Seven years ago we launched a ministry with a mission to rebuild, restore and renew hearts and homes in the Harrisburg community.
When we started in a renovated warehouse on Seventh Street in uptown Harrisburg, our hearts were filled with excitement. We spent six months in prayer and strategic preparation. We opened our doors to a full house on Good Friday on March 25, 2005, with a celebration of praise and worship. Then on Resurrection Sunday, March 27, 2005, we held our first Sunday service.
Six months later, in September of 2005, our overseers, Bishop Raphael and Pastor Brenda Green, came to Harrisburg to officially install us as the Senior Pastor and First Lady over the church. Little did we know, that just like Jesus was acknowledged by His Father during His water Baptism and led into a season of trial and testing, we were about to walk the same path.
However, today we can proclaim, ‘To God be the Glory for the things He has done.’ God gave us grace after our failures, wisdom to navigate treacherous passages, favor to overcome opposition, comfort for our seasons of mourning, consolation for our process of grief, light in our darkness, joy in the midst of disappointments, and a new closeness with the Holy Spirit that we could never have imagined if we had not crossed through the wilderness.
In spite of attacks from the evil spiritual forces that seek to control the hearts and homes of this region, the Lord our God still caused our paths to cross with each of you. All that was intended for evil, God has used it for our good.
From chance meetings on our jobs, to unexplainable connections on the internet, God has brought people in and out of lives and brought this congregation together, one person at a time. We have met in hotel conference rooms, a local church’s classroom, the pastor’s living room, and now we meet in a board room. It never really matters WHERE we meet. It’s all about the wonderful experience that we share WHEN we meet.
We have laughed together, cried together, danced together, worked together, had our moments of disagreements or misunderstandings, and managed to come back together through forgiveness and now we’re stronger than ever.
We are not a large gathering yet, but somehow, that really doesn’t matter. We’re doing more than building a big ministry. We’re building people who will do big things for God.
Recently, we took a poll and asked the volunteer team, “What is the one thing that Urban Life is really good at doing? What is the one hallmark of this ministry?
The response was unanimous. It’s RELATIONAL. People matter. People feel welcomed. They feel that they belong.
So after seven years, the foundation has been set. The standard of God’s unconditional love has been cemented in our church family. WE have become an assembly where the atmosphere is safe for those who are searching, thirsting and longing for more than what religion has to offer.
The number SEVEN symbolizes that this phase of our growth and development has been completed. Now we are launching into a New Beginning. We had to go through the process of death to reach this place of new life.
Jesus said in John 12: 24-25, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”
After our overseers laid hands upon us in September of 2005, we thought we were about to take off and soar. Instead we were buried and died. But today, we are looking at much grain. When we hear your testimonies of how the vision of rebuilding, restoration and renewal is taking place in your hearts and homes, we are can only say, “This is the Lord’s doing and it is marvelous in our eyes!”
