Church Planting

Faithful Target Tough Neighborhoods

Their goal is to Transform Troubled Hearts and Streets

By Lindsay Melvin

Commercial Appeal

Eric Watkins and Shun Abram walk Binghamton's cracked sidewalks lined with ramshackle homes each week.

Students at the Mid-American Baptist Theological Seminary in Cordova, they minister to prostitutes, families and people who have lost their children to violence. When a teenager was shot down in the area nearly a year ago, following several other fatal shootings there, they decided to expand their work.

"We're looking for a spiritual awakening for our world," said Abram. "That can only come through a changed mind."

The two native Memphians approached their seminary administrators, intending only for students and local churches to infuse the memphis hot spots they had identified. As word of their intentions spread, organizations and churches of different denominations across the Mid-South took interest.

Approximately 300 people pledged to join the effort to reach troubled neighborhoods during an Urban Evangelism Training Summit at the seminary.

"There is more interest in revival in our city than I've seen in four or five years," said Mike Day, director of missions for the Mid-South Baptist Association in Memphis, who attended the summit.

Breakout sessions included sharing the gospel in Spanish, engaging atheists and organizing prayer teams. Partnering in the effort are the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Conveniton, the Tennessee Baptist Convention and the Mid-South Baptist Association.

At the packed conference, Watkins was reassured by the interdenominational crowd that included Catholics and Church of God in Christ members.

"It's not a Baptist thing. It's a God think? he said.