Today we’d like to introduce you to Howard Eddings.
Hi Howard, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
Born and raised in Orange Mound, Memphis, TN, as a teenager, the summer of my 10th-grade year, in fact, I got connected with Urban YoungLife, an outreach ministry to high schoolers.
More specifically, through that ministry, I met a couple who came alongside me and poured their lives into mine, encouraging me to consider what it meant to know and understand who Jesus was and how much He loved me.
That summer, I ended up going to a weeklong summer camp in North Carolina. That trip radically changed my life forever. It was through this camping experience that I met and decide to become a follower of Jesus Christ. I still say that was the best week of my life.
Very soon after returning from camp, my life took a different turn as I was being encouraged and disciples to strengthen my faith, grow in my knowledge and understanding of the Gospel, and passionately pursue God’s will for my life. It was during this time that learn what it meant to trust God and to put others before me. This was a radical departure from what I’d learned, but it fit me well… my values were reconstituted and I began to appreciate the ideals of service and a commitment to love other people and to seek to meet their whole needs. I engaged in serving others right away as it had become ingrained in me that that was what Christ-followers did.
During my senior year of high school and on into college I volunteered with YoungLife, serving urban students who had grown up in a tough community and environment just as I had. Eventually, I went on full-time staff with YoungLife where I was strongly encouraged to sharpen my skills and was given opportunities to lead others. Those formative years with YoungLife were important to my spiritual and leadership training/development/formation process.
A watershed moment for me was stepping into a leadership role with Memphis Leadership Foundation, (MLF) as Vice President, Director of Field Ministries. As V.P. of MLF, my paradigm for leadership was broadened exponentially as I was thrust into the vortex of a leadership storm when it came to being a visionary, a strategist, and an implementor. The leadership of the President and the Board of Directors was high-capacity and high-functioning and I had a front-row seat and was urged to soak it all in because one day, I was expected to lead the organization, which had doubled in size, within the next eight to ten years.
Fast forward seven years after starting with MLF, my ticket was punched… the succession plan had become a reality and I became President of Memphis Leadership Foundation, one of our city’s leading-edge non-profits and one of the largest. Taking on the role was monumental for me, but it was a very bold step for the founder/president who happen to be a white male, and the mostly whiteboard of directors.
TThe board unanimously voted me in as President/CEO, but more importantly, they unanimously agreed to fully support my leadership and committed to stand with me and for me as I took on the responsibility as the leader. I’m forever grateful to those folk who affirmed me and my role as a leader during that time.
I was blessed to lead MLF for about 19 years before turning the reigns back over to the founder, who succeeded me. At the age of 50 and over a period of 29 years and the development of a whole bunch of programs (many of which are still active today) that are making an incredible difference in some of Memphis’ most under-served communities, I felt led to serve in the community where I grew up, Orange Mound. After conversations with my wife, family, and friends, I decided to leave MLF, which has a global reach to the whole city, and commit 15 years locally to one neighborhood through a program I founded called RedZone Memphis.
Today, I serve as the Founder/CEO of RedZone Memphis, Inc. (RZ). RZ is an outreach ministry that targets urban young people between the ages of 9 and 18 who live in one of Memphis’ most under-served communities. Young people at this age are making critical life decisions that may lead to success and will affect the rest of their lives.
RZ is serving urban under-resourced men, women, and children through the provision of leadership and community resource development at the engagement level. We have numerous programs that serve people directly and we are developing the Opportunity Zone, a 38,000 square feet outreach center that will serve as a “node” for community outreach and service delivery in the neighborhood.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
My road, though not free from struggles, has been mostly smooth. I have totally trusted God to guide me along this road I’m traveling because I fully recognize that without him I would’ve detoured or bottomed out a long time ago.
So, God has navigated me down this meandering road, seeing to it that people are strategically placed in my life in life to avoid losing life and/or limb when I do strike a mine or hit a pothole that I otherwise couldn’t have managed on my own.
But, if I had to name a struggle, though I care not to elaborate, it would be self-doubt. I will say it has happened when I take my eyes off God and focus on something else; usually me.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
The Mission: RedZone Ministries, (RZ) holistically serves urban young people between the ages of 9 and 18 who are making critical life decisions that will impact the rest of their lives.
The Vision: RedZone Ministries is committed to working towards the social and spiritual renewal of the Orange Mound community by building strong children, strong families, and strong communities
Accomplishments and milestones. RZ has actively engaged Orange Mound with community-based programming at Melrose High and Hanley Elementary Schools. Through an established “presence” in the neighborhood, RedZone has created a significant footprint in the neighborhood that has become far-reaching. Specifically, we have created a space (temporarily) in the neighborhood where students are able to retreat and seek safety.
Linkages have been made with other not-for-profits and other community-based organizations that have leveraged key collaborations that have added value to our efforts to serve the whole community and to a significant degree collective impact is being achieved. RedZone has become a “relational router” of sorts to the community. With regards to outreach to youth, RedZone Ministries has established a 21st Century Community Learning Center in Melrose High School where we have implemented academic enrichment programming that focuses on improving students educationally, helping them to become college, career, and life ready.
Our goals table will reflect some of our specific outcomes relative to this program and other planned activities; meanwhile, there are some 230 students on RedZone’s roll (622 students enrolled @ Melrose), with about 120 students per week and 67 per day crossing the threshold of our center.
Uniquely Qualified: The uniqueness of RedZone is that we are an intentionally comprehensive, integrative, and relational program. We meet young people where they are and strategically endeavor to meet their felt needs. Due to the nature of the ministry being more community-based, all of our activities and presence are driven by and through our outreach center… our NODE. This allows us affords us the opportunity to be “relational routers” and achieve the “collective impact” we desire.
Strategic Need: We are proposing developing a multi-purpose, multi-generational center that will offer comprehensive outreach services in Orange Mound. More than a physical plant, the Opportunity Zone will foster holistic development activities designed to impact key areas of life for those targeted.
More specifically focused on students ages 9 to 18, from the arts to civic engagement, to business, to government, to education, to recreation, to the church, RedZone, through the Ozone will be an important router in the community and on the leading edge of empowerment in the Orange Mound Community.
So maybe we end by discussing what matters most to you and why?
Having a set of strong core values matters most to me. Having and keeping your values will help to keep you focused on your mission (personally/corporately/organizationally). Beyond my personal spiritual belief systems and my desire to honor and please Jesus Christ our core values are as follows:
Core Values:
• The Community: We are committed to the people and the place.
• The Vulnerable; God is deeply concerned about the poor, the weary, the least, the last, and the lost.
• The Church: We seek to be a resource to the body and to serve as a conduit for creative, innovative, effective, and outreach service delivery.
• Empowerment: committed to a servant leadership model where every effort will be made to equip, enable, encourage, and assist other leaders committed to serving in the community.
• Reconciliation: provide opportunities that facilitate and foster appreciation for diversity in the body of Christ, the community, and the city.
• Risk: creativity, innovation, and courage are welcomed and necessary
Contact Info:
- Email: howard@redzonememphis.org
- Website: www.redzonememphis.org
- Instagram: @redzonememphis
- Facebook: facebook.com/redzonememphis
- Twitter: @redZoneRZM
- Youtube: redzoneministries
