Gangland Preacher - Olu Jegede

Welcome to Episode 8 of Sidewalk Skyline Podcast. Today we are starting a series that I call Gangland Preachers. In this and upcoming episodes we are going to hear from some people that have firsthand experience when it comes to gangs and their effect on the community. Most of our discussions will focus on the Toronto area. 

Today’s guest is Olu Jegede who pastors Christian Centre Church in Toronto.

Hey, do you get those Amber Alerts on your smart phone? More than once I’ve been awakened in the night by that disturbing ring tone to report that a minor has been abducted or has gone missing.

I remember in early March of this year getting the alert about a 14-year-old boy that was missing from the Jane and Finch neighbourhood of Toronto. He had been abducted over a $4 million drug debt that his stepbrother had owed from last summer.

Well that young man was a recent example of someone that Christian Centre Church knows and cares about. He was recovered by police and returned home. These kind of stories are very real and personal for people like Pastor Olu Jegede.

In 2007 Jordan Manners was killed by gun violence inside his high school. This was one of the many young men that Olu has mentored over the years. 

Like Nehemiah of old, God calls some people into urban centers to build community and faith in places that have lost both. This session was a presentation that Olu gave at Our City Toronto 2019.

Links:

https://ccctoronto.com/

https://innercityoutreach.ca/

Jennifer and Olu Jegede

Jordan Manners’ funeral

Windsor's Little Church With A Big Kitchen

Welcome to the first ever episode of Sidewalk Skyline. I’m your host Kevin Rogers and I have lived most of my life in Canadian cities, well… at least in Ontario cities. In this podcast we are going to feature men and women from across Canada doing some extraordinary work in the places they live.

So where am I from? I live in Windsor, Ontario where the church I planted is celebrating 26 years of loving our neighbours, especially those living on the margins of society.

Today’s pilot episode is an interview with Rodger Fordham, director of Feeding Windsor. If I didn’t have the privilege of working alongside Rodger, I would still think this a great place to start our investigation of what God is up to in Canadian cities.

In 5 years, this outreach has had a meteoric rise to 200,000 meal servings for this upcoming year. You are going to hear how a small church can partner with others to make a large dent in the city through hospitality.

Links:

www.feedingwindsor.ca

  http://newsongwindsor.blogspot.com/

https://paoc.org/canada/workers/priorityurbancentres

https://paoc.org/canada/about/staff/lists/mc-staff/urban-coordinator

Feeding Windsor is an outreach agency of New Song Church focused on providing a table in food deserts, hospitality in neighbourhoods and strategies of food empowerment in our city. More details are on our website at www.feedingwindsor.ca

What is Sidewalk Skyline? →

Isn’t it amazing how you can drive 120 kilometres per hour on a multi-lane highway until you reach the city at rush hour? Suddenly, you are parked and inching forward with feelings of dismay at being delayed.

While everyone talks about the fast pace of city life, the truth is that those who live in the city core are learning how to live slowly on foot, bicycle and mass transit. Those who settle into the rhythms of city life are finding ways to slow down and experience their environment in ways that might puzzle their country cousins. Could it be that many suburbanites are living more hectic than the ones who live and work downtown?

The jazz legend Hoagy Carmichael had a song ‘Big Town Blues’.  A phrase he sang paints a vivid picture.

‘I’m in a bargain basement with a sidewalk skyline’

The song talks about coming to the city with dreams of living in a penthouse and instead living in a basement apartment.

So what is the view of the city like from there? That is what we want to explore in our new podcast ‘Sidewalk Skyline’.

Come on a cross-country journey with me and meet people on the ground in urban centres that have a particular view that comes from being there. Listen to the insights of people who have one ear to God and the other to the ground in their city.

Get an insiders look at how Christians are navigating city life.