Sharing Salt and Light with Inner City Columbus Teens

For over five years, Joshua Ashwill has been ministering to residents of inner city Columbus through Salt and Light Church, a Send Network Ohio church plant.

Salt and Light meets at Stowe Mission, a community resource center on Parsons Avenue in Columbus.

“Lots goes on from an outreach perspective here at Stowe, and we get to come alongside as a local church, to be involved in a lot of those things, but then also hopefully see folks get plugged into the local church.”

Two and a half years ago, the Lord gave Joshua Ashwill a burden for 13-18 year olds in inner city Columbus.

As the pastor of Salt and Light Church, he has become familiar with the challenges urban teens face daily and his desire is to see a teen ministry begin and thrive in the church.

“South High School is just a quarter mile down the road,” Ashwill said. “There’s really not too much going on for their students and just kids in that age group at large. So I think the Lord has really shown that to me and given me a desire to begin something like this.”

So, at the end of 2024, Ashwill applied for an evangelism grant from SCBO which helped kick-off Salt and Light’s first Teen Outreach in May.

The event took place at Stowe Mission and drew teens into the facility for an evening of fun and outreach.

“The Lord did abundantly more than I could have ever asked or thought regarding this evening,” Ashwill said. “I had personally been praying for 2.5 years for the Lord to allow us to begin this type of work in our community, but have patiently been waiting on the Lord's timing.”

His prayer was that as the outreach began the Lord would provide at least 20 students that the church could begin relationships with and minister to.
 
“Twenty-three came!” he said.

In a testimony, Ashwill shared his excitement about the new teen ministry:

“We prayed that it would be an atmosphere where everyone regardless of who they were or where they came from could have fun. The follow-up surveys and the testimonies of teens from that evening were that this was the best thing they have ever been a part of.

I prayed that God would provide laborers to be involved in this outreach. We had 11 members of Salt and Light Church that are committed to these teens. We also have partner youth groups around the city that will be serving alongside us for all three of our planned summer outreaches, including a group that served with us that evening!
 
Every student that was here had the opportunity to hear and respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I had many follow-up conversations about students wanting to know more about the God who created them and loves them. Many of our members at Salt and Light got to have similar conversations around the dinner table with these students as well.

All of this was made possible because of the generosity of SCBO and the evangelism grants!”
Following the event, Ashwill realized that a monthly meeting wasn’t going to be enough for the teens who are hungry for more.

“Once a month is just not enough to really build these relationships and to see the fruit and the discipleship,” he said. “We’re going to start a Bible study every two weeks. It’s going to be games, food, but then just walking through scripture together.”

According to Ashwill, the fellowships and Bible study are stepping stones to his final goal for the ministry.

“The end goal is not just to have a fun team night. It’s not just to have a Bible study, but really to see these kids getting plugged into the local church, the body of Christ, where they’re not just around their peers, but the greater body of every generation.”

Ashwill also believes that these teens are the future leaders of Salt and Light Church.
“I think through the discipleship intentionality of raising up these kids, the seeds that were just started on May 1, would grow and seven, ten, fifteen years from now many of the students that are involved will be leading the church and involved in it for the long term. That’s the long-term hope.”