Big News
When Evie and I left Northern Virginia for Tennessee, so that I could attend seminary, we knew that we were being called into full time ministry. We also knew that God had prepared us for, and was calling us into urban ministry. At the time we did not know where it would take us and as I prepared for ministry at Emmanuel Christian Seminary we narrowed it down to Cleveland.
We have been in Cleveland for over three years now and we know that this is where we are supposed to be. We have felt this calling affirmed over and over again. However, It has been the hardest and most difficult three years we have ever experienced (don’t worry our marriage is as strong as it has ever been, our kids seem to be as normal as any Pratt can be, and we aren’t starving). In many ways we have felt like we have been very successful. In other ways we feel like we have hit wall after wall. As our church has grown we have felt ourselves stretched further and further with no clear leaders rising up to help us. We have felt a strong need for a larger core team (one that included more than just our immediate family).
We have been in Cleveland for over three years now and we know that this is where we are supposed to be. We have felt this calling affirmed over and over again. However, It has been the hardest and most difficult three years we have ever experienced (don’t worry our marriage is as strong as it has ever been, our kids seem to be as normal as any Pratt can be, and we aren’t starving). In many ways we have felt like we have been very successful. In other ways we feel like we have hit wall after wall. As our church has grown we have felt ourselves stretched further and further with no clear leaders rising up to help us. We have felt a strong need for a larger core team (one that included more than just our immediate family).
New Direction
At the same time a good friend of ours, who had moved to Cleveland at the same time as us, with the same vision as ours also began to realize the same thing. We began to talk about what it would look like for our churches to begin working together in a deeper way. That discussion grew into planning and seeking advice from other people, who knew us both, about the possibility of a merge between the two churches. And with several months of planning and advice from many wiser people we merged together into one church called City Edge Christian Church with the mission to love every “edge” of Cleveland beyond reason.
We are still called to Cleveland as missionaries and we feel like this shift has us poised for decades more of successful ministry and mission in Cleveland. If you have supported us in the past either through prayer or finances I thank you and ask that you please continue. Ministry in an urban context brings many challenges and your support keeps us going.
Check our website at www.cityedge.org to learn more. If you have questions or comments please feel free to call me (571) 264-5265 or e-mail me (mark@cityedge.org).
Thank you,
Mark and Evie Pratt
Check our website at www.cityedge.org to learn more. If you have questions or comments please feel free to call me (571) 264-5265 or e-mail me (mark@cityedge.org).
Thank you,
Mark and Evie Pratt