Dear Friends,

When I stepped down as the President of Mission Year a few years ago, I figured I had written my last monthly newsletter. Even after my family’s jaw-dropping move from suburban Philadelphia to inner-city Cincinnati returned me to street-level urban ministry, I planned to keep things fairly informal. Certainly I had no intention of starting another non-profit organization. A thrift shop perhaps, or maybe a laundromat, but nothing that required any fund-raising.

However, it wasn’t long before I realized that establishing a for-profit business as a vehicle for community-building would leave me precious little time to provide pastoral care for that community once it was built. The more Marty and I reached out to our neighbors in Walnut Hills, the more aware we became that many of them are not only poor and vulnerable, but also alienated and alone. That awareness led us to start our big neighborhood dinner parties, which have proven a wonderful way of connecting people, both to us and to one another. It turns out the only community-building vehicle we really need is the ability to make marginalized people feel at home. That and enough time to love those people in practical ways, now that we’re all connected.

All of which brings me to that non-profit organization I wasn’t going to start.If the word ‘church’ wasn’t so loaded, I would say we’re planting one here, for all those neighborhood folk that nobody else seems to want or have time for. But then you might think I was talking about Sunday worship services with music and sermons, when what we really have in mind is more like an every Thursday dinner party, with good food and conversation, some thoughtfully chosen ‘announcements’, and lots of follow up. An inner-city youth group, if you will – with service projects, field trips, retreats, Bible studies, one-on-ones, and life skills training – but for families and individuals of all ages.

Regardless of what you call it, the big idea is simply to gather a bunch of broken people who need a loving, local, extended family, and then do our best to become one, according to the teachings of Jesus.Besides being a more natural time for our crowd, meeting on Thursday nights will enable me to keep taking weekend speaking engagements, at least as long as people keep inviting me.

Still, unless I am willing to be gone virtually every weekend of the year – which doesn’t make much sense for a neighborhood minister – I can’t earn enough as a speaker to support this new ministry all by myself. Neither can Marty. No, to do what we believe God called us here to do, we’re going to need your help.All of which means…I get to write monthly newsletters again! Not big-time national organization letters like I used to write, mind you, but small-is-beautiful local ministry letters, with stories about the neglected people Marty and I and a few others are loving first-hand, right here in the neighborhood.

You may be wondering why the ‘real’ churches of Walnut Hills don’t reach out more to such neglected people. I used to wonder the same thing myself, in a fairly judgmental way. Then it dawned on me that most of the churches around here are struggling just to stay in business, and that most of their pastors are working other jobs as well. They literally can’t afford to welcome our neighborhood’s most desperate people, because such people consume lots and lots of time, have no money, and tend to drive away the more respectable people who do.

Weird, huh? Lately I’m thinking Jesus himself must have had some generous donors, who enabled him to spend so much time with the prostitutes, lepers, and street people he loved so well. A congregation of genuinely poor people like his – or ours – must always depend on outside support. Hence those monthly newsletters.

Perhaps someday our gang will come up with one of those cool, evocative ministry names, like The Simple Way or The Sojourners Community or Mosaic, but in the meantime we’ve incorporated this thing as The Walnut Hills Fellowship. It’s simple and self-explanatory, and hopefully it won’t scare away half the neighborhood. Our first choice, of course, was The International Holy-Rolling Evangelistic Church of Sanctified Bible-Thumping Soul Savers Incorporated, but unfortunately, like those other cool names, it was already in use elsewhere.

Those of you who know me well may also be wondering what will become of everything else I’ve been doing, from producing provocative workshops and articles, mentoring young leaders, and working as a justice activist, to recruiting for Mission Year and helping out all kinds of other ministries through EAPE. The short answer is that, for the sake of my own sanity, I intend to organize all those other activities around a single, primary ministry commitment: The Walnut Hills Fellowship.

So then, don’t let the humble name fool you. What I’m asking you to support is a ministry that will communicate the unlimited, transformative grace of God first and foremost to this gritty little neighborhood, but hopefully far beyond it as well. Granted, that’s not a particularly new or complicated idea. I think that’s why we’re all so excited about it.

Of course, in a very real sense, I’m also asking you to support me personally as an urban missionary, to give me the opportunity to creatively love the beautiful, broken people surrounding me here in Cincinnati. Most of you already know what I mean by that, but I am looking forward to telling you more in these letters, and when you come to visit us as well. For now, I hope and pray that you believe in me enough to help.

Sincerely,

Bart Campolo