Cities and Communities Conference Call
July 19, 2007
Hosts: Rev. Glenn Barth – President of GoodCities
Rev. Dennis Fuqua – President of International Renewal Ministries

Topic: Pastors on the Premises
Guest: Pastor Joshua Beckley

This is Glenn Barth, Good Cities, welcoming you to the Mission America City/Community Ministries monthly cityreaching call. I do this call on behalf of the Mission America Coalition for the purpose of advancing city transformation across our nation. Rich Howell was asked to open the call in prayer.

Announcements:
► Next Call: August 16, 2007 –
► CIR 2008 – Boston, MA – The Braintree Sheraton Hotel, April 14-16, 2008

Co-host Dennis Fuqua explained that this call was so similar to the featured cities call that the decision was made to merge the two calls this month. The featured city call will resume in September.

Introduction of Pastor Josh Beckley (Glenn)
At the age of 19, (started preaching at 16) connected with E.V. Hill ministry, asst. dir of high school ministries. Developed Bible studies on a number of h.s. campuses. God blessed it. He has pastured a couple of different churches, most significant the one since 1991. God gave him a vision for picking up broken pieces in lives of believers. Wonderful church Ecclesia Christian Fellowship, founding and senior pastor. You may wonder why you haven’t heard of him before, but he went to an area of great need. In 2002, gathered a group of pastors together to prayer walk high schools in their city, with dramatic results. Pastor Beckley, we welcome you to this call todaydaughter went to hospital just as he was ready to fly to CIR in El Paso. Hope to join CIR in Boston.
Coul you give us a little background on demographics and key issues in San Bernardino?

Pastor Beckley: located 60 miels east of LA Empire Valley, Caucasian, 60-70 %, AA next largest pop, then Hispanics and Asians and Islanders. Community I serve is predom AA on west side of San Bernardino, in many cities would be considered a ghetto. Pastors on the P started on the west side. San Bernardino has had a sketchy history, not one of the ideal cities. 5-6 years ago we were #4 in murders per cajpita. This year we are 19th in nation on housing foreclosures. So while it is growing, it is the most affordable place to live in southern CA. We have gang violence, much of it people moving out here from L.A.
Glenn: Could you share with us what caused you to call pastors in your community to focus on prayer for the students, faculty and administration of Cajon High School in 2002?
Pastor: Our first school was Martin Luther King Middle School in 2002, had 70-80 % expulsion rate due to violence on campus. Principal was AA, part of one of our churches, he came to us and talked to us about helping him with some of the issues. We went there before school, at lunch and after school, just walking on campus, praying and talking with the kids. Many of the kids were from our churches. That was helpful – they would run up to us and ask why we were there. One of the things we were able to do, as long as we didn’t solicit it, when the kdis asked us to pray for them or to counsel them, we could do so. We were there for a year, and the following year when they pulled the stats for the school the expulsion rate was down 50% to just 20%. By the second eyar there were none, and they are still there today.

Dennis: What a wonderful story. I think of Eph. 3:10 It is God’s intent that His wisdom would be manifest. I see that being manifest there. The church has been a significant influence there. So that was 2003-2003. Describe the results of Pastors presence and prayer on the campus between 2002 and 2007. How many schools are being impacted?
Pastor: 50-75 pastors, cross demoninational and racial lines, in high schools. El Cajon was second. Most of the high schools – this program has been adopted by Dr. Fisher, head of the schools. We made a presentation to the principals - he endorsed this for any principal who wanted it on campus. By 2004 the San Bernardino County Superintendent (victory Hill, Montclair, etc.) and then we were adopted by the city schools. Now we have carte blanche to go on campus. Royal Valley H.S. hired one of our pastors to be there fulltime.

Dennis: What about separateion of church and state?
Pastor: This principle was probably most progressive in her thinking but she wasn’t concerned about separation.
What other impact?
Pastor: Had forums and assemblies on campus on violence, morality, we’ve been able to sit and have interaction with students. We’ve worked with families because students approached us on campuses. Violence on the campus has gone down. Wherever the pastors have been present, both expulsion and violence have gone down. For awhile there had been gang violence on campus every day. When the principle called us, violence and conduct and attitude changed. It was as if they recognized the presence of God there that they needed to respect.

