Jesus Cropped from the Picture

Introduction

I love churches!

My love for all kinds of churches comes not just from my affection for Jesus, but also because I am an executive with World Impact, a missions organization whose aim is to plant churches cross-culturally among America’s urban poor. World Impact missionaries live incarnationally in the urban areas where we plant churches and minister to the whole person through schools, camps, medical clinics, and the distribution of food and clothing. I am also the Satellite Director for The Urban Ministry Institute (TUMI), World Impact’s theological and leadership development ministry for those lacking access to traditional seminary education due to cost, admission requirements, proximity, or cultural relevance. At TUMI, we train urban pastors and elders who are committed to biblical, historic, orthodox faith from a variety of faith traditions. So it is not surprising that I love churches who are faithful to the Lord Jesus: traditional, emerging, charismatic, Reformed, evangelical, or liturgical. The list could go on. But across all lines of Christian heritage, there is a growing and fearful consensus that Christian faith is declining in America . At the same time, all accounts suggest an explosion of vibrancy in other parts of the world, such as Latin America, Asia, and Africa.

Over the past decades, I have observed these divergent trends from two perspectives. First, I am training pastors and missionaries to

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