Emmanuel Research Review, Issue No. 38

One of the most exciting and strategic ministries the Emmanuel Gospel Center has developed over the past three decades is the Inner City Ministry course. Hundreds of ministry practitioners from various ethnic, denominational, and ministry backgrounds have taken the two-semester course, and many testify that it has been transformational to their lives and ministries. EGC President Dr. Doug Hall and his wife, Judy, pioneered the course as an antecedent to Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary’s urban extension, the Center for Urban Ministerial Education (CUME). In time, the course was adopted as a part of CUME’s core curriculum. In more recent years, the teaching team has expanded from the Halls to include other EGC staff, including Jeff Bass, EGC’s Executive Director.

The final “product” of the course is for each student to write a major ministry proposal consisting of four parts: a community analysis, a church or organizational analysis, an analysis of two relevant ministry models, and a synthesis of the student’s ministry plan. Many of the past ministry proposal projects written in the Inner City Ministry class are thriving ministries today.

In this issue of the Emmanuel Research Review, we have included a paper from the 2008 Inner City Ministry course in Boston deserving special recognition. Our congratulations to Emmanuel (Manny) Daphnis, the 2008 Inner City Ministry Applied Research Award winner, and to finalists Kennis Furuya Bishop for his paper on Community Stroke Education, Treatment, and Prevention, and to Piper Runnion-Bareford’s proposed music-based youth mentoring program that assists with intercultural relationships and evangelism. Our additional congratulations to all the students in this year’s course for their hard work and contribution to urban ministry through applied research.

The award winning paper, "The Future of Operation Make A Difference, Inc. and the Centre for Formation and Development (OMAD/CFD)," is reproduced below in its entirety.

This paper has relevance to many types of urban churches and youth ministries, even though it specifically reflects on the Haitian Christian community. Other urban and immigrant churches are in danger of losing their younger generation. In many churches, young people are looking for a listening ear and a way to bridge the cultural and generational gaps. Youth workers in a variety of churches find it challenging to develop strong positive relationships with church leaders and parents, while developing programs that effectively relate Christ and youth culture.

Manny Daphnis is exploring ways to address these common challenges as he outlines the history and future development of Operation Make A Difference and the Centre for Formation and Development. These ministries have served the growing Haitian churches and community in Greater Boston with large annual youth congresses and other services. To have greater impact, the ministries hope to obtain a building, work on bridging the intergenerational divide, train church and youth leaders, and equip parents to more effectively disciple youth. Manny’s research with 25 youth highlights the cultural and generational gap that exists. It also reveals the need for immigrant churches to find ways to affirm the homeland culture while understanding and effectively relating to the new American youth culture their young people are identifying with. Other churches can benefit by using questions like these in a context where youth feel free to be candid. The answers to similar research surveys could lead to a greater understanding of what youth are thinking and feeling about their church.

Be sure to check out additional resources at the end of the article for futher study. As always, we welcome your feedback!

The Future of Operation Make A Difference and the Centre for Formation and Development

by Manny Daphnis
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
MC 622 Inner City Ministry 2: Spring 2008

Executive Summary

Operation Make A Difference, Inc. (OMAD), in partnership with the Centre for Formation and Development, Inc. (CFD), works primarily with the Haitian community through Haitian churches and other community-based organizations to serve youth and their families, promote positive youth development, and provide educational programs. Since their inception, these two organizations have implemented a number of youth development initiatives while continuously seeking to expand their services. OMAD is a community youth ministry that has the mission: OMAD exists to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, unite local youth ministries and support the work of youth ministries. The Centre’s vision is to become a prominent leader in multi-cultural education services, research, and training with a particular purpose of shaping inner-city youth and their families to lead a life centered on healthy principles and aspirations of becoming engaging and contributing members of their families and community. Haitians are presently Boston’s fastest growing immigrant group and consequently, programming that effectively addresses their needs is imperative. To that aim OMAD/CFD have undertaken several ministry initiatives such as the annual Haitian American Youth Congress, Foundations Bible Study, Summer Youth Camp, etc. However, the overall community impact that the ministry would like to have has not come about because of some inherent counterproductive activity within the make up of the ministry, where many church leaders and parents have been left out of the process of OMAD’s work with youth and youth leaders. OMAD Consultation Services will work towards addressing this, and the Legacy Campaign will be the first step towards the attainment of a locale for the CFD.

