White Fields Foundation

Our mission is harvesting what God is doing in Pittsburgh. We are building bridges of reconciliation between men in the business community and the poor through the transformational power of the Gospel. In June 2008, WFF launched a Christian men’s ministry with the leadership of Leo Wisniewski.  Its focus is to challenge men to deepen their faith commitment through strengthening marriages and families, serving the poor, and living out God’s Word in friendship. Many have been blown away by the authentic relationships, the laughs we enjoy and the teaching of God’s Word. To date, there has been a full schedule of outreach dinners, retreats, games, and breakfasts that have been well supported by groups of 25-50.

A little league baseball program was launched and now over 70 boys are participating. Baseball instruction, life skills teaching, and faith development are being provided by trained volunteer coaches. It has become a community hub where families are being drawn together. Significant growth is anticipated for the league in 2010.

Like most of the urban poor in the U.S., these kids ages 7-12 have tremendous needs. They lack father figures and often moral and spiritual guidance. They are faced with life-threatening violence in their neighborhoods on a daily basis through turf wars, gang activity, and drug trafficking. These boys lack discipline and strong male mentors in their lives, and they have little opportunity or hope to realize their full potential.

The WFF men’s leadership team, led by John Cullen, Brennan Gaertner, Tunch Ilkin, Bill Krahe, Doug McNelis, Doug Shaffer and Leo Wisniewski, has developed a full calendar of events that provide opportunities for men to delve deeper in their relationships with Jesus Christ. These activities have led many men to mature in their faith and to serve young men on Pittsburgh’s North Side and in the Dominican Republic through our partnership with Meeting God in Missions.

Click here for our 2008-2009 Year in Review to read about some of our
wonderful experiences and events from 2008 and 2009.

Our Mission Statement

White Fields Foundation is harvesting in the city of Pittsburgh by building new bridges of reconciliation through cross-cultural relationships in the transformational power of the Gospel.
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Harvesting…pursuing those who have a real spiritual hunger by evangelizing, discipling and building leaders.
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Building…forging new and deeper relationships through love, compassion, and trust.
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Bridges…we are the city of bridges and the most important ones we build are the bridges that connect the disconnected.
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Reconciliation….restoring people to a right relationship with God and an essential unity with others. “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ not counting men’s sins against them and he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.” 2 Cor. 5:19
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Relationships…people matter to God. Programs such as Pittsburgh’s North Side Little League Youth Baseball and faith-based functions for men to foster relationships where God’s love is experienced.
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Gospel…the good news of Jesus’ death as payment for our sins and his glorious resurrection giving us our assurance of eternal life. “I am not ashamed of the Gospel for it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes…” Romans 1:16

One of the things that makes us different is our insistence that our men learn to serve the poor in meaningful ways. Our involvement in the North Side represents this and our latest commitment with a missions partner to have a sustained involvement overseas is a reflection of this commitment as well. We are reaching out through Meeting God in Missions by taking short-term mission teams of men to serve the poor in the Dominican Republic. Many of our leadership group including: Leo Wisniewski, Brennan Gaertner, and Bill Krahe have made trips to the Dominican republic with MGM.

Our weekly discipleship group meets Tuesdays on the North Side at the AmaniCafe. This group is led by Leo and Brennan and focused on God’s Word and building community together. We have seen tremendous growth as we experience the power of Christ’s redeeming love at work when men are willing to share their brokenness.