CityScope    

Our most accessible on-ramp to urban ministry is a one day combination Scripture study and urban tour that typically takes place the last Saturday of September.  Open to students and community members, this popular event begins with a short, but powerful manuscript study in the book of Jonah.  Following a brief examination of the often overlooked topic of the city in the Bible, participants spend the remainder of the morning and a good portion of the afternoon experiencing some of the wide diversity of life downtown along with meeting neighbors deeply involved in seeking the transformation of some of the city’s most impoverished neighborhoods. 

Walking through and interacting with downtown’s diverse farmer’s market and oft-maligned, but richly unique, Fulton Mall, followed by a driving tour through a few of Fresno’s poorest neighborhoods provides a glimpse of God’s presence and the beauty present here, but also of the great need that persists and the brokenness over which God grieves. 

This exposure creates an exceptional backdrop for a few stops along the driving tour at which people who are intentionally investing their lives in these neighborhoods are introduced and their stories briefly shared.  Opportunities to volunteer with the agencies that these individuals represent are offered and, for some, the next on-ramp to urban ministry has begun before they’ve even finished the tour! 

A de-brief of the tours helps people connect their experience to the morning’s study in scripture and encourages them to consider what on-ramp to urban ministry they may be called to next.