20 Years in the Making

        	              

Bridging Urban Mission Project (BUMP) traces its 20-year-deep roots to a vast array of highly committed urban Christian residents, a dozen district youth workers, and Tom Mouw, the current District Superintendent of the EFCA’s North Central District (NCD).




“The vision for BUMP was birthed on the front porches and in the living rooms of the unnamed and unsung heroes who sacrificially labored in the harvest to implement it,” says Mouw. “It was the Lord and His good people who turned a raw vision into a reproducible ministry”



Bridging to local youth                                 



Through his years of student ministry experience at two suburban Evangelical Free churches, Mouw saw the potential for suburban students to forge relationships and ministry partnerships with the faithful living and serving in the nearby city. Senior high students from Crystal Evangelical Free Church (now New Hope Church) accompanied Mouw weekly for three years to run a kid’s club at Salem House in Minneapolis. 




Mouw and the resident missionaries had a vision of a “bridge” that flowed both ways. One where students could creatively share the hope of the gospel while supporting urban “missionaries”  – the parishioners of Salem EFC in the Phillips and Powderhorn neighborhoods of Minneapolis. The desire was that other churches in the NCD would participate and eventually become partners in ministry, realizing that stand-alone ministry projects once a year only do so much.

  

Originally named the Bridging Urban “Minneapolis” Project, BUMP’s initial offering in 1993 brought 77 youth from 11 North Central District EFCA churches to work alongside the faithful of Salem EFC.  Serving as Student Ministries Director  for NCD at the time, Mouw writes in his Student Ministries report, “We were stretched and blessed beyond what we had imagined.” The 1994 dates were set, and the vision became reality.



Bridging church to neighborhood



Early BUMPs included a service track:



    

  • Neighborhood “block captains” were approached in the months and weeks leading up to BUMP to see what they would have teams do to beautify their block.
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  • Projects included cleaning up garbage and other debris from vacant lots to make way for planting community gardens and painting over graffiti on structures.
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  • Backyard Bible Clubs were held during the week for the younger kids and sports and basketball ministries were available for those in their early teens. 
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The program’s integrity in the early years came from having residents of the neighborhood involved, fueling the program’s continuation. “All that we do will be geared to “empowering” neighborhood Christians to follow up and minister from the site churches,” the founders wrote in subsequent BUMP literature.



Bridging suburbs to city



Partnerships between suburban and urban churches had the opportunity to blossom; in the early BUMP years, 50% of the participating churches were within driving distance to the site churches. Early brochures document BUMP’s format was designed with a specific goal, that “ministry effectiveness is dependent upon relationships and we want to make those relationships as meaningful as possible.” Incoming youth became visible agents of God’s love to neighborhood children. The children were then connected to the church post-BUMP through Super City Camp and VBS. Some of these same youth served as counselors at the camp and returned to help with community projects during the Christmas season.



Bridging beyond



In 1995, an EFCA church from Salt Lake City signed up, moving the program beyond the boundaries of just the district. The following year, Payne Avenue EFC, St. Paul, became a host site and “Minneapolis” was necessarily changed to “Mission.”  Dan Reeve, former pastor of Salem EFC and supporter of BUMP, serving with the EFCA national office Urban/Intercultural Mission department and Steve Hudson, Mission USA (now ReachNational) Executive Director, saw the wisdom of BUMP becoming a national model.




In 2000, the program expanded to include Denver and New York.  BUMP has served  many US cities since, including Miami, Washington DC, San Antonio, Baltimore, Los Angeles, St. Louis and Chicago. In 2012, the ministry is expanding again to include Detroit and Philadelphia.



Bridging to home



BUMP is not only a program for urban church empowerment. True to the plan, the benefits ‘pay forward’ back home as well.




“We were hoping to create an environment where the kids gain skills sharing the gospel and return home to do it with their peers.” Countless numbers of student participants have been empowered to put this into practice once BUMP week is over.




BUMP has not strayed far from the seeds sown in 1993. God continues to use the same core values to build bridges, stretch faith and develop skills, gifts and talents by empowering youth to take His message to the streets with EFCA urban churches! The faithful visionaries who saw the benefits of “bridging” have built a foundation of ministry 20-years strong. A ministry where Jesus is made known among the people. Lives are transformed for the student participants, the local community kids who attend BUMP and urban EFCA churches.




Consider BUMP the right summer missions opportunity for your church’s youth! As the 2000 BUMP brochure says,“Yes, God can use you to transform an inner-city neighborhood when you decide to do The B.U.M.P.”




(Pictured above - 1993 BUMP particpants at Salem House)



Learn more



Join us this summer at New Salem EFC (formerly Salem EFC) for a special mural painting project, at Detroit’s Restore Church or Philadelphia’s Grace Church of Philly to serve alongside two brand new EFCA churches, or at one of BUMP’s other 2012 locations in Baltimore, LA, New York, St. Louis and the Twin Cities!




Read the blogs from BUMP 2011 cities!




Share your BUMP experience and photos on the BUMP Facebook page!