The Portland Promise Center is a mission-base agency of the United Methodist Church, with a commitment to approach Christian ministry holistically. The Portland Promise Center is also an affiliate organization of the Christian Community Development Association, www.ccda.org. We have adopted the eight key components of CCDA to give shape to our philosophy of ministry.

Eight Key Components:

Relocation: People who work with us are strongly encouraged to live among the people we serve.

Reconciliation: The gospel of Jesus Christ, when authentically lived out will connect people to God and to one another in spite of cultural
differences.

Redistribution: When people of the body of Christ are present and living among the poor (relocation), and when they intentionally love their neighbor and their neighbor’s family the way they love themselves and their family, the result is redistribution, i.e. a just distribution of resources.

Leadership Development: Upward mobility and migration to the suburbs have left a leadership vacuum in our urban neighborhood. Successful community development hinges on indigenous leadership development: equipping servant leaders who will live, work and worship in the community.

Listening to the Community: We do not presume to know what our neighbors need or want rather we listen to their dreams, ideas and thoughts and identify the “felt needs” of the community. Then we work together to identify our strengths and resources and create plans
to address the felt need. This is often referred to as Asset-Based Community Development.

Church Based: A missional church focused on living out the values of God’s kingdom is the heartbeat of any healthy neighborhood. The hope for any inner-city lies in the local church. It is practically impossible to do holistic ministry apart from the local church. First and foremost the Portland Promise Center is a missional expression of the United Methodist Church in the inner-city of Louisville.

Holistic Approach: There are never simple answers to the systemic problems in poor communities. Hence a holistic approach to ministry is needed, an approach that deals with the spiritual, social economic, political, cultural, emotional, physical, moral, judicial, educational,
and familial issues of each person. One organization cannot address all of these issues alone therefore the Portland Promise Center works to build coalitions in the community that will work together to solve the problems in our neighborhood.

Empowerment: is an approach to ministry that values the gifts, talents and worth of every person and creates models of ministry that develop those gifts rather than engender dependency.