I. Key Questions:
- Where do I begin to make a difference?
- How do I determine need?
- Where are my resources?
- Do I begin with what exists, or should I start something new?
- Do I start with helping existing urban churches, church planting, ministering through compassionate ministries, mass crusades, personal evangelism, community development?
- But isn’t it overwhelming?
- Suppose I am rejected?
- But my family doesn’t support me.
II. To Prepare: Biblical Study
Read Luke 5 to see the way in which Jesus engaged a working staff and then ministered in the towns; and Acts 16 to see how Paul enlisted his team and then engaged a succession of cities and strategies to impact them for the gospel. While you read, ask yourself these questions:
- Why did Jesus and Paul not fulfill their mission alone? Why did they recruit others? What were the qualifications of those who they enlisted? What was the nature of the “call” of those who were enlisted?
- Of the traditional forms of urban ministry, i.e. personal evangelism, church planting, development of compassionate ministry programs, which of these were used in the missions of Jesus and Paul?
- What, then, were the approaches to the city used by Jesus and Paul?
- What modern-day equivalences do you see similar to the urban approaches by Jesus and Paul?
- What are examples of old and new cloth patches in terms of urban ministry?
Continue with Session 4