Community Study

According to the U.S. Census report, the number of Haitians living in the United States in 1990 was approximately 290,000. This number nearly doubled to 548,000 in the year 2000 and continues to increase.¹ Although this number does not take into full account the numerous Haitian Americans born into the country that identify themselves as African Americans, the picture is clear that this does represent a significant increase in population. Census 2000 data suggests that there are less than 50,000 persons of Haitian ancestry in the state of Massachusetts. Hidden beneath this figure, however, is a demonstrable Haitian presence in Boston-area neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces, which calls into question the accuracy of this count. The official numbers, as well as those provided by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, are in fact widely regarded as gross underestimates.² Part of the reason is that the growth of the Haitian community in Boston is a function of both internal and international migration; the former is more difficult to gauge given the nature of Census migration data. In addition, Hayes estimates that almost half the Haitian immigrants in Boston are undocumented and who take great pains to remain invisible, believing that “if they can be counted, they can be deported” (p. 7).

According to the Boston Public Schools at a Glance Report, 41 percent of the BPS student population is of African American descent, representing approximately 23,000 students. Given that this data is not further broken down by ethnicity, we are left to deduce that a significant portion of that is of Haitian descent. Haitians also comprise the second-largest grouping of Limited English Proficiency (LEP) students in the system at 890 students.³

As we look at the numbers, it is evident that the Haitian community in Boston is clearly growing and within that context, there remain spiritual, social, and academic needs that continue to be unmet. A recent assessment of the needs of Haitians in Greater Boston, prepared for the Haitian Health Institute (HHI) by the Technical Development Corporation, show that Haitians make up between 7.5 and 10 percent of Boston's total population.⁴ Over the last three decades, this population has continued to increase and has now begun to see the presence of both second and third generations within it. During that same timeframe from 1969 to 2002, the number of Haitian-led churches has increased from 1 to 54, representing a total population of over 15,000 churched Haitians.⁵ Nevertheless, that number leaves a considerable portion of the Haitian population un-churched, of which young people represent an ever-increasing portion.

Haitian youth ministries in that same timeframe have certainly adjusted to the best of their capacity. However, in many instances, due to the lack of resources, training, etc., they continue to lag behind in implementing effective strategies that best serve this changing population.

The work of Operation Make A Difference has had a significant impact upon numerous youth; although primarily Haitian American youth, nonetheless, countless lives have been won to the Lord through its work. Although I grew up in the church, there just was nothing consistently there for me that could help to support my spiritual development. There were no youth ministries that were culturally relevant to my experience as a second-generation Haitian American living within these two cultures. As a result, my interest in the faith waned until I connected to the work of OMAD in 1996. For the first time I saw young people from a similar background as me on fire for the Lord and that really appealed to me, and it was there that I recommitted my life in earnest back to Christ.

However, as the ministry moves forward to 2008 two key questions must be answered:

According to Jean P., an 18-year-old Boston-born Haitian American youth, the need for the ministry within the Haitian community might actually be greater today than it was before. Although there are a ton of kids that sit in church and have things in place for them, they still just don’t care for them and as a result have not made a commitment to Christ. Additionally, what we also find to be very pervasive within the community is the notion of youth ministries existing almost as separate entities within the church and as a result, in many instances the cultural/generational divide is actually reinforced rather than bridged.

