Cornerstone Curriculum, Official Certification Edition

LESSON 3 | FOCUS ON REPRODUCTION: CHURCH GROWTH / 415

Focus on Reproduction Church Growth – Reproducing in Number and Quality

LESSON 3

page 181 & 1

Welcome in the strong name of Jesus Christ! After your reading, study, discussion, and application of the materials in this lesson, you will be able to: • Demonstrate from the Bible the way in which radical discipleship is produced and authenticated in Christian community. • Articulate the three integrated steps of urban church planting: evangelizing the lost, equipping the new disciples to live the Christian life in the context of Christian community – the Church, and empowering the leaders and the community to reproduce itself and associate with other like-minded churches. • Highlight the ten critical principles drawn from a church planting model from Acts, and apply them to your own church planting efforts in the city. We Must Obey God Rather Than Men Acts 5.27-32 – And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest questioned them, [28] saying, “We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” [29] But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men. [30] The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. [31] God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. [32] And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.” By whose authority do we have any right to talk to those who do not believe in the “outlandish” claims of Jesus of Nazareth? In a day of political correctness and at a time when religious intolerance is producing horrific acts of violence and terrorism, shouldn’t all decent people sort of “simmer down,” so to speak, and let everyone merely believe what they believe, without our interference or judgment? Is the

Lesson Objectives

page 182 & 2

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Devotion page 182 & 3

U rban M i s s i on