Pastor Troy Evans
Urban Catalyst and nitrogen Co-Founder
Pastor Troy "PE" Evans is a former gang leader who surrendered to Jesus after being indicted in a grand jury investigation. After being released from jail, he surrendered his life to Christ in Detroit. Troy became a engineer and business owner. He left his job, planted three urban churches and has become a national speaker on the topics of urban ministry, church planting and youth engagement. Troy has been featured on national media outlets to include 700 Club, Harvest Show, TEDx and is a CCDA trainer. Troy's book, The EDGE of Redemption, is used by many universities and ministries across the country, helping the church engage the mission field of North America and beyond.
Dr. Phillip Struckmeyer
nitrogen Co-Founder and Network Catalyst
Phil is a movement-minded leader who has been a catalyst for dynamic disciple-making and church multiplication for the past 18+ years. In 2003, Phil and his family planted the church, IMPACT, with a vision to plant 3 churches in 5 years and 10 in 10. As IMPACT multiplied churches and grew to a church of over 1,000 lives, Nitrogen was birthed as a network helping The Wesleyan Church denomination further its movement of multiplication across North America. Having recently completed his Doctorate of Ministry in Leadership and Global Perspectives, Phil is now focused on a vision of church multiplication that transforms lives and restores urban communities
across North America and beyond.”
nitrogen is a urban church planting and multiplication network purposed on planting and multiplying churches in the urban mission field of our own backyard . With our backyard continuing to increase in density, diversity, and disparity, a new, sustainable strategy is needed. Through the praxis of Christian community development, integrated with the best practices of church multiplication, nitrogen offers a dynamic strategy for becoming a part of God's redemptive work in urban communities.
nitrogen is a church planting and multiplication network made up of churches and business leaders creating a sustainable movement of church planting and multiplication in urban communities across North America and beyond.
To see a movement of
church planting and multiplication, changing lives and transforming urban communities, through the whole gospel being radically unleashed.
To create a movement of church planting and multiplication by raising-up high capacity, urban planters, leaders, and teams; identifying highly receptive urban sites, cities, and communities; and empowering robust resources of prayer, renewal, and capital
to see a movement rise!!!
1. Creating Network Centers
2. Engaging in Urban Communities
3. Planting and Multiplying Churches
Purposed on reaching the dense, diverse, and distressed urban mission field.
Urban communities are defined by nitrogen as communities where the density, diversity,
and disparity are high. Currently in the U.S. 82% of Americans live in cities where ethnic and
cultural diversity is the norm. In the U.S. today there is no longer a racial or ethnic majority
for children under the age of five and by the year 2055 there will not be a racial or ethnic
majority in the population as a whole. Creating even greater complexity in urban
communities is the high rate of poverty at 20% of the population, most adversely effecting
ethnic minorities with blacks experiencing a rate of 27.2% and Hispanics a 25.6% rate while
non-Hispanic whites experience a rate of 9.7%. With such high density, diversity, and
disparity, the urban context has the potential to be a powerful center of God’s redemptive
work in our world.
[1] http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS.
[2] http://urbanland.uli.org/industry-sectors/american-demography-bursting-diversity-yet-baby-bust/
[3] http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/03/31/10-demographic-trends-that-are-shaping-the-u-s-and-the-world/.
[4] http://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/alfresco/publication-pdfs/412898-Poverty-in-the-United-States.PDF.
Density, Diversity, and Disparity
The following images illustrate the population density based on ethnicity compared to the distressed level of each zip code within each region. Go to the "Resources" page to click on the "Population and Race Density Maps" and the "U.S. Distressed Communities Index by State and Zip Code" to further explore patterns of density, diversity, and disparity in your city.