Making a decade of commitment

March 05, 2008

Mission Houston Officially Launches Public School Initiative

Approximately 400 people gathered on March 5 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Houston to join the Mission Houston staff and board of directors in officially launching a decade of commitment to raising a generation of Whole and Healthy Children.    In his opening remarks, founder and Board Chairman, Jim Herrington said, "In this effort we are committed to the transformation of the public school systems in our city.   We are standing for - we are giving our word to - the transformation of the public school systems in greater Houston."

Executive Director, Steve Capper, declared that "Mission Houston will use all the influence and resources at our disposal to mobilize the Body of Christ to be salt and light in these school systems. We are going to start with a few schools and over a decade we will invest in 135 schools with high percentages of at risk kids". We will seek to bring four sources of tangible benefit - four "m's" - to the effort in each of the schools:

~ Mentors ~ 100 in each of the target schools

~ Mobilized Prayer ~ for each student, for each child/mentor pair, and for the faculty and administration

~ Money ~ $10,000 in corporate, congregational, and/or individual donors to supplement the budget of the school for the needs of faculty and administration.

~ Makeovers ~ an annual project where the school campus is improved (e.g., landscaping, painting, and the like) by youth groups, men's groups, local congregations, etc.

Mission Houston is committed to the spiritual and social transformation of greater Houston.   For nearly a decade this ministry has built relational bridges across many of the big divides that have long existed in the Body of Christ.   In 2006 Mission Houston focused most of its efforts on galvanizing the Church for CityFest Houston.   This event demonstrated what is possible when a significant portion of the Body of Christ comes together prayerfully, strategically, and sacrificially around a common effort.     Mission Houston is praying and working for that same kind of unified focus to be sustained over the next decade in making visible in the public school system the love of God and His "plans for good" (Jeremiah, 29:11) that He has for all people.     

At this luncheon we asked for and received commitments from folks to pray, to mentor, to do work projects and to give.   This initiative represents goals that we call God-sized . . . substantive growth in every area of our work.   The annual budget for Mission Houston is $416,790.   To reach this goal, giving must grow by just over $150,000 in 2008.   Responses at this luncheon produced $54,675 in gifts and pledges.   We give glory to God for all the responses and ask you to continue to pray for God to provide mentors, mobilized prayer, money, and the human and financial resources to do an annual makeover.

For further information, go to fact sheet, or see the video