Today what we have is a generation of youth, many second but some third generation Haitian Americans here in the Greater Boston area, who identify themselves as Haitian and would prefer to continue worshiping and growing within their native context. However, their respective youth ministries need to be more encompassing of their cultural experience—their entire person if you will. Marc L., a youth at the First Haitian Baptist Church of Worcester stated, “I identify myself as both Haitian—because of my parents and my roots are there—but also as African American because this is how I am identified by the society and I relate to that experience as well….If I had to choose a church, I would want to be at a church that was Haitian yet made provisions for my American identity.” Consequently, what we are seeing is not only a need to continue to support the ministries within the community with consultation and activities that are spiritually uplifting for the youth and youth leaders alike, but also to provide them with some sort of training that will help to equip them for their role. We may not necessarily have to provide all of the training, but at the very least, we should be helping the community to connect to these resources and opportunities.

The second question above is the critical question that serves as the basis for this work. There is a need, but how do we address it?

In preparation for this work, we convened a focus group of 25 young people to address these exact questions. Youth in this group came from seven different churches. The group was comprised of 16 girls and 9 boys ranging in age from 16 to 25. Participants expressed an array of needs; however, what was most common was the sense of feeling isolated from the older generation because of the generational and cultural gap. This divide in turn leads to a general feeling of being devalued and consequently unheard. The young people also expressed a need for mentoring programs where older Haitian Americans would provide them with life coaching in areas of spiritual as well as social development. For all of the responses please see attached focus group notes [at the end of this paper].

As we look at the Haitian community of Greater Boston, there is an array of different areas where we can be focusing our energies. As a ministry, we were founded to address the needs of youth and families within the Haitian Christian community, and moving forward this is what we hope to continue to do, though be it with a slightly broader focus. OMAD/CFD is in a prime position to address many of the aforementioned issues within the Haitian community, as we are fortunate enough to have already-established relationships with a number of community youth ministries. In addition, we also have the human capacity to conduct programming that addresses the needs of school-aged youth within their local setting in the form of culturally sensitive after-school programming as well as additional community-based recreational activities. As OMAD moves towards addressing some of the community’s social service needs, we trust that our witness within this context will actually help to strengthen the kingdom and draw young people to the cross of Christ as well as meeting some of the core needs within the community.

ANALYSIS OF OMAD/CFD

Operation Make a Difference, Inc. is a community youth ministry that began in November of 1992 as a means to bring different youth together in the Haitian American Protestant community for a weekend youth rally—the Haitian American Youth Congress. Its initial mission was actually its name—making a difference in the lives of Haitian Americans. Under the leadership and vision of Sister Myreille Daniel and approximately 40 other leaders from different area churches in the Greater Boston area, OMAD held its first Youth Congress in February 1993 at Boston Missionary Baptist Church in Roxbury. Since that initial Youth Congress, which had approximately 800 participants, OMAD has hosted the Haitian American Youth Congress (HAYC) on an annual basis with approximately 3000 youth and adults in attendance, with the primary mandate of reaching the lost both within the church and beyond.

As time progressed, OMAD has added additional activities to the Youth Congress as it strived to develop into a more comprehensive youth ministry. To that aim, the Unity Mass Choir was established in 1995 as a community choir that brought together youth from different churches. The choir met weekly in the basement of Boston Missionary Baptist Church and shortly thereafter, a Bible study was added directly to that weekly encounter where between 100 and 150 youth attended regularly. The following year OMAD held its first annual summer camp where youth from Boston and its surroundings were taken out to the mountains of New Hampshire, and every year thereafter camp has taken place. The ministry continued to expand with the addition of a leadership development program called Praise & Worship that really focused upon building up youth leaders. That program met on Monday evenings and was led by Brother James Destine along with Myreille Daniel. However, this program was short-lived as a few churches within the community felt threatened by this work. An additional weekly Bible study and fellowship for youth called Foundations was later added. It presently is still meeting weekly at New Jerusalem Evangelical Baptist Church in Dorchester on Monday evenings.

While Sister Myreille was the visionary for the ministry, Brother Samuel Louis, one of the original members at the table at the founding of the ministry served as the initial director of the ministry. Brother Samuel Louis was instrumental in the establishing of the infrastructure of the ministry that supported the expansion of OMAD beyond just HAYC. Sister Myreille eventually responded to the call of the Lord to serve by the side of her husband as they planted a church on the north shore in Malden in 2001.

