Change Tucson

When my wife and I moved to Tucson in 1985, I had never seen the city. I was asked by my boss to take over a radio station (KVOI) that he was buying in Tucson. I had been managing his station in Albuquerque prior to that. Albuquerque is where we grew up. My family and friends were there, the radio station was thriving, and I loved my church (Calvary Chapel). When my boss asked me to “pray about it” I didn’t take it seriously. But when I told my wife she was excited and when I told my pastor (Skip Heitzig) he said “they have palm trees (he grew up in California) maybe I will start a church in Tucson!” All of this gave me pause and made me pray about it. I had 2 unusual things happen that convinced me we were supposed to come to Tucson. Skip and I were flying out to Tucson and the plane was overbooked. We sat in the coffee shop and we were talking about Tucson. A man in the booth next to us asked if we were Christians and why we were talking about Tucson. When I told him the story he looked at me and said “God wants you to go to Tucson”. This seemed strange to me, the guy didn’t even know me, but I filed it away. Then I had a dream where I was in a city surrounded by mountains and I felt like I belonged there. We decided to come. When we were driving in to Tucson I looked at the mountains surrounding me and knew we were in the right place. The first few years were a struggle for survival, but I felt God’s hand helping me every time I got discouraged. It was so tough I sought to escape from Tucson, but every time the door closed. Over the years I have grown to love Tucson and the people here. I believe that we have a future and a hope, and that we don’t need to be a second class city known for drug trafficking, despair and dilapidated buildings and streets. What will happen in Tucson is clearly in our hands. The tendancy we have as we get older is to become less active, when it is at this point in our lives that we really have something to give. I am hoping that you will join me in changing Tucson. There are three areas that we all can participate in impacting:

1. Politically – Our city has been run by power brokers who wield that power for their own personal benefit. We have lacked vision and insight as to what will make this city a great city. We need new leaders, let's find them and vote them in.
2. Business - The established businesses in Tucson are happy with the status quo. It is almost like Mexico where an oligarchy controls things and leaves little opportunity for anyone outside their elite domain. We need to hold our city officials accountable to change the culture in our government to treat everyone (homeowner, business person, neighborhood association, non-profit etc.) regardless if they are new to town or part of the establishment with the same rules and respect.
3. Church – Our church community has been very disconnected. When you have a vibrant church community like in Knoxville or Littlerock where the churches work together for community development (education, poverty, drug addiction etc.), the community is transformed. If you belong to a church, encourage your leadership to work with other congregations to transform our city. We all have different gifts, together it is very powerful. 4 Tucson is beginning that process now.

And visit the 4 tucson web site to see what you can do to transform our city.

www.4tucson.com