Pray for our Savior’s touch on the people in your community today. You can have a powerful impact in your community as well—download INTERCESSORY ACTIVISM and find out how!

“When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, ‘Who then can be saved?’ Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’” (Matt. 19:25-26)

View Comments (5)

How do you revitalize a dying downtown? Maybe it’s the same way you save a dying marriage—one day at a time.

Okay, so maybe Martin Luther didn’t really say, “If I knew the world was to end tomorrow, I would still plant an apple tree today.” Still, let me tell about a couple of amazing friends who are living this way right now.

John and Ashley Marsh’s life as a married couple was a mess, and I’m probably understating that. John was doing drugs and was a million and a half dollars in debt. They were also overdrawn by ninety-nine thousand dollars and headed for an ugly divorce.

Then one day John headed to the attic, intending to hang himself as the best way out. Instead he met Jesus, who told him not to kill himself but instead to die to himself.

John came downstairs and told Ash he got saved. She said he was lying. But he wasn’t, and months later she too found new life in Jesus Christ. They began to see that God loves broken people….

“We’ve dedicated a good portion of the last 20 years to redeeming this small patch of ground,” Marsh tells Yellow Hammer News. “We believe there is something powerful about redeeming cities. So we’ve renovated all these downtown buildings and residential houses in an effort to make a difference.”

And what a difference the Marsh Collective, their conglomerate of business ventures dedicated to resurrecting the city, has made. Where once was decay you’ll now find restaurants, businesses, lofts for new residents, a couple of breweries, and most especially, hope. “We believe,” Ash says, “that hyper focus in any area can change it.” And indeed it has! What was once a blighted area has become a destination….

If this sort of thinking, and John and Ashley’s story has sparked your redemptification imagination, you’ll want to be part of the Wilberforce Weekend in Washington, D.C., this May. You’ll have a chance to meet my friends John and Ashley Marsh, as well as some other amazing apple-tree planters like Joni Eareckson Tada, Jimmy Lin, Fr. Robert Sirico, and Andrew Peterson. (Excerpt from John Stonestreet &  Stan Guthrie’s article in Breakpoint)