Prior to serving as the director of OMAD, Brother Sam had served as the Youth Director for the First Haitian Baptist Church in Roxbury. While in that capacity the youth ministry there was developed and became a model for youth ministry throughout the city. One of his primary dreams born in that setting was the idea of a youth center that could serve as a hub for OMAD and other ministries within the community. This idea is what birthed the concept of the Centre for Formation and Development, which we still to date envision as a locale that will host community programs towards the enrichment of youth and families within our community. One of the initial projects of the CFD was to have an after school program in conjunction with the Haitian American Youth Soccer (HAYS). This project met a definite need and ran for two years. However, the project ran into sustainability issues and was short-lived.

At the end of 2004, I became the second director of the ministry and have struggled to maintain the ministry. Although an infrastructure was left in place for me for the operations of the ministry, it seems as if OMAD continues to stagnate and not grow. Hindrances such as inconsistency with staffing due to volunteer staff, lack of funding, no locale for us to call home, and no business/strategic plan has kept us spinning our wheels for quite some time now, and while the Lord has continued to faithfully sustain, I can’t help but feel that we haven’t been good stewards with what we’ve been given, nor have we truly addressed the needs that we are seeing. Once again the question of how do we come to the place where OMAD/CFD moves to fulfilling its mission more efficiently remains.

As I look at our present status, the overwhelmingly clear response is it starts with the creation of a very detailed step-by-step plan, created with the assistance of a ministry/organizational consultant, that understands how we get there. We have tried for years on our own to do this. We have even reached out a little bit to external agencies but we just haven’t found the right fit and this is the connection we need to make to move forward.

What we envision is that OMAD moves from a volunteer organization that meets in someone’s home for ministry meetings into being a more established entity with a locale of its own, with paid staff so that they can be kept accountable for the activities of the ministry. Presently it seems as if only during Youth Congress season do folks come and volunteer and feel vested in the ministry. However, once we move to servicing additional community needs as well, measures can be put into place that facilitate the increased efficacy of the ministry, i.e. a supervisor or manager regularly on site to oversee ministry operations rather than someone as myself who juggles between my full-time job, seminary, etc.

In analyzing OMAD, what is evident is that the ministry for quite some time has been operating in a manner that has been in part counterproductive. As we look at our most basic structure for the ministry, OMAD has a two-fold mission: evangelism, which takes place through Youth Congress; and the provision of support to local youth ministries through our ministry activities, ministry consultation, and networking. While Youth Congress is going onto year 17 and continues to be a tremendous blessing to the entire community, the second component of our mission has not effected the change we would have liked to see in the community. There are numerous reasons that have contributed to this; however, the biggest is that while we have connected to individual youth leaders, we have not connected with their respective pastors and church leaders to effect a more institutionalized change.

Analysis of Two Ministry Models

The Boston Urban Youth Foundation’s mission is “To help young people develop spiritually, emotionally, academically and economically.” The mission was born out of the experience with young people who lacked hope and vision for a positive future and the desire to instill hope and vision in young people so they can live out the promise of their creation as sons and daughters of GOD.⁶

BUYF’s history begins with its founder Chris Troy, who in 1985 moved to Boston to work with Young Life, a national organization with numerous chapters throughout the country. As the Young Life Area Director from 1986-1992, YL focused on street outreach to high-risk youth in the Hyde Square, Bromley Heath, Mission Hill, Lower Roxbury, and Humboldt neighborhoods. During this period, Boston experienced unprecedented levels of violence, which many say was sparked by the introduction of crack to our city and the proliferation of gangs.⁷ This same period also marked an unprecedented influx of Haitians into the Greater Boston area, as noted previously, and as a reactionary measure the starting of Haitian American gangs in the city. Gangs such as the Haitian Chargers, Landor Haitians, and Haitian Mattapan came about in the nineties resulting in the incarceration of numerous Haitian males.⁸ It was during this time that Troy began to see the pervasiveness of hopelessness within the youth YL was serving and so with this understanding of expanding the method of youth outreach to better instill hope, vision, and a positive future, Troy and the local board separated from Young Life, incorporating the Boston Urban Youth Foundation in 1992.⁹

