COMMON QUESTIONS
- Meet The Ledbetters
- What is your motive as a Christian ministry?
- What is FCS Urban Ministries?
- What is Christian community development?
- How can I learn more about your philosophy and approach?
- Are you starting a church?
- Where is South Atlanta?
- What are your support needs?
- Will my investment make any real difference? How will I know?
- Are there any measurable outcomes for tracking real change?
- Does your organization get at the underlying issues that cause poverty?
- Are you open to change if I offer solutions or improvements?
- What are your beliefs about God?
- What is “shalom?”
Meet The Ledbetters
Nate & Melissa Ledbetter are the founders of Sub-Urban, a community intiative connecting neighbors across race and class lines to transform neighborhoods, beginning here and now in South Atlanta.
Nate & Melissa have two daughters and a 90-pound American Bulldog. Melissa enjoys travel, the outdoors, great food, and a good movie. Nate enjoys reading, basketball, beatbox, and telling crazy stories. Nate served as a pastor for six years at Mars Hill Bible Church in West Michigan. The Ledbetters currently reside in urban South Atlanta.
What is your motive as a Christian ministry?
Love. We love because the hopeful and living way of Jesus Christ compels us to love God and to love our neighborhood as ourselves. We believe God wants to restore the brokenness of all things through the person of Jesus Christ; our relationships with God, others, ourselves, and creation. We don’t just believe in the resurrection. We want to practice resurrection in the way we live and work. So, we trust a whole gospel that meets the needs of a whole neighborhood, including all of who we are as mind, body, soul, and emotion as well as the spiritual, social and economic fabric of our neighborhood.
What is FCS Urban Ministries?
FCS is an incubator for visionaries and social entrepreneurs, transforming distressed neighborhoods through Christian community development. The mission of FCS is to create healthy places in the city where families flourish and God’s shalom is present.
FCS reweaves the fabric of urban community by building upon neighborhood strength and by attracting “strategic neighbors” to move in. With an emphasis on indigenous leadership and a commitment to mixed-income housing development, its strategy yields both social and spiritual vitality as well as economic viability. Our ten FCS Family of Ministries are listed here.
What is Christian community development?
Check out CCDA. For more information, visit their web site by clicking here.
How can I learn more about your philosophy and approach?
Consider purchasing a copy of “Compassion, Justice, and the Christian Life” by Bob Lupton, President and Founder of FCS Urban Ministries. To order your copy [$9], click here. Or check “New Neighbor” by Leroy Barber.
Are you starting a church?
No. We are a part of a Atlanta Community Fellowship, a local church in our South Atlanta neighborhood led by Pastors Leroy and Donna Barber. Our desire is to BE church on our block, while joining the church in our neighborhood.
Where is South Atlanta?
South Atlanta is located one mile south of Turner Field [South of 20 and East of 75-85]. Our community sits near the old Carver Homes between Lakewood Heights and Pittsburge.
What are your support needs?
View our current support needs here.
Will my investment make any real difference? How will I know?
Real life change begins to take place through small, incremental ways of loving through long-term relationships and partnerships (10-15 years). We’re committed for the long haul.
Are there any measurable outcomes for tracking real change?
We’re aiming our action in the direction of measurable change. Check out what we’re doing. We evaluate our goals on an annual basis. The following questions will measure in part our action in South Atlanta:
Is it now safer for children to grow up
and flourish in South Atlanta?
Are neighbors connecting more fully
with one another on each block?
In accordance to the Civic League’s request
of FCS Urban Ministries, have we seen an
increase toward our goal of seeing South Atlanta
80% homeowner occupied?
Is the housing market healthy and mixed-income?
Are there at least 50 foreclosed homes
restored (with families present)?
Has crime decreased (drugs, prostitution, trafficking,
homicide, car theft, burglary)?
Are local neighbors taking active ownership in
the process of restoration and renewal?
Do local neighbors feel empowered economically?
Is the local church (parish) active and
engaged with the community?
Have we seen an increase in spiritual and social health?
Are local neighbors experiencing the hopeful and
living way of Jesus Christ?
Does your organization get at the underlying issues that cause poverty?
Yes, we focus on community development. This means our primary focus is in joining neighbors to strengthen the spiritual, social and economic vitality of the community, not just individuals. This holistic approach to life and work gets at the core of addressing long-term, generational poverty.
Are you open to change if I offer solutions or improvements?
Please share any and all feedback you are willing to offer. How can we learn with and from one another?
What is your beliefs about God?
Also, check out why we love.
What is “shalom?”
Shalom means “peace” and “wholeness” with God. Shalom is what God intends for us as individuals and for our neighborhoods. The climax of the story of God’s ongoing pursuit of humanity is found in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus as God making Shalom with all things. We choose to live in anticipation of the day when the fullness of God’s peace makes all things whole again, beginning here and now in South Atlanta.
“For in Him [Jesus] all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross (Colossians 1:19-2).”
