For KC Summit - Update
On Apr 4, 2024, the inaugural For KC Summit was held in Overland Park. The event was created through the coloration of four ministries, Pastor Serve, Unite KC, Love KC and The Barnabas Group Kansas City. Over 100 city leaders representing churches, ministries and businesses were in attendance. The goal of the Summit is to rally the community in response to a major problem in our region. This Summit focused on stemming the rising murder rate in the city and youth related violence. It was part of a response to the shooting at the KC Chiefs Championship parade. This response stared with The Church Loves Kansas City initiative, which seeks to meet the needs of the parade shooting victims.
The morning session of the For KC Summit featured presentations from leaders in different parts of the country who have seen a similar initiative, led by churches and ministries, to problems or needs in their community. It also included a panel discussion of local KC area ministries discussing root causes. In the afternoon, the For KC Summit participants broke into working groups to brainstorm on potential responses.
Following the Summit, a twenty page report was published and action teams are being formed for three areas identified at the Summit. The teams are as follows:
Church Action Teams – Devise ways to partner with one another to impact communities and zip codes so that people can see the love of Jesus like never before.
Sample Action Steps:
Church Signs Up for Care Portal
Church Signs Up to learn more about Care Portal and attend upcoming webinar
Participate in prayer walk for schools & Communities hosted by Caring For Kids in August
Soul Care for marriages & families – expand building bridges resources and promote access. Offer Building Bridges marriage & family workshops in needed communities (will need funding / sponsorships). Building Bridges Ministries: Unity • Identity • Healing - Workshops, Classes and Conferences (buildingbridgeskc.org)
Soul Care for Pastors – explore advocating PastorServe resources
Unity Teams—These are teams of people who develop and implement Unity Strategies, such as heat maps, a database of resources in our city (organizations), the creation of partnership networks, etc. They would primarily coordinate small to large networking meetings to keep our unity intact and work across city, state, and national delineation points.
Human Flourishing Action Teams are teams of individuals from heterogeneous vertical markets strategizing how to impact zip codes for extended periods of time. These should be generational teams with rotating leadership roles that extend for decades.
There will be kickoff Zoom calls for each active team on June 25-27. This is an opportunity for those who want to engage in meet with the respective team and help to define and implement the approach in that area. The specific kickoff Zoom calls are listed below. To register for a specific call, you may do so at the links below:
Unity Action Team - Tues, June 25th at noon
Church Action Team - Wed, June 26th at noon
Human Flourishing Action Team - Thurs, June 27th at noon
If you have questions or want to learn more about the For KC initiative, please contact george.commons@barnabasgroup.org