Today the Boston Urban Youth Foundation serves over 500 youth ages 11-18 from the Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan neighborhoods of Boston. BUYF uniquely combines case management, incarnational mentoring, academic skill-building, vision casting, and positive peer group experiences to build positive futures, one kid at a time. BUYF motivates, mobilizes, and equips at-risk youth toward college and a positive future. BUYF partners with parents, schools, courts, and police. BUYF’s in-school and after-school integrated approach involves caring adults in the lives of young people so that they can fulfill their God-given potential.¹⁰

BUYF invests in establishing relationships with Boston Public School personnel in order to enhance students’ existing school experience and to identify truant students early in the academic year. BUYF partners with parents, schools, the courts, and police. BUYF’s in-school and after-school integrated approach involves caring adults in the lives of young people so that they can fulfill their God-given potential.

The BUYF program methodology helps students cast individualized visions for themselves and their future while providing an alternative peer group for positive support. The Life Coach, a caring adult engaging in the life of high-risk youth, facilitates this individual assessment, tutoring, and intensive planning for success in order to insure that young people do not fall through the cracks towards delinquency. This model is a preventative measure as opposed to concentrating energy and resources into redemptive initiatives where it is often difficult to win back individuals who are too far-gone.¹²

Case management: Build relationships with youth through tracking, intensive planning, academic assessment, and counseling for each youth, to allow each student to set and meet educational goals.

Mentoring: Match youth with caring adult mentors for long-term support; mentors assist youth with goal-setting, goal-achieving, and leadership skills.

Academic Skill Building: Academic skill-building using Plato Math and Reading Program to assess and improve academic skills; individual assessment and intensive planning for success in school.

Positive Peer Group Experiences: Leadership seminar, Monday Night Club, weekend activities, college tours, Vision Retreats, summer camp, Servant Leadership Initiative, local student-led community service projects.

Vision Casting: Case managers and mentors work with each youth to cast a vision for their future. A combination of relationships with caring adults, academic skill-building, trips, Vision retreats, camps, and college tours helps each youth create plans and goals for the future.

After meeting at length with Chris Troy, there were numerous lessons learned from his experience in starting up BUYF. However, what was most pronounced was the fact that as he saw the immense needs of youth within the community he began four programs, which was simply too much for him to oversee efficiently. Although the programs survived for some time, they were not as effective as a couple of programs would have been given the ability to devote more time, energy, and resources to them. The starting of too many programs at once also got BUYF into some financial difficulties as well.

The biggest strength that BUYF was fortunate enough to have at its inception was its board of directors. The membership of the board, although they may have not been the most endowed individually, had an innate knowledge of how to address issues in the city and they were very well connected to other organizations within the city.

Twelve years ago, the leaders of Willow Creek Community Church realized that 18-30 year olds, popularly known as Gen X, were largely missing from their church. In response, the “seeker-driven” church launched Axis to help “the Next Gen connect with God through high-intensity weekend services with relevant teaching, worship and art.” Willow became one of the first churches to experiment with the church-within-a-church model, and many others followed Willow’s example hoping to reach Gen X.¹⁴ Despite the great success Willow was having with older generations, they realized they needed new expressions of evangelism, worship, teaching, learning, and spiritual formation for those younger people they were not seeing in the church. Needing new expressions of ministry for different cultural populations should be a natural thing. To my understanding, this was the reason behind the birthing of Willow Creek itself back in the seventies.¹⁵

During July of 2006, Willow Creek Community Church announced the end of Axis as a church-within-a-church and stated that Axis would be restructured.¹⁶ Today the vision of Axis is “to be a community that dares to live and love like Jesus. We exist to unleash a community of 18- to 20-somethings who are known by love, live by faith and bring hope into a broken world.”¹⁷ The ministry has for core values the following components: discipleship, community, evangelism, prayer, serving, and scripture. Each component is an integral cornerstone of the ministry. Actual worship does not take place separate from the larger congregation with the exception that Axis members are encouraged to sit together during the 11:15 a.m. service at Willow. Axis however does have a monthly worship gathering that meets every first Friday evening of the month where worship and the Word are delivered in high-energy, young adult friendly way.

