The name for this new and exciting collaboration of urban Christians is taken from the example of the African siafu ant community, hailed by the Discovery Channel as the world’s fiercest and mightiest social community. A powerful example of community builders, their nests can hold up to twenty-two million members, making them the world’s largest social community and easily one of the most productive, inventive, and remarkable groups ever. Siafu are small, vulnerable, and pesky, easily overcome if you attack or seek to destroy one of them isolated and alone, as a mere individual.

However, when banded together in common unity for the single purpose of the survival and strengthening of the community, they are virtually invincible, taking down all kinds of different animals, from goats to buffalo, and (as has sometimes been reported) even elephants in their wake. Their ingenuity and industry (and absolute fierceness) are well known among those who study all the creatures of the insect kingdoms. They are a fitting symbol of the potential that urban Christian men and women possess if they only can unite for the sake of mutual inspiration, edification, equipping, and empowerment. The advancement of the Kingdom of God in America’s inner cities lies with urban Christians – identified, inspired, trained, and released for Christ!man on bench

One of the great challenges of urban Christians is their sense of isolation and aloneness, their inability to connect with others who share their dreams and struggles. The SIAFU Network intends to learn from the siafu ants, who have mastered the art of living in and for community.