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Session 2: Knowing Our Urban Roots, cont.
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III. To Hear:
Former mayor of Kansas City and now congressman Emanuel Cleaver, II, senior pastor of the St. James United Methodist Church, preached a wonderful sermon on moving from Bethlehem to Nazareth. In so doing, he affirms the very reason the Church of the Nazarene was so named. Listen to him attentively and jot down his reasons and evidence for his thesis.
IV. To Read:
- Read thoughtfully chapters 3--4 of the Bakke/Sharpe text, dealing with the “Five Street Signs” that changed his ministry, along with the discussion of the significance of the rural migration to the City.
- Read the “Letter to Diognetus” from the 2nd century. Compare the reputation of those Christians with those who bear the name now.
- Read an interview with Dr. Tom Nees, founder of Community of Hope, and director of the USA/Canada Mission/Evangelism Department at Nazarene Headquarters in Kansas City. In this interview, he tracks his own theological foundation through John Wesley and Phineas Bresee, and coins the focus of ministry as “compassion evangelism.”
- Read some selected quotations from Dr. Phineas Bresee, co-founder of Los Angeles First Church of the Nazarene, considered by many the “Mother Church” of the denomination. Dr. Bresee makes it very clear that part of the mission of the fledging new denomination was to minister to the people on the margins of society.
- Read the PowerPoint presentation by Tink, entitled “A Wesleyan-Holiness Perspective on Caring for Distressed Peoples,” that offers the Church of the Nazarene’s doctrinal rationale for caring for all peoples, including those on the margin. This PowerPoint presentation is in two parts: Part 1 and Part 2.
- Read the outline on “Biblical Cities and Apostles Who Teach Us about Urban Ministry.” There is much to learn from God’s interactions with the cities of the Bible and the ways in which God worked through a strange array of people to change life in the City. What cities and what individuals are most helpful to you as you think about urban ministry?
Continue with Session 2
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