New York was named the United States’ most expensive city in a recent survey posted in Money magazine. Nearly everything costs more in the Big Apple.
And no one knows that better than Bill Wilson, the founder of Metro Ministries in Brooklyn. In the last 25 years, Wilson has developed America’s largest Sunday School program, which reaches 20,000 urban kids each week.
He’s been acclaimed by Christian leaders, the media and government officials who have said Metro Ministries has helped make the Bushwick section of Brooklyn both “livable” and “investable.”
The methods of Metro Ministries look simple enough — each week, staff members (including Wilson) drive busses around the city and bring kids to innovative children’s church programs.
But a deeper examination reveals a narrow, bloodstained road that few are willing to take. “We have paid a price for it,” Wilson said.
The journey to start Metro Ministries has nearly cost him his life. Two years ago, he was robbed at gunpoint. One of the thieves stuck a gun in his face and when a struggle ensued, the trigger was pulled. “It felt like my whole face exploded,” said Wilson, who drove himself to the hospital and resumed preaching a few days later.
“I’ve been stabbed twice, thrown off a building and hit in the face with a brick,” said Wilson, who has seen 22 murders and survived three plane crashes.
After getting hit with a brick, he lost his sight in one eye for three months. The attack — approximately 20 years ago — nearly made him quit. But a bulldog faith and a “hell or high water” mentality have enabled him to persevere. It’s a determination that he tries to inspire when he speaks to believers all over the world and when he runs a “boot camp” training program in Brooklyn. “Your commitment has to be stronger than your emotions, but for most Christians that is not the case,” he said.
A native of Florida, Wilson came to New York City in 1980 after working with Pastor Tommy Barnett in Iowa. He quickly discovered that Brooklyn was no “Field of Dreams” — “Moving here was the hardest part.”
“I came to New York because [at that time] it was the worst place in America,” he said. “I wanted to be where people’s needs were the greatest. I knew that if the gospel worked in New York, it could work in any city.”
Wilson already knew God could reach anyone. As a young child, he was abandoned by his mother on a street corner. He waited for her for three days but she never returned. A Christian man took him off the streets, and his destiny was forever altered.
“I should have been an alcoholic like my mother,” he said. “When something like that happens, you can allow it to strengthen you or you can use it as an excuse to feel sorry for yourself.”
So instead of becoming one of the statistics, Wilson chose to be a catalyst for changing them. Many of the children who attend Metro’s Sunday School live in some of the worst inner-city neighborhoods and face hunger, gang violence, drugs and crime on a daily basis.
In 1997, Ted Koppel and “Nightline” cited Metro Ministries as one of the main factors for the radical change in the Bushwick section.
It’s a change that has not happened overnight. Wilson was in it for the long haul from the beginning and seeks to impact generations of kids. “Most people want to see quick tangible results, but this takes a long time,” he said.
Metro Ministries conducts Sunday School programs for inner-city children six days per week at 150 sites throughout New York City. It offers programs right after school each day, a critical time for juveniles. The program consists of “fun and games and with a positive message that encourages them to stay in school, to stay away from gangs and crime and to dream big.”
Metro also presents Sunday School programs in several other countries and its model is being duplicated by organizations around the world.
In addition to Sunday School, Metro also ministers to children and their families in New York with summer camp programs, a school backpack drive and Thanksgiving and Christmas outreaches.
Metro’s Won By One monthly sponsorship program links donors with children in New York City and in countries throughout the world.
Many Sunday School kids have gone on to college and achieved great things, but Wilson has a different measuring stick in defining success. “I am not as interested in what they become as I am interested in what they do not become,” he said.
And when people ask him the secret of his success, he is quick to point out that without Jesus, nothing would be possible. The mandate for Metro Ministries comes from the Numbers 16:46–48, Wilson said. He noted how Aaron stopped the plague by making atonement for the Israelites.
“Our mandate is that one person can make a difference,” he said. “That saying makes a good Sunday morning service, but not many Christians buy into it. They don’t believe it’s possible. But it is possible.”
It’s possible to produce lasting fruit, he said, if people are willing to do the behind-the-scenes work of ministering and building relationships. “You have to earn the respect to speak into their lives. You have to be willing to pay the price.”
For more information, visit www.metroministries.com. (EP)
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