The Urban Ministry Center Of Bombay
                                                                                            A Centre as Source of Unity

In 1985 Rev. Viju Abraham covenanted to pray regularly with three other Bombay pastors for their church and city. These four had seen that the church in their city faced two massive problems. (1) How to reach all the ethnic groups of their city with the gospel of God's grace in Christ. (2) How to demonstrate the love of Jesus to those in need by both word and deed. In a City that includes a vast array of
people groups and whose population is predicted to reach 17 million (70% of which will be shanty town dwellers) by the year 2000, these problems will have no easy solutions. As the prayer meetings progressed the number of participants grew from 4 to 60 and a plan of action presented itself in the form of the Urban Ministry Center.

Training, Research and Networking.
The goal of the Urban Ministry Center is to stimulate and assist the churches of Bombay to carry out their evangelistic mandate. This assistance is a stool which rests upon three legs.

First there is training, which is done through seminars and school courses in local churches. A video about Bombay entitled "City from the Sea" has been prepared by the Center and is used in these seminars to help the residents of Bombay feel good about their city and Christian ministry within it.

Secondly there is research done on the city and the people within it by the Urban Ministry Center, sometimes with outside help. Information generated by the research is kept by the Center for use by the Christian community.

Finally, the Center encourages networking among churches and agencies presently at work in Bombay with a view to encouraging the spiritual and the numerical growth of the Church in Bombay.

It is to be hoped that ministry centers such as this could begin in each of the major cities of India, and that such metropolitan study centers throughout Asia and the world could link up for mutual instruction and cooperation. Although this dream is yet to eventuate, it is certainly an idea whose time has come.