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JoeAnn Ballard arrived in segregated Memphis in the summer of 1965, sent by the Nazarenes to revive a defunct African American church. She was 20, a new graduate of the now-closed Nazarene Bible Institute in Charleston, West Virginia, earning $80 each month and lacking everything but confidence.

Ballard found the church padlocked and the property overgrown with weeds. She cleaned it up and informed the neighborhood that the church was open for business. Nobody came. Weeks went by and not one of the neighbors responded, until Ballard learned that they lacked decent clothes to wear to church. Taking every cent she had, she bought clothing from the Salvation Army and distributed it to the neighbors. Children began coming to Sunday school, and the church gradually started to function. After a year, the denomination sent a man to become the pastor, and she was out of a job. But no matter; Ballard had found her calling.

From that beginning, Ballard went on to build a network of seven centers and dozens of small, inner-city churches, as well as to train hundreds of missionaries to care for the Memphis poor. Her organization, Neighborhood Christian Centers (NCC), has grown to a $2 million enterprise with over 40 paid staff members running programs for youth, children, married couples, and single mothers.

At its heart, however, NCC is not about programs—Ballard says she hates programs. NCC is simply the outgrowth of Ballard's personal ministry to the streets of Memphis. It became a family ministry she shared with her husband, Monroe. With the help of her four biological children, NCC has expanded to become one of the best-known nonprofit organizations in the area.

In 2008, Ballard retired from executive responsibilities, turning leadership over to her daughter Ephie Johnson. When questioned about keeping leadership within the family, Ballard says that decision reflects NCC's grassroots orientation. "Ephie grew up in the ministry," Ballard says; NCC's family orientation requires a leader who knows the ministry from its roots. "They don't have to be a natural child, but they need longevity. Otherwise it will become like any other ministry that gives to the poor."

NCC's secret ingredient, Ballard says, is relationships—a slogan many organizations claim but few live by. At its heart are the extraordinary lives of JoeAnn and Monroe.

Monroe Ballard died last summer after a long illness. On the final day of his life, 300 people waited outside his hospital room for a chance to counsel and pray with him. He saw them all, one at a time. Included were nearly all of the 75 foster children he and JoeAnn had helped raise.

In her memoir, I Belong Here: A Biography of a Community, JoeAnn writes, "When I first began the work of compassionate ministry, the Holy Spirit would not let me go. Every child, every man, every woman was magnified in my eyes, and I was drawn to the neediest of them. I was bombarded with the woes of people until I was completely in the will of God. When I reached that turning point, I began to understand that it was not about getting a glimpse of people so much as it was getting a glimpse of Jesus."

Ballard grew up on a small Mississippi farm. "Montee" Benjamin and his wife, Ora Mae, were distant relatives who took her in at six weeks old after her parents had abandoned her and two siblings. She was the last of 45 foster children her adoptive father raised. The family grew its own food and gained a small income through home enterprises. JoeAnn grew up entrepreneurial and self-sufficient. "I'm a survivor," she says. "I could hit the street running and in a year I'd have a million dollars. But life is not about money."

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January 2009, Vol. 53, No. 1

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