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Indianapolis Report 2005

Disclaimer: Not only may we have inadvertantly omitted some key items, we also recognize that our connections & communications are not yet what they could & should be. It is very likely that we are unaware of many more great happenings taking place right here in our own communities. Please forgive our omissions, and come get involved with us in the collaborative efforts of faith among Bible-believing ministries working together in the ONE name of Christ in Indianapolis.

• Prayed in the New Year together. We include prayer for 'extraordinary' blessings... to surprise us.
• Transform Indiana (TI) network of networks met monthly, praying, planning and pursuing increased relational networks of Bible-believing, city reaching types throughout the city/state.
• Indianapolis was represented at Mission America Coalition's national City Impact Roundtable (St. Louis).
• IndyChristian.com now has over 50 pastors/leaders/communicators equipped to post at this centralized citywide communications site.
• Transform Indiana network now has appx 40 county websites among the state's 92 counties.
• Many related teams met monthly -- eg. CCDA Indy, Prayer Breakfast team, FHL.
• CCDA Indy urban/suburban team met monthly at our great little Christian cafe in the hood, creating many friendships, and spurring fantastic success for CCDA national convention, which experienced a 70% boost in attendance. As for the host city team, working together like this greatly helped spur us onward into 2006.
• TI hosted a collaborative discussion series..."Breaking Out of the Jail Cycle"...
• which led to increased Urban/Suburban partnering...
• which led to planning initiative for our networking to help recruiting mentors for at-risk kids.
• The governor's new office for Faith Based & Community Initiatives was able to gather 1,000 leaders from Faith-based community, and formed an advisory council.
• 'Faith Hope & Love' was a pilot initiative featuring a week of servant-evangelism in the Castleton area. As a springboard for 2006's metro-wide activities, 11 area mayors declared an annual "FHL Day" in their cities.
• Indiana Christian Expo -- A convergence of ministries & Christian-owned businesses.
• One of our partners, Indiana National Day of Prayer, held an event in every single county of 92 counties.
• Governors Prayer Team launched. (from Indiana, but targeting every state nationwide).
• Partner Crossroads Bible College, whose unique mission is to train multicultural city-reachers, experienced 23% growth in enrollment. They now train over 300 students of various ages and are very racially diverse.
• Partner CBMC doubled its number of Paul/Timothy mentor/mentee relationships. And plan to again in 2006.
• Indianapolis Prayer Breakfast substituted former Philadelphia Eagles running-back-turned-pastor Herb Lusk into the line-up at the last minute... and the breakfast was evaluated as best-ever!
• Hurricane Katrina: IndyChristian.com served as a clearing-house of info regarding many Indianapolis efforts.
• 'Faith Hope & Love' helped facilitate a number of collaborative reflief trips to the Gulf Coast.
• Likewise, many churches & ministries sent work-crews and supplies to the affected area.
• As a result of much of the teamwork above, many more collaborative activities are on the calendar for 2006.

City ministries are not without issues -- The City Council suddenly reversed course from earlier in the year, and granted special rights for homosexuals.

City Challenges: We recognize that we have 1.5 million residents, many of which are not able to live day to day knowing they have peace with Almighty God. Further, appx 400 people die every week in our metro area, many passing into eternity without the benefit of personally knowing the Savior.

Surprise blessing of the year: 25,000 Nazarenes converged on Indy, brought materials and monies to work on 106 homes in our inner-city... no cost to Indy. Major positive editorial in the Indianapolis Star citing it as the convention with the largest financial impact on Indianapolis (by mid-year '05). Uniquely situated at the Crossroads of America, Indianapolis has become an outstanding convention city for national ministries and family-oriented organizations.

Citywide networking... ON A ZERO-BUDGET... expedited much of the above. God blessed us all greatly as a result of collaborative prayer, planning and pursuit of the Great Commission and Great Commandment.

posted by IndyChristian @ 6:25 PM