Glenn: Pastors do well. I suppose you begin to get prayer requests.
Pastor: Prayer is the major thing. We have kids walking up to us asking for prayer for taking a test today, parents getting a divorce, etc. Because pastors are there and kids come to us, we can pray with them openly, out loud. At Royal Valley H.S. they come to his office. At lunchtime that’s all I’m doing, 10-20 kidsa round me wanting to pray about various things.

Glenn: Do you connect them with services in the community?
Pastor: We conntect them with services and outreaches in the churches near where they are. We have that resource list available. When they say they have a need, we ask where they live, and give him a pastor’s phone call.
Glenn: Do you have enough pastors to go around?
Pastor: We have a waiting list, requests from grade schools, broadened our reach, another clergy organization has a mailing list of 200-300 churches, so we are offering them the opportunity to be a part of this program, going to the schools near their church.

Dennis: As you have been doing this, are you aware of this kind of thing happening in anhy other city?
Pastor: I think there are some things happening in L.A. We’ve been meeting with churches at Mt. Moriah in L.A. I don’t think there is any meeting as often and regularly as we do 0-every Tues from 10:30 – 12, as many as 40 pastors meeting. It’s organizational, but we also have a health component, community health. Community plea program helping people get driving privileges back. WE found that was a hindrance to many folks getting jobs in the community. Tickets had turned to warrants, now they meet with D.A. office, go to court and D.A. and tell the judge they will do community service thru the churches.

Dennis: Sounds like you have been praying “thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.”
Where can we get info on Pastors on the Premises.
Pastor: Pastor Richard Bryant 909-854-6899 church personal 909-792-6770. We have a CD we have put together on this program that we share with schools about how this program is functioning. Richard could get you that CD for $10. If you have any other questions, email me revjosh0116@adelphia.net I had an email from one of the conference callers yesterday.


Glenn: Tell us about the reach and scope of the work of Pastors on the Premises today.

Dennis: Where can we get information about Pastors on the Premises if they would like to do something similar in their own community?

Question and Answer

Bud Ford, Dayton: Josh, did you use people from different congregations? Yes, we realized that about the 3rd year that some pastors didn’t have the staff to devote to things, so we opened it up to intercessors and associate pastors who might be parttime, and to Christian professionals who had a heart for schools, not necessarily clergy, but under the Pastors on the Presmises.

Dennis: Could you go back and tell us how this program began. You mentioned a conversation with a principle who was a member of a local congregation. I think that is a critical piece.
Pastor: We were formed because there was a major issue in our community, a rift between Sheriff Dept and our community. I met with another pastor to pray about this. We had some leadership that was not representing our community honestly. We wanted to honor God and walk in integrity. About 30 pastors met and we discussed what we should do. We decided we needed to go back to our churches and give spiritual leadership to our community. We had about 800 people show up at Sheriff’s Dept. and tell them we would not allow them to do what they planned to our community. It changed the position of the Sheriff Dept. We realized there were other things we could do to help our community. Every 3rd Thursday of the month people could come and talk about needs. It was because of that history that the principal at Martin Luther King Middle School came to us.

Inland Empire

Mike Welch, Blytheville, AR: How do you organize your volunteers? Do you have a rotation or list? Pastor Richard – we have individuals who have made commitments, we keep in contact with them. There are meetings by month in geographical areas, praying together, praying about issues on campuses and how we can support them. There is a monthly meeting of about 20 volunteers at my church each month.

Bob Fox, Virginia Beach, VA: Pastor, I’m thrilled with what you are saying. Wopuld you comment on thisthought. What you have done there probably wouldnot have happened if there had not been needs, so in desperation they allowed the body of Christ to come in and minister.
Pastor: One of the things I do recognize that long before I got here in San Bernardino, other pastors had been praying in this community for years. The spiritual warfare – this city was founded by Mormons who took the land by force from the Indians. I know God had saturated this place with his presence because of prayer. The culmination of this came in 2000 when these things began to erupt, the city was crying out. Right now the climate in S.B. regarding the church is the most unusual I’ve seen in any part of the country. Open door access to Mayor, Chief of Police, Council meetings. It’s favor, it’s answered prayer. Every Wednesday we have a parole release program, at 9:30 35-40 people rleased. 3 years ago they asked the churches to come and do orientation at these meetings. You can preach the gospel. We want you to tell them about Jesus because we have noticed that the recidivism reate is less when people get involved in church. Get them in your program so they don’t have to come back to jail. We have 10-15 pastors who come to give presentation, sit with the parolees, connect them with our churches.