The Axis experience also places considerable emphasis upon fellowship within its members. To that aim, “Café 20 exists to provide instant community immediately after the 11:15 service every Sunday. Whether you are exploring who God is or have been following him your entire life, you belong and need to walk through this life with others, let alone get a free meal.”¹⁸ Axis also presents itself as a community of believers doing life together in what they call missional community hubs (MCH’s). MCH’s serve as epicenter for 20-something activity. In essence, MCH’s are small groups formed by neighborhoods with activities including service opportunities, discipleship groups, social events, etc.¹⁹

Although Axis has gone through some significant change, most notably in its restructuring, much of its core values have remained the same with the exception of it no longer being a church-within-a-church, and even that some would debate. Nevertheless, the real question in assessing this type of model, at whatever degree of sophistication and resources that it exists in, are what are the real outcomes of ministries such as these and are they the best use of a community’s resources?

In a sermon delivered to a group of Southern Baptists Pastors in Texas, Dr. Voddie Baucham stated the following, “Depending on where you look, we're losing somewhere between 75 and 88 percent of our young people by the end of their freshman year in college? Somewhere between 75 and 88 percent! For that low number, you can look at Glenn Schultz's work on Kingdom Education; for that high number, the 2002 Southern Baptist Council on the Family. So these are not things just made up or just grabbed out of the air. That's what's been happening over the last few decades. We're losing somewhere between 75 and 88 percent of our young people by the end of their freshman year in college.”²⁰

This alarming trend is not only shocking but it ought to be deeply concerning for anyone engaged in youth or young adult ministry. Just as Willow Creek observed, the 20-somethings are leaving in droves. Why and how have these previous models fallen short? Is OMAD in the business of supporting these same trends of counter-productivity within the Haitian community of Greater Boston?

Dr. Baucham goes on to state: “What has been our answer?” Here's been our answer—our answer has been to divorce ourselves from the issue and hire youth pastors to make it better. That's been our answer. In his book Raising the Bar, Alvin Reid makes this observation: “Over the last 30 years, we have seen the largest increase in the number of professional youth ministers, youth ministry degrees being handed out, and para-church organizations designed to reach youth, and we have seen the greatest decline in youth baptisms ever.”²¹ He continues, “Let me make this statement, and then I'll back it up. While you open your Bibles to Ephesians, chapter six, let me make this statement—our current approach to youth ministry, number one, is unbiblical; number two, is antithetical to what the biblical model is for the evangelization and discipleship of young people; and, number three, it doesn't work.”²²

Dr. Baucham’s astute assessment of the plight of youth ministry within our country was not just critical. His assertion is that true evangelism and discipleship needs to be done in the home. If the Church is going to invest resources and energies towards raising up the next generation into one for Christ, it needs to focus upon equipping and supporting parents so that they can more effectively fulfill their God-given duties of training up a child.

While Axis is really geared more towards young adults, many who more than likely no longer even live at home with their parents, I chose to look at this model because I really like its make up as well as its desire to reach this specific underrepresented population. I also wanted to get a sense of their transition process and how that impacted their ministry. Dr. Baucham’s comments are not really geared towards this age group, rather junior and senior high youth ministries—similar to many of the ministries that we presently serve.

