Cornerstone Curriculum, Official Certification Edition

LESSON 1 | FOUNDATIONS FOR CHRISTIAN MISSION: VISION AND BIBLICAL FOUNDATION / 397

If you are interested in pursuing some of the ideas of The Vision and Biblical Foundation for Christian Mission , you might want to give these books a try: Costas, Orlando E. Christ Outside the Gate: Mission Beyond Christendom . Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1982. Curtis, Brent, and John Eldredge. The Sacred Romance: Drawing Closer to the Heart of God. Nashville: Nelson Books, 1997. Jones, E. Stanley. Is the Kingdom of God Realism? New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury, 1940. Newbigin, Lesslie. Sign of the Kingdom . Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980. Yoder, John Howard. The Politics of Jesus . Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1972. Ask God the Holy Spirit to help you so meditate on the motifs covered in this lesson that you may find real and practical ministry connections in your own life and ministry. Select one or more key themes and ideas to think about and pray for throughout this next week, and be open to the Spirit’s leading about specific ways you can better understand and apply the meaning of these motifs to your teaching, preaching, and testimony. Seek the Lord together with your classmates in prayer for one another and the things God has revealed in this material. Also, make a commitment to spend extended times of prayer with the Lord, both alone and if possible with others during the week. Extended time of prayer is key to the application of truth and the transformation of one’s life before the Lord. E. M. Bounds makes this point plain: While many private prayers, in the nature of things, must be short; while public prayers, as a rule, ought to be short and condensed; while there is ample room for and value put on ejaculatory prayer – yet in our private communions with God time is a feature essential to its value. Much time spent with God is the secret of all successful praying. Prayer which is felt as a mighty force is the mediate or immediate product of much time spent with God. Our short prayers owe their point and efficiency to the long ones that have preceded them. The short prevailing prayer cannot be prayed by one who has not prevailed with God in a mightier struggle of long continuance. Jacob’s victory of faith could not have been gained without that all-night wrestling. God’s acquaintance is not made by pop calls. God does not bestow his

Resources and Bibliographies

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Ministry Connections

U rban M i s s i on

Counseling and Prayer page 174 & 4