Dennis: You described wonderfulf favor – that’s a great word. In Acts described … Could you give me 1-2 reasons why the united church there is enjoying favor.
Pastor: One I believe is answered prayer. When I started here 16 years ago I got involved in Evangelical Pastors Assn. I thoughtmany of these men who had been driving across the city to pray together from 6 – 8 a.m. They went to the porn theater every Friday morning. 3 years later it was torn down. Second, there is a climate of brotherhood where we recognize that we are stronger together and can do more together than we can do separately. We cross demonination lines. We need to focus on the main thing. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. Nothing to do with denoms and doctrinal. If you believe that Chrsit is the Son of God, that he died, rose and is coming again. That’s the second reason I believe that we have such favor. People have said we need tog et together, that God wants to transform this city and we need to work together to do that.

Dennis: 1 prayer matters 2. unity matters. We might not see it in the first year, even 5 years, but when we pursue a consistent relationship, we see things happen.

Glenn: Would you tell people about the Pastor’s Covenant in the Inland Empire. I telieve you have had 2 public signings of that covenant.

Pastor: one of the things we felt we needed to do was make a public statement that the church of S.B,. is one church with many locations. So we came up with a covnenant. One of the things it says is we are stronger together than apart. Tehre are 4 things we agreed on. Then we had an opportunity to do it at a minor leage baseball game (Dodgers) 7th inning, able to do it before thousands of S.B. residents. Read it, told them the church is one church, signed it, prayed together. Asked the Mayor to post this covenant in City Hall.

Bob Fox, VA Beach: From your perspective, how do circumstances of intensity of S.B. needs affect the willingness of the pastors to come together in unity? Second, did you do any specific research into spiritual roots, make up of the city? What did you do with that info?

Pastor: Yes, it does affect the intensity of the pastors. One of the key things that happened, as pastors got involved, it encouraged other pastors to get infolved. It’s growing gradually, not quickly. There are still folks who don’t agree with what’s happening. Then on the research, I appreciated Pastor Lee and others. We identified the 4 gates to our valley and their demonic influences. They shared this info with us as pastors. We not only prayed for that there, but took it back to intercessory groups in our churches. Those intercessory groups now meet together quarterly and continually pray for thes things. There is spiritual warfare going on even tho God has given us much favor in the city.

Forrest Turpen, Anaheim, CA: I have a question because we work with Christian teachers in local schools. What is the response from the teachers? Positives and negatives?
Pastor: Because we don’t carry Bibles and we don’t preach, we just walk the campuses, and what we do is initiated by the teachers. The teachers union doesn’t have much to protest. Those wonderful people who try to make sure God is not mentioned. They investigated us, had lawyers coming out to see how they could stop it. But because of the way we go on campus they had to leave it alone. It happens everywhere we go. As we walk the campuses, the kids ask what we are doing there, and when we tell them we’re pastors, and are praying for them. We operate as a Christian group. If someone else wants to organize for other religions, they can do so. We first started, some principles weren’t going to have it, even tho it was endorsed by the Supt. Of Schiooss. God has a great sense of humor – their campuses began having more violence than usual, and a year or two later they called us and welcome us for coming. There is a branch of Campus Crusade called Cross Talk. They have gotten behind this 100%. They are very supportive of pastors who come on campus. They are praying for us.

Glenn: I think you meant the ACLU. THEY AREN’T OPPOSING YOU

Pastor: THEY AREN’T OPPOSING US NOW. The supt. didn’t buckle when they first raised objections. He said “come and see for yourself.”
Glenn: When leaders have a clear sense of purpose and are submitting to God along the way, there is significant progress. It’s been very exciting to hear this.

Dennis: I don’t want the obvious to slip by. One of the key thigns MAC is encouraging people to live out prayer – care – share. We’re seeing something bathed inprayer, seeing a need, demonstrating genuine Jesus love in that situation, and having significant opportunities to share the good news. Good deeds open the door to good news. This is aunique story in S.B. but God is raising up His church to pray, to serve, to move out and impact the community. That is becoming more common.

Glenn: We are nearing the end of our time. We want to remind you of the 3rd Thursday call next month on August 16th. We will send out info on that call soon. As we conclude the call, we’re going to ask Pastor Beckley to close the call in prayer and pray for all of us in our ministries in various cities.