When meeting with Chris Troy, one of the most resounding things he shared with me was: “OMAD cannot be everything to everyone. You must decide upon what the two to three things you guys are going to do or feel called to do and there focus all of your energies.” He went on to share about how presently OMAD seems to operate as an intermediary for the churches by doing HAYC and providing support to local youth ministries. However, what he cautioned us upon is if we choose to go into the realm of social services with the vision of the CFD, we may find that we are unable to be efficient in either, as this was his experience early on at the BUYF. In hearing upon where we presently are and what we’ve been able to sustain, Chris expressed that OMAD should put down on paper its goals and vision; work towards creating a boiler-plate proposal, and find a way we can pay a sharp administrative person to run our present programs more effectively. From there OMAD could work towards getting someone in a development capacity that can assist with further expansion of the ministry. In terms of the CFD, he stated that we are in a prime position to provide direct services within the Haitian community through networking with schools and other agencies; however, we would either need to choose to do either OMAD or the CFD or find folks who are willing to wholly devote themselves to the CFD project.

Description of OMAD/CFD

Mission Statement: OMAD exists to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, unite local youth ministries and support the work of youth ministries.

Vision Statement: The vision of OMAD is to assist Christian ministries to further develop into sustainable and impacting ministries that spread the gospel and disciple believers.

OMAD is presently constituted as primarily a ministry with a two-fold mission: evangelism, which is done mostly through the HAYC; and the provision of support to the local youth ministries, such as Unity Chorale, Foundations Bible Study, annual Summer Camp, Sister 2 Sister (S2S), ministry consultation, etc. The following graphic portrayal further expands upon this:

During this process both the mission and vision have been revisited and tweaked some; however, what makes the new OMAD different from how we have functioned in the past is the establishing of prioritized goals in conjunction with the CFD. The ministry activities will remain as shown in the graphic above; however, what has been added under the support to local youth ministries arm is the Youth Ministry Consultation branch as part of the ministries’ prioritized goals, which are as follows:

The Centre for Formation and Development has always had as its dream the idea of having a place where an array of services could be offered. Its partner agencies OMAD and Echo Evangelique would also have space for their own respective programming. However, funding has always been one of the primary hindrances to this, as well as finding a locale appropriate for what we would like to envision happening in it. As a ministry, we have decided to take a different approach towards resolving this dilemma. Rather than looking for a sizeable facility, we are now seeking after a two to three family home that is in foreclosure that we can get at a reduced rate. Two volunteer/staff members of OMAD are licensed real estate agents and are looking for potential properties. We have decided to go this route as we would utilize one of the floors of the property for ministry offices and the like and the remaining floor(s) would be rented out to tenants. This would be a first step for the ministry towards the attainment of a larger facility where all of the activities of the ministry could be housed. As a result, the Legacy Campaign is an initiative that we are getting ready to launch that will help us to raise funds for this venture. We envision that once this purchase is completed, this property will serve as our administrative and meeting center for the ministry, as presently we do not have a locale of our own. The goal is to purchase by the early fall of 2008. However, the campaign will continue with the hope of paying off the property as soon as possible.

As stated previously, one of the ways in which OMAD has been counterproductive is that our efforts have not always connected youth ministries back to their overall churches. In essence, we have viewed them as separate entities rather than a portion of a larger structure. Henceforth, much of our work has been short-lived as the leadership of the churches were aware of who we were but did not necessarily embrace our support to their youth ministries, as they were not a part of that process. Presently within the community there is a sizeable exodus of youth and young adults to either American churches or just leaving the church as a whole. As noted within the focus group and interviews, this can be attributed to an array of different reasons. With the formulation of OMAD Consultation Services (OCS), churches within the community will have the opportunity to contract with OCS in relation to their individual youth and young adult programs. OCS will then in turn cater individualized services to that respective situation. Three key core competencies will serve as the basis of the work of OCS:

The staffing of the ministry has been done on a strictly volunteer basis and it will continue to be done in this way until goal one is met. We have encountered significant turnover in our staffing because its volunteer status. Nevertheless, we do have a core group of individuals committed to the mission of OMAD/CFD, and we will continue to work with them while encouraging and promoting the recruiting of others. However, as a result of our established goals we will be redirecting several staff to focus upon the Legacy Campaign while the remainder of the staff continues to work towards the regular activity of the ministry.

