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Memphis Business Journal, Dec. 25-29, 1995
Neighborhood Centers Find Mission
Close to Home
by: Tim Sewell
As a college student, Johann Ballad felt that God wanted her to become a missionary. As an adult, she believes she has found her mission field in the inner city neighborhoods of Memphis. 'You don't have to go overseas to be a missionary," Ballad says. "God can use you right where you are."
Ballad is living proof that one person can make a difference. In 1978, she established Neighborhood Christian Centers, Inc., a non-profit organization that provides a variety of services to the city's poor and disadvantaged. NCC now has 20 sites in Memphis as well as centers in Atlanta, West Memphis, Jackson, MS, and Decatur, AL. Centers in each city are responsible for raising their own funding locally.
With 20 paid staff members and more than 1,000 volunteers, the Memphis NCC offers a variety of programs including tutoring for K- 12 students; church planting: emergency assistance; utilities assistance; Sunday breakfast for the homeless, weekday lunches for the homeless; community food distribution; Bible studies; Christmas baskets; a mentoring program called Men and Women of 2000; interim housing; foster care; college scholarship assistance; college food boxes; supplies and transportation; financial counseling; family seminars; computer-training; job training and placement; and summer work programs.
"A lot of times, volunteers will come to us and offer to do whatever needs to be done," Ballad says. "But, in may cases, volunteers come to us with their own ideas about what they can do. In either case, we'll put them to work."
The Memphis NCC serves about 125,000 families per year through its various programs. The center currently provides some form of aid to about 100 college students, volunteers work with about 200 children per work through the tutoring program, and the mentoring program involves about 70 children.
The organization has distributed 12 million pounds of food this year through the Memphis Food Bank. It has provided more than 10, 000 Christmas baskets during this holiday season.
"Our vision is to meet the needs of the poor and disadvantaged, and she with them the gospel of Jesus Christ," Ballad says. "Our aim is not to eradicate poverty. Our aim is to help people who are poor and to spread the gospel.
"I feel like God has put us here to meet the needs of a specific number of people under certain circumstances. We don't try to set goals or make marks." The Memphis NCC has an annual budget of $700,000, all of which is provided through donations from local churches, foundations and individuals.
The organization receives no government funding. Ballad raises money for the organization by visiting local churches and community groups and presenting the story abut the center. Ballad says the Memphis NCC has received financial support and volunteers from both the inner city and suburban churches.
'When you're in a faith ministry, you're always walking on the edge," Ballad says. "This summer, we were on the edge financially and I knew that I was being tested. I prayed about it and a man at the last minute gave us a check for $40,000. For me, that was a confirmation that God is faithful."
The first center outside of Memphis open six years ago in Jackson, MS. That center now has annual budget of $75,000. With a goal of eventually having a Neighborhood Christian Center in every major city in the country, Ballad hosts a two-day training session two times per year for people interested in opening new centers.
Ballad, 51, graduated from Nazarene Bible College (now in Colorado, Springs, CO) in 1966. She received a doctorate in theology in 1990 from Trevecca Nazarene College in Nashville. Before founding the NCC, she worked as a teacher, a non-profit official and a businesswoman.
"Copyright, (1995), The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, TN 38103. Used with permission. Notice: This article may not be copied, downloaded, or reproduced in any form or medium without express, written permission from The Commercial Appeal."