates around the country, and its also happened overseas. In the book 'Bruchko', some Indians reject Christianity because the Indian converts start to wear suits, and seem to no longer respect their culture. Roland Allen also wrote about converts going back to England for Theological Training, and then losing their effectiveness to reach their own kind of people. Bavinck, also wrote about local people losing their 'missionary power' when they were discipled by foreign missionaries. The Urban Ministry Program is aware of this, and so it is intentionally taught from a council estate perspective, and we intentionally recruit working class, urban and ethnic minority students. We also recruit middle class students, because we want a mix of people from different backgrounds. However, if anything, we want more working class students, because we don't want local people losing their missionary power to reach their neighbours, friends and family. So if you're working class or from a minority culture and worried about losing your missionary power at Bible College, why not consider the UMP? If you're middle class, and want to study in an environment that helps you to even better understand the working classes and minority groups, why not consider doing the UMP? For more information please go to www.urbanministries.org.uk