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SAN DIEGO, Calif. — Nate Landis was parked outside of San Diego High School as he prepared to lead chapel service for the school’s football team. Before he could exit the car, the bell sounded and a sea of students made a quick exodus for the streets.
“I was seeing kids that had so much potential, but didn’t have enough opportunities,” he said. “I started noticing a gap between the kids in church and the kids on campus.”
He was seeing a generation of young people who had lost their way, looking for love in inappropriate ways, some already hooked on drugs or alcohol or both, gangbangers, wannabe gangbangers; each youth searching for temporary, earthly fixes.
“I didn’t see our city kids getting into trouble because they are too burned out,” he said. “They are getting in trouble because they have no structure in their lives.”
“Gangs give the kids something to die for, gangs give the kids a family, gangs give the kids a purpose,” he said. “We can’t remove all of this stuff from their lives without giving them alternatives.”
After a similar revelation at Morse High, Landis said he got the message.
“Then God put this on my heart, ‘Who will go for me? Whom shall we send?’”
In April, Landis founded the Urban Youth Collaborative, which he now directs. As its name implies, Landis tapped into a network of similarly minded urban ministry gurus to develop a model targeting tough city schools.
“Instead of burning ourselves out by trying to do everything at all the schools, we are trying to network with other churches,” he said. “We’re trying to empower other congregations and give the ministry away. It will go deeper and farther if we can get more people involved.”
Since its inception, the ministry has launched 12 weekly lunch clubs, reaching about 450 teenagers. Five more are being launched in the coming weeks, increasing the reach to 600 students. Each student-led club is supported by a youth pastor, who develops relationships with the teens, linking them to local churches.
Landis works with San Diego High School, which has been adopted by Horizon Park Chapel, a Sixth Avenue congregation that provides office space for Landis’ ministry.
Parachurch support
The church is also supporting Landis’ work through its Horizon Urban Ministries, offering food distribution to the clubs, counseling and outreach ministry opportunities for the teens.
Other supporting ministries include the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, which provides the liability insurance, Bibles and a motivational speaker for schoolwide assemblies, and the Urban Youth Workers Institute, which underwrites a monthly restaurant fellowship meeting with the volunteer youth pastors to keep them connected while developing relationships. Other assistance comes from the San Diego Presbytery and Horizon North County.
“ It’s (the mimistry) really dependent on the body working together, the kingdom working together,” he said. “One of the best things I can say is ‘I need you.’”
In addition to Horizon Park Chapel, other churches adopting campuses are St. Stevens Church of God in Christ, Peñasquitos Lutheran Church, Horizon North County, First Presbyterian Church of San Diego, Graham Memorial Presbyterian Church, Harbor Presbyterian Church (City Heights and Mira Mesa campuses), Northminster Presbyterian Church/Young Life, Chula Vista Presbyterian Church, and Shadow Mountain Community Church.
“There are youth pastors from church plants to megachurches all working to connect kids to Christ and to see them linked into a local faith community.”
The 5 C’s
While the weekly Bible clubs are the most visible aspect to the collaborative, they reflect just one of the ministry’s 5 C’s. The others are catering, camping, church and community.
“The club is not the end,” he said. “Coming, hearing and eating pizza is not the end ; it’s step No. 1.
The catering element comes through more than 110 pizzas provided at the weekly lunch Bible clubs. In addition to those baked in the basement kitchen at Horizon Park Chapel, donations provide additional pizzas from a national chain.
“We’re providing spiritual and physical food,” Landis said. “That’s the gateway to all these other opportunities. The kids we serve aren’t able to buy food some weeks.”
The catering element also includes pre-game meals for football players at several campuses where youth pastors serve as team chaplains by providing a Bible-based pep talk for interested athletes. The ministry is also developing end-of-the-season team banquets for the fall.
The camp ministry, thanks to a donation from an individual, provided nearly 70 scholarships for the city teens to attend Forest Homes camp last summer. The camp administrators provide about 15 more, so that 85 youth attended. The weeklong outing drew Somali Muslims, Sudan refugees, teens from group homes and public school students. Of the 50 kids who accepted Christ, one was a gang member who was baptized in the lake. The young man is now leading a club at an area school.
“It was like heaven,” Landis said. “It was the most diverse group I’ve ever had.”
A winter camp with 60 students is planned for February.
Reaching their peers
The two remaining C’s—church and community—are designed to get the students plugged into a ministry where they will be discipled and trained for ministry. The community element includes short-term missions trips working with the local homeless, low-income motels and their own campuses.
At Mount Miguel, students distributed water on the quad, with a flier inviting students to the club. Landis said 45 students showed up the next day, and 15 were led to Christ.
In March, Ken Johnson, the team chaplain for the Indianapolis Colts, will appear at eight schoolwide assemblies where he will talk about his work with the NFL team. The teens will be invited to learn more at that day’s Bible club. A similar approach with a hip-hop artist attracted 125 students to one of the clubs, where the musician was able to share his testimony because the club is student-led and optional.
Other projects include tutoring assistance when possible, bottled water distributions, small food closets at San Diego and Hoover highs and care kits for graduating seniors.
“It’s been an unbelievable journey that we’ve been able to work on together,” said Pete Contreras, executive director of Horizon Urban Ministries.
Contreras was able to use the resources he’s developed over 25 years of city ministry to launch Landis’ vision for the community.
“It’s just about putting them together and being on the same page,” Contreras said.
A staggering opportunity
Landis estimates that only 10 percent of high school students are active in churches, meaning 90 percent of the students are spiritually lost. With at least 22,000 teens attending the 12 campuses to which they already serve, there’s plenty of opportunity to present the gospel, the youth leader said.
“Just do the math,” Landis said. “It breaks Jesus’ heart. Jesus weeps. These kids are spiritually dead. I want them to live, not just after they die, but right now.”
He likened it to the story of the shepherd leaving the 99 sheep to go after the lost one.
“With us it’s reversed, he’s leaving the 10 to save the 90,” Landis said.
“These statistics are going to change, not by people my age with goatees. The statistics are going to change when more kids decide they are able to follow Jesus at a young age. Our job is to empower young people to do this, to encourage student leaders in stepping out.”
Information
Adopted campuses: Kearny, Crawford, Clairemont, University City, San Diego, Coronado, Morse, Mount Miguel, Madison, Hoover, Lincoln and Gompers Charter Middle School.
Pending campuses: Hilltop, Sweetwater, Garfield, Mira Mesa and Southwest.
Adoptions: Local congregations are needed to provide a youth pastor to minister with the on-campus clubs.
Sponsorships: Businesses and individuals may sponsor a school for $5,000 annually. The cost includes camp scholarships, pizza lunches for the Bible clubs, glossy postcards for advertising and a small stipend for the youth pastor. A small portion of the sponsorship is also used to offset Landis’ salary.
For more information, visit uycollaborative.org.
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