Mentor's Manual

Sec t i on I : Under s tand i ng The Urban Mi n i s t r y I ns t i tute 31

As a Mentor of a satellite of the Institute , it is your task in all you do to point to this one common faith, this one grand tale of God’s faithful love to us all in Jesus Christ. It still has the power to trans- form, and can remake the cities of our nation and our world, as the Spirit leads. This is your task, and this is your privilege. As we mentor students in the always-everywhere-and-by-all tradition of the Church, we will have the honor of equipping God’s leaders who will, God willing, continue on their work as equippers in the body of Christ. This task of training is universally applicable; all TUMI students, from whatever traditions they represent, can embody, guard, and instruct their congregations in the truth of Scripture, and thus prove their connection to that one people of God as defined by the Nicene Creed: God’s “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church.” Nothing will prepare you better for mentoring Capstone or Foundations courses than gaining a mastery of the ancient consensus of the Great Tradition, i.e., the historic orthodox teaching of the Church. For a more thorough understanding of Sacred Roots , please read Sacred Roots: A Primer on Retrieving the Great Tradition , by Dr. Don L. Davis. In this book, you will see that the Christian Faith is anchored on the person and work of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, whose incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection forever changed the world. Between the years 100 and 500 C.E. those who believed in him grew from a small persecuted minority to a strong aggressive movement reaching far beyond the bounds of the Roman empire. The roots this era produced gave us our canon (the Scriptures), our worship, and our conviction (the major creed of the Church, and the central tenets of the Faith, especially regarding the doctrine of the Trinity and Christ). Dr. Davis suggests how we can renew our contemporary faith again, by rediscovering these roots, our Sacred Roots , by retrieving the Great Tradition of the Church that launched the Christian revolution.

Sacred Roots and

the Capstone Curriculum

For more information about Sacred Roots, visit our website: www.tumi.org/sacredroots