CIR: Dayton's Story

In Dayton, Ohio a small church composed of primarily elderly members, has decided to change their community. Over the past six months Harvest Grove Church has been cleaning up neighborhoods, eliminating drugs and violence. This sleepy church has come alive and is changing their community for the better.

This is the leading edge of the work of City Gates, a group of Black and White pastors and Christian leaders who have a vision for churches impacting the surrounding
neighborhoods. Bud Ford and Don McMurray told the story over a late night cup of coffee at the City Impact Roundtable taking place in Cedar Rapids, IA. They are two leaders engaged in the multi-racial City Gates group in Dayton, which envisions many churches making the same kind of difference throughout the whole Miami Valley. This region encompasses Dayton and six other cities in southwestern Ohio.

The City Gates vision is for churches to look at the physical and spiritual needs of the people in the communities where each church is located. Harvest Grove Missionary Baptist Church is involved in this pilot project for what is hoped to be many churches carrying out a similar kind of ministry and transforming a whole region one community at a time.

At first, the people Harvest Grove Church did not want to get out into the community around their church. Many of the members commuted to and from the church for worship, but did not feel safe spending time on the streets around the church. City Gates was invited into the church to share a series of motivational messages and lead the members by example into ministry in some difficult places.

They started at a neighborhood grocery store where there had been a number of violent incidents and where drug dealers were doing business. Don and Bud gathered members of the church with members of City Gates to pray in the parking lot of the store night- after-night. They found, as they began praying, usually the drug dealers would leave. One night, as the dealers began to leave, the apparent leader turned and came toward the prayer group. He joined them in their circle. At the end of the prayer time, Bud and Don began to talk with the dealer and discovered that he felt that the younger dealers needed a leader, due to their inexperience. He said he was teaching them “business skills.” While he had been bold in approaching the group, he never came back to that location and whenever the group came to pray, the dealers were heard to say, “Let’s get out of here. They’re praying again.”

The neighborhood grocery store had shrubbery that had become overgrown and gave a dark feeling to the area. Members of City Gates thinned and trimmed the shrubbery and trees. This brought light and life into the area, changing the environment. They then did the same thing around the church property and are looking to clean up the neighborhoods around the church. Church members have gained confidence and are now walking, praying and changing the feel of these neighborhoods.

Don McMurray, who is an Associational Missionary with the Southern Baptist Convention in Dayton, said that they have had several prayer fairs on the location of the neighborhood grocery store. People have had their needs met, prayers answered and some have decided to follow Jesus. The owner of the store has been thankful for the group’s impact and has even joined them for prayer on at least one occasion.

Bud Ford, now at age 70, says this is only the beginning. The City Gates group is planning to work with two more congregations. Pastor Robert Jackson of Harvest Grove Missionary Baptist Church and some of the members of the church will bring their new experiences to these other congregations as an encouragement. After these next two congregations begin to have an impact on their surrounding neighborhoods, they hope the vision will multiply quickly and have a transformational impact in the Miami Valley. City Gates is growing and having a constructive impact on the city of Dayton.