Mark Harden

Volume 22 No 1 | Winter 2008-2009

Lead faculty - Master of Arts in Community Ministry Leadership

Growing up in Detroit and later patrolling its streets as a law enforcement officer, Mark Harden is intimately acquainted with the challenges of urban life. While serving as both an ordained pastor and police officer, Harden founded Detroit Love, Inc., and Streetwise, two Christian outreach organizations dedicated to nurturing the potential of urban youth.

His passion for transformational ministry has led him to specialize in several forms of Christian outreach ministry such as community and project development, violence prevention, positive youth development, and other intervention strategies for improving conditions among children, youth, and families in the urban church context. He has received service awards as a law enforcement officer, an associate minister, and a community outreach leader and has professionally assisted more than 100 urban churches in developing youth outreach programs.

“Jesus met human needs as He traveled from city to city,” Harden says. “Life experience ignited my passion for city ministry, but Jesus’ life and ministry are what fuel it.”