This Is Our Story
After more than 25 years with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, a national inter-denominational college campus ministry, Paul Hughes founded Kingdom Forerunners in 2007. While continuing to fulfill God's call to the campus as a mission field, Paul was able to create a non-profit structure that could also follow Jesus into city, regional, and national prayer and reconciliation assignments. Lucy Hughes, Paul's wife, serves as vice president and exercises her leadership and teaching gifts primarily in weekly Bible Studies on campus at the University of Alabama - Birmingham (UAB). College students and young adults are challenged to build gospel communities on campus and in cities that model a) multiethnicity with equity, b) biblical sexual ethics that honor marriage as God created it, and c) participation in God's mission to the world through proclaiming Jesus as Savior, Lord, and Coming King. The Ignite Campus Ministry at UAB is the bulk of where time and energy is spent, but the Birmingham Prayer Furnace, Civil Righteousness Initiative, and Silk Road ministry in Central Asia are high leverage parts of Kingdom Forerunners. Paul has long term relationships in the Native American community across the Nation. Paul is the author of two books, Finishing Life Well and Finishing History Well. Paul serves on the Boards of Ignite Movement, Civil Righteousness, and Excellencies of Christ Ministries.
Fueling a Culture of Night and Day Prayer through Mobile events.
Birmingham's blast furnaces relied on a constant supply of materials delivered by trains. The newly formed iron products were in turn transported by railcars to factories. Old steam engines required constant fuel to be shoveled into the boilermakers which made the steam which drove the pistons which pulled the freight. God desires the whole city to be a Furnace of Prayer. Mobile Prayer Furnace events are diverse worship and prayer teams pulling together as one train of worship to Jesus. Our favorite places to go are where hearts are really broken and hungry. That is often rehab centers for addicts and transition homes for people escaping crisis situations. But anywhere wholehearted, night and day worship of Jesus is welcome can become a Mobile Prayer Furnace destination. Contact us to schedule a Prayer Furnace where you are.
The U of Alabama Press published a biography of Paul's uncle Bob and his work during the birth of the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama and the Independence Movement in Southern Africa. Paul was able to provide personal video interviews with Bob Hughes as valuable source material.
Civil Righteousness Initiative
Paul's dad and uncle were both Methodist ministers who stood with the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950's and lost their Alabama pulpits as a result. Paul's uncle, the Reverend Robert "Bob" Hughes, was executive director of the Alabama Council of Human Relations from 1955 to 1960. Martin Luther King, Jr, Ralph Abernathy, and Rosa Parks were members before Rosa's arrest which launched the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Bob Hughes hosted Alabama's first statewide gatherings of White and Black pastors and White and Black College students in the late 50's. Following in Bob's footsteps, Paul has pioneered and served multiethnic campus fellowships across the South and founded Christian student groups on numerous Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Racial reconciliation, justice, and healing through Gospel centered communities is God's antidote to the deepest spiritual causes of racial injustice. Paul builds multiracial cohorts of Christian leaders across Birmingham to be the trusted voices for unity when crisis hits.
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Click below for more information about the national organization of Civil Righteousness, led by Jonathan Tremaine Thomas out of Ferguson, Missouri. Paul continues to serve as the only remaining founding board member.
This original song by Paul and Lucy's son Caleb was made into a music video by the UAB Theatre Department. It was an anthem to God's redemptive work during the 2011 and 2012 memorials to the four girls killed in the Klan bombing of the 16th Baptist Church on September 15th, 1963. The song is produced by the Birmingham Prayer Furnace and on Spotify.
Here are a sample of Civil Righteousness Initiatives out of Kingdom Forerunners.
Redigging The Wells was a three year series of prayer gatherings redeeming four historic injustices. 1 - The Well of Birmingham on the 49th and 50th anniversaries of the Bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in 2011 & 2012. 2 - The Well of Native Honor on the 200th anniversary of the Treaty of Fort Jackson in Wetumpka in 2013. 3 - The Well of Selma on the Jubilee of Bloody Sunday in the Spring of 2014. 4 - The Well of Abba Father in Montgomery during the Fall of 2014 honoring Abraham Mordecai, the Jewish founder of Montgomery and Rabbi Abraham Heschel, who inspired leaders like MLK in the March from Selma to Montgomery.
We believe a child's right to an age of innocence should be a protected civil right. The Birmingham Prayer Furnace was invited by the leadership of the world's largest advocacy group, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, to provide on site Prayer Rooms for their first years hosting a Global Summit in Washington, DC.
Civil Righteousness includes protecting the Image of God in men, women, and children against all forces seeking to diminish Human dignity. Whether that is the dehumanizing impact of racism, sexual exploitation, or economic injustice.
The Civil Righteousness Initiative works with Jim Pinto of the Father James Coyle Memorial Project to join Birmingham Catholics working for racial justice through the gospel of Christ.
Other Efforts That Make Us Special
Next Gen Leadership Development
Spiritual formation of life around the Person of Jesus and Spirit filled disciplines.
The Silk Road Initiative
We partner with Christian communities making disciples of Jesus in Central Asia.
Native Honor
We seek to build a culture of recognition and honor for the first gatekeepers of the Land.
