Dirty Vagabond Ministries Inc

As Dirty Vagabond Ministries we strive to live radically the model of Christs incarnation: to be Christ among the people. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

CORE VALUES: We believe that every person deserves Christ. We believe that urban outreach happens most effectively in the midst of community.We believe in a holistic approach to ministry, and so we will empower youth with the resources to develop faith, character, knowledge, and life skills.
We believe in developing catechetical structures appropriate to the context in which we serve.
• We believe in raising up young people who will remain in urban communities as pastoral leaders.
We believe in calling youth to Sainthood.
We believe that greatest intimacy with Christ is found in the Sacramental life of the Church.

WHY WE EXIST?
THE NEEDIt has been our experience that most, youth ministry programs fail to reach a critically important demographic of young people in Americainner city teenagers. Unfortunately youth ministry has become a big business of sort in modern Christianity, and urban communities are often forgotten. There are two main reasons that we see this happening;
First because of the communitys lack of resources to pay for youth workers/ programming,
Secondly because of the Churchs lack of vision regarding the importance of these communities.
At times it seems as if we are able to callously write off urban communities, yet we cannot deny the powerful sway of urban culture on youth culture as a whole. White teens, far from the inner-city streets, are influenced by the slang, fashion, and music of urban culture. Because of urban Americas undeniable sway on culture, we are now seeing the pain, hopelessness, and anger of the urban youth reflected in rural and suburban areas. We can no longer afford to treat urban youth ministry as an after thought ministry. Our efforts to win over these inner-city communities for Christ - will take more than a spring break service trip. The situation demands ours attention and more soour lives.
We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the Gospel of God but our lives as well.1 Thessalonians 2:8.
This verse sums up the spirit of DVM

THE PLAN  As DVM we strive to live radically the model of Christs incarnation: to be Christ among the people.(John 1:14)
Whether it is urban, suburban, or rural  the key to effective youth ministry is always relationships.
Also, understanding that the transmitting of the Gospel is essential, and that the substance of that transmitting does not change; we should also understand that how that happens will look different dependant on the culture receiving the Gospel. Despite this fact  as a church, we often still present a canned, suburban model of ministry to the urban church. Though these traditional models continually fail in inner-city areas, we are puzzled and dismayed at the gaping absence of multi-ethnic, urban - pastors, youth ministers, speakers, and church professionals.

DVM aims at raising these leaders in a grassroots effort and incarnational model of ministry. All ministry that happens in DVM, happens in conversation, relationship, and recreation, as opposed to formal youth group functions. Though our goal is the same as any Catholic youth ministry program - raising saints, rooted in the sacramental life of the Church - our approach is different. The centerpiece of DVM is its community centers. These centers, located in the heart of urban communities, are a place where youth workers live, and catechesis happens, in the midst of holistic ministry  focusing on the physical, educational, emotional, and spiritual needs of the young people. The DV youth workers live as missionaries, volunteering 3 to 5 years of their lives to be Christ among the people.

Target the Gospel to as many people as possible in the hopes of hitting some.
In a different approach, Dirty Vagabond Ministries is seeking very purposefully to:
• Mentor and Disciple leaders.
Our goal will never be to put on an event of large-scale proportions or to boast of massive numbers coming to functions. The objective rather will be to raise up a generation of urban leaders. This mission is fundamentally different from most urban outreach programs because our intent is not to bring up a group of young leaders in the hopes to get them out of the ghetto and on to a better life. Our aim rather, is to raise pastoral leaders in the urban church with the intent on keeping them in urban communities to mentor others. This model, though slow growing, will in the long-term be more fruitful and will ultimately create a cycle that will naturally grow new leaders. As this happens, the ministry will be able to open more centers in more communities.