Presently we are working with Dr. Nesly Metayer, who is serving as OMAD/CFD’s organizational consultant in the formulation of OCS, its future marketing, and consultation in general for the ministry. Dr. Metayer has an extensive background in organizational development and management and has taught at Suffolk University. He has offered his services free of charge, as he is a member of my church and a friend of the ministry.

EVALUATION

In the past OMAD has instituted some evaluation protocol for the Haitian American Youth Congress, Summer Camp, and S2S. Event participants filled out registration forms upon attending ministry events, and at the end of each event participants filled out brief questionnaires. The following is a past Youth Congress evaluation:

Haitian American Youth Congress 2002
Evaluation Form

1. Overall, YOUTH CONGRESS 2002 was…

__Unacceptable __Poor __Satisfactory __Very good __Outstanding

2. In general, Youth Congress 2002 was … ORGANIZED.

__Poorly __Somewhat organized __organized __Well __Very Well

3. In general, Youth Congress 2002 was ... EXECUTED.

__Poorly __Pleasantly __Satisfactorily __Well __Very Well

4. The overall program was … SPIRITUALLY UPLIFTING.

__Not at all __Somewhat __uplifting __Very __Extremely

5. The areas that PLEASANTLY SURPRISED me the most were … please rank with 1 being the best.

__Food __Speaker __Choir Presentation __Site/locale __Sound
__Security __Staff/volunteer (name, optional _______________) __Program
__Public Relations __Community response Other___________________

EXPLAIN:

6. The areas that require our IMMEDIATE ATTENTION are … please rank with 1 being the most needy.

__Food __Speaker __Choir Presentation __Site/locale __Sound
__Security __Staff/volunteer (name, optional _______________) __Program
__Public Relations __Community response Other___________________

EXPLAIN:

7. I am MOST PROUD of …

8. I am MOST DISAPPOINTED with …

9. These things WORKED VERY WELL for me …

In addition to these types of evaluation forms for our annual events, our weekly events are done in a way that program participants can give regular input upon the program. Participants are actually encouraged to express what their needs are and often programs and Bible studies are developed directly around those expressed needs.

As we move forward there are several key outcomes that we would like to see within the ministry in relation to our present priorities. Firstly, a successful legacy campaign will end with the purchase and payment of an initial property. Within the next year to two years, we hope to have reached this outcome. Secondly, we would also like to see the reversal of the pattern of youth leaving the church towards youth coming back to the church as a result of the work of the Holy Spirit in conjunction with OCS. To that aim, OCS will establish initial screening criteria for the churches/ministries that we work with, as well as a pre and post survey to be administered to a cross section of that church to assess the overall efficacy of our work with them.

Notes for this paper:

Bibliography

Appendix: OMAD/CFD PROJECT FOCUS GROUP COMBINED RESPONSES

GROUP MAKEUP: 25 youth partook in the group from seven different Haitian churches in the Greater Boston area. The group was comprised of 16 girls and 9 boys ranging in age from 16 to 25.

• How do you experience the Haitian Christian church (what’s your take, what is your experience); your respective youth ministry or group?

• What are the major challenges for the Haitian Christian church in respect to youth ministry?

• From your point of view, what stops the Haitian church from being responsive to your needs?

• What do you think that we must do as Christian leaders to deal with those major issues?

• Do you prefer to remain a part the Haitian church or should everything just be mainstreamed—i.e. larger American congregations? Why or why not?

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Emmanuel Research Review

In this issue: The Future of Operation Make A Difference and the Centre for Formation and Development 2008 Inner City Ministry Course Student Award Paper

The Future of Operation Make A Difference and the Centre for Formation and Development

Executive Summary

Community Study

ANALYSIS OF OMAD/CFD

Analysis of Two Ministry Models

Description of OMAD/CFD

EVALUATION

Haitian American Youth Congress 2002 Evaluation Form

Notes for this paper:

Bibliography

Appendix: OMAD/CFD PROJECT FOCUS GROUP COMBINED RESPONSES

In this issue: The Future of Operation Make A Difference and the Centre for Formation and Development
2008 Inner City Ministry Course Student Award Paper

Haitian American Youth Congress 2002
Evaluation Form