I had the chance to meet Keith Bower at Awaken 2008 last week where he was getting energized for his new project after leaving his senior pastor position of 17 years. His courage to take a step away from the comfort of his suburban church is driven by his desire to bring community transformation to urban Houston.

After returning home from Awaken, we took some time to learn more about Keith’s newest plans - plus a little about how he started using Kindle for his urban ministry.

What do you like about Kindle? How do you see it helping?
Prayer is vital. This is God’s work, not ours, and the only way He will unleash His power is in response to the prayers of His people. Kindle facilitates that, and not just locally as in traditional prayer meetings, but globally in a virtual prayer meeting that runs 24/7 worldwide. Kindle allows us to stay connected in both public and private prayer forums in a way that really supports the communal and collaborative culture we envision. We’re very excited about Kindle…and very grateful to you and your team, Robert, for creating it.

Can you tell us a bit more about what you’re doing?
I am working to ignite a new multi-ethnic, multi-denominational movement driven by young adults to create communities of spiritual and social transformation all across urban Houston. Previous generations would have called this “church planting,” and in a sense that’s what it is. But the KIND of “churches” we want to start are very different - simple churches that are more like lifeboats than cruise ships; churches focused on being disciples, on living the way the disciples lived, loving the way that Jesus loved, and doing the things that Jesus did; Bible-believing, Gospel-teaching churches with compassion, inclusion, and social justice built into their DNA; churches that can replicate virally to address the limitless needs of the city. That’s what we’re trying to unleash in Houston.

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