Our story
Leah is the co-founder and Executive Director of New City Cleveland. Her experience with justice and community-based activism began in 2014 when, while she and her family were living in St. Louis, the events of Ferguson unfolded. When the news of Michael Brown's killing aired across the nation, Leah, like many others, took to the streets of St. Louis in peaceful protest. In the years following, Leah's activism developed into work toward systemic change in one of her areas of greatest experience: motherhood. She is a Birthing Beautiful Communities-certified doula. Through MamaStrong she educates, supports and empowers women of color who are pregnant and newly mothering. She is a wife, a mom, an engaged community member, a podcaster and a public speaker. She is passionate about affirming the value and dignity of the neighbors in her community as well as working to bring beauty and justice to spaces where it has been withheld.
Justin is the co-founder and visionary of New City Cleveland. He began dreaming of New City Cleveland in 2016 after a rocky season finishing Seminary and longing to see the gospel displayed in tangible spaces. Within the organization, Justin is responsible for giving leadership and guidance to the Board, as well as cultivating quality relationships with church partners and donors. Justin lends his theology degree to the work of the organization through public speaking, teaching and facilitating. Justin has his Masters in Theological Studies from Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, MO and his Bachelors from Ohio University. He is a husband, a father, a committed resident, a lay-leader at his local church, and an avid reader in his down-time. He is passionate about seeing those with privilege transformed through love, give away power, and walk humbly alongside neighbors.
Leah grew up in Shaker Heights, an inner ring suburb of Cleveland. Justin grew up in Marietta, Ohio, a small town in southeast Ohio. We met in Nantes, France in 2008 where Justin was on a summer mission trip and Leah had been serving as a missionary for a year. In 2010, we graduated together from Ohio University, moved to Cleveland and were married.
We soon realized our marriage would inform our views on the racial reconciliation needed in the world. Justin grew up in a small rural town that was 98% white. After marrying, we attended an African-American church in Cleveland. While there, we were struck by the vision the apostle Paul presents in Ephesians 2 of the dividing wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile being broken down “in his[Jesus’s] flesh” on the cross. The impact of racial reconciliation as central to the purpose of the cross was demonstrated not just to us in marriage but in the context of an interracial small group that was studying Ephesians. This reconciling community was the context for a deeper experience of the gospel.
Our Ministry Formation
It was in Cleveland that our vision for ministry was first impacted by the poverty and injustice of the city. On Christmas Eve at the Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry in downtown (known on the street as “2100”) Justin encountered brokenness that was beyond the verbal presentation of the gospel that he knew. He encountered homeless men who refused to believe in God because they were trapped in the oppressive cycles of poverty, violence, and addiction. Justin’s paradigm was shaken, but his calling was not yet clear.
With the goal of pastoral ministry in mind, we moved to St. Louis, Missouri in 2012 for Justin to attend Covenant Theological Seminary. There we attended a church called New City Fellowship. Soon after, Justin filled a role coordinating and leading their community tutoring program. Youth and their families from the neighborhood shared their time with Justin. He quickly found himself involved in the lives of Hispanic, Congolese, African-American, Somali Muslim, and other families.
The Ferguson Movement
On August 9, 2014 Officer Darren Wilson killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, a ten minute drive from our St. Louis home. The Michael Brown news story of quickly garnered international attention. We felt a deep need to be involved somehow in the events transpiring even if it was as simple as handing out water to protesters or consuming from local restaurants hit by vandalization.
Tension and anger continued through the summer as the Ferguson moment became a movement. Led by a continued vision of the dividing walls or hostility coming down, we, along with other members of New City Fellowship and South City Church organized a ‘Jericho march’ at the St. Louis County Justice Center. The march involved prayers for justice, scripture reading, songs of worship and a great collective outcry. Hundreds attended this and subsequent marches across St. Louis hosted by churches and nonbelievers alike. The message was clear to us— a practical concern for the cause of justice mobilizes and unites people from across denominations, races, classes, and traditions. Not only this, but a practical concern for justice is a witness to the watching world.
The story of St. Louis and Cleveland and so many other cities around the nation are united in the continued violence that haunt our streets and the continued mission of the church to be a demonstration of justice, peace, and healing.
The Path Forward
Our time in St. Louis also involved deep suffering, sin, and brokenness in our own lives. During the summer of 2015, we were both deeply impacted from the Scripture. Hebrew 6:19 “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters into the inner sanctuary, behind the curtain” and Proverbs 24:16, “for though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again.” This summer proved to be a turning point in our call from God as our thoughts and desires rapidly turned to Cleveland, Ohio, developing eventually into the vision for New City Cleveland.