Focus on Reproduction, Mentor's Guide, MG12

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F O C U S O N R E P R O D U C T I O N

Our objective for this segment, Introducing the Concept of Oikos in Urban Evangelism, is to enable you to see that: • In regard to outreach and methods of sharing the Good News in the city, one of the key concepts deals with the principle of oikos, or household evangelism. An oikos is a web of common kinship relationships, friendships, and associations that make up a person’s larger social circle. • Urban communities are faced with difficult challenges that must be taken into account as we strategize to engage in urban evangelism (including broken family units, economic underdevelopment, alienation and loneliness, drug abuse, violence, housing shortages, and general despair). • The concept of oikos in the NT is significant, explaining not only the Church of God as the family of God but also as the most common term for family unit . • The meaning of oikos is fuller than our modern day notion of family (i.e., father, mother, and children), but included blood relatives, other dependents (including slaves, employees, and “clients,” among others), as well as those whom the head of the household patronized and protected. • The outreach in the NT expanded along the lines of the oikos ; evangelism was done in conjunction with this structure, and became the primary structure for worship, discipleship, and outreach. The oikos was actually considered a “church” if its members came to faith in the Lord Jesus. • In the same way that the oikos laid the foundation for evangelism in the early church, it likewise can become a key to spreading the Gospel in the urban community.

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I. Go and Make Disciples . . . in the ‘Hood’

Video Segment 1 Outline

Matt. 28.18-20 - And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. [19] Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, [20] teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”