Adullam
The difficulties young urban men face are daunting. Violence, despair within and without, fatherlessness, poor choices, racism and other factors can cripple hope and tempt young men to express their frustration in all sorts of destructive ways. Recognizing that all men are made in the image of God, Adullam seeks to express the love of God to these young men in St.Louis City. It is our desire that God will use this ministry to convince many that He does exist and that He is a rewarder of all those who diligently seek Him (see Heb 11:6).
Why ADULLAM?
In his flight from the homicidal desires of King Saul, young David fled to the Cave of Adullam, not far from Bethlehem about 3,000 years ago. It was at this cave site that “…those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their leader.” (I Samuel 22:2, NIV). David we are told, turned this disheartened group of men into his little army. We suspect that these 400 young men saw hope for themselves in the person of David. We imagine that David shared with these men his faith in the true God and wonder if his faith became contagious among this band of men. Adullam was a place of relationships marked by hope and purpose and so fits well as a name for this ministry. We want to be a place for young men “beaten down by life” to experience the true God who made them with great purpose for himself.
How does Adullam seek to reach out to young men? The center of the action will be men building personal relationships of love and trust with other men. One way we hope to facilitate friendships with those participating in the Adullam ministry is by forming “units” around areas of common interests (for example film, cooking, basketball, etc). Not only will such uniting around common interests hopefully encourage friendships. It will also produce opportunities wherein the participants of the Adullam ministry might be able to serve each another. Our first up and running unit is centered around film, led by Sylvester Jacobs, 40 years a professional photographer. Sylvester is passionate about having young men work together to produce quality videos for an array of needs in St. Louis.
This work would eventually involve addressing the typical needs of urban men: education and work, money management, dealing with anger, caring well for the women and children in their lives, and so on. The goal of this ministry is to love the young men of our city in concrete ways. We will long for them to follow Christ Jesus with us. But we will equally love those men too who do not believe but do desire healthy friendships with other men.
How can I partner with this ministry?
PRAYER God loves people! So petitioning him to redeem the lives of young men is the most important thing that any supporter of this ministry can do. Every believer in Jesus has access to God through prayer. If Adullam is to have the restoring power that we desire to see it have in young men’s lives, the God of the universe must accomplish the healing.
FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTIONS The Adullam ministry is looking for people who will partner with us financially. If you would like to contribute to this ministry financially please write a check payable to Grace & Peace Fellowship. Please write “Adullam on the memo line of your check and mail to 5574 Delmar Blvd. St. Louis, MO 63112.
TELL OTHERS You can help support Adullam by letting people you know who might be interested in, or could benefit from this ministry, know about it. If there is someone who you think might want to partner with us financially please do tell them about us. Please help us get the word out about Adullam.
BECOME A UNIT LEADER If you have a skill that you think the men in this ministry might enjoy learning from you, perhaps you should consider being one of our “unit leaders”. If you want to explore serving in this capacity or have question about being part of the Adullam Team, please email Aaron Turner at imitatechrist@teamfca.com.