Our Story
Small Beginnings
Graffiti Ministries began in January 2015 when The Trainer Family moved to New York City in order to plant a new Brooklyn-based mission out of Graffiti Church, which has served the Lower East Side of Manhattan for fifty years. Desiring to meet the community's physical and spiritual needs, they began by tutoring a young man who wanted to earn his GED. Starting in a construction job-site trailer, this ministry would become the Graffiti Ministries Learning Center, which today offers a variety of educational programs designed to break the poverty cycle. As the Learning Center meets the tangible “felt” need, Graffiti Ministries also meets the spiritual need by bringing the hope of the gospel to the community through bible studies, worship, evangelism, and discipleship.
A Ministry Called “Graffiti”
Why “Graffiti” in the names of our two organizations? We are part of a network of ministries that began in New York City in 1975. At that time, people were continually tagging graffiti on the building of that first ministry center, and so people began calling it the “Graffiti Church.” Over the years, that ministry has sent out other missionaries to communities of need through NYC and beyond. Each of these daughter ministries are autonomous and independent but has a similar heartbeat to see lives changed in the inner city. We are proud to bear the “Graffiti” name because it tells such a beautiful story!
