Ministry in a Multi-Cultural and Unchurched Society

F O U N D A T I O N S

M I N I S T R Y S E R I E S f o r

Urban Mission

M INISTRY IN A M ULTI -C ULTURAL AND U NCHURCHED S OCIETY

D r. Don L . Da v i s

U2-750

T h e U r b a n M i n i s t r y I n s t i t u t e , a m i n i s t r y o f W o r l d I m p a c t , I n c .

© 2007, 2012. The Urban Ministry Institute. All Rights Reserved. Copying, redistribution and/or sale of these materials, or any unauthorized transmission, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher is prohibited. Requests for permission should be addressed in writing to:

The Urban Ministry Institute 3701 E. 13th Street Wichita, KS 67208

The Urban Ministry Institute is a ministry of World Impact, Inc.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bible, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All Rights Reserved.

Contents

About the Author

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Preface

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Session 1

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Multiplying Laborers for the Urban Harvest Training Cross-Cultural Ministers

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Session 2

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Theological Foundations for Ministry in a Multi-Cultural and Unchurched Society The Story of God Session 3 The Ground of Certainty for Ministry in a Multi-Cultural and Unchurched Society Jesus Christ as Lord of the Harvest

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Session 4

Culture, Religion, and Diversity in Post-Modern Society The Difference That Difference Makes Session 5

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Drafting a Biblical Ecclesiology in a Multi-Cultural and Unchurched Society The Church and the World Session 6 Evangelism and Follow-up in a Multi-Cultural and Unchurched Society To the Ends of the Earth

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Session 7 What’s All the Hubbub about the Great Tradition? Church Matters and Going Back to the Future

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Session 8

Shared Spirituality and Church Planting Movements Reproducing to the Fourth Generation

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Session 9

Equipping Disciples in a Multi-Cultural and Unchurched Society Creedal Theology as Blueprint for Discipleship and Leadership

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Appendix

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Bibliography

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About Us

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About the Author

Rev. Dr. Don L. Davis is the Director of The Urban Ministry Institute. He received a B.A. in Biblical Studies from Wheaton College, an M.A. in Systematic Theology from the Wheaton Graduate School, and holds a Ph.D. in Theology and Ethics from the University of Iowa School of Religion. Dr. Davis has taught as professor of religion and theology at a number of colleges and seminaries, including Wheaton College, St. Ambrose University, and the Houston Graduate School of Theology. Since 1975, he has served with World Impact, an interdenominational missions agency dedicated to evangelism, discipleship, and urban church planting among the inner cities of America. A frequent speaker at national conventions and conferences, Don also serves as World Impact’s Vice President of Leadership Development. He is a Staley Lecturer and a member of the American Academy of Religion. Over the years Dr. Davis has authored numerous curricula, courses, and materials designed to equip pastors, church planters, and Christian workers for effective ministry in urban settings, including the Capstone Curriculum, The Urban Ministry Institute’s comprehensive sixteen-module seminary-level curriculum designed specifically for developing urban church leaders.

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The Urban Ministry Institute is a research and leadership development center for World Impact, an interdenominational Christian missions organization dedicated to evangelism and church planting in the inner cities of America. Founded in Wichita, Kansas in 1995, the Institute (TUMI) has sponsored courses, workshops, and leadership training events locally for urban leaders since 1996. We have recorded and reformatted many of these resources over the years, and are now making them available to others who are equipping leaders for the urban church. Our Foundations for Ministry Series represents a significant portion of our on-site training offered to students locally here in Wichita. We are thankful and excited that these materials can now be made available to you. We are confident that you can grow tremendously as you study God’s Word and relate its message of justice and grace to your life and ministry. For your personal benefit, we have included our traditional classroom materials with their corresponding audio recordings of each class session, placing them into a self-study format. We have included extra space in the actual printed materials in order that you may add notes and comments as you listen to the recordings. This will prove helpful as you explore these ideas and topics further. Remember, the teaching in these sessions was actually given in class and workshop settings at our Hope School of Ministry. This means that, although the workbooks were created for students to follow along and interact with the recordings, some differences may be present. As you engage the material, therefore, please keep in mind that the page numbers on the recordings do not correspond to those in the workbook. Our earnest prayer is that this Foundations for Ministry Series course will prove to be both a blessing and an encouragement to you in your walk with and ministry for Christ. May the Lord so use this course to deepen your knowledge of his Word, in order that you may be outfitted and equipped to complete the task he has for you in kingdom ministry!

This course’s main purpose is to help each student better understand the themes, issues, and concepts associated with doing effective

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spiritual ministry in a multi-cultural and unchurched context. In a culturally diverse and increasingly neo-pagan religious context, the effective pastor and Christian worker must strive to become proficient in the truths and practices associated with making disciples in the 21st century. As a result of taking this course, each student should be able to: • Quote, interpret, and use effectively key Scriptures on ministering in a multi-cultural and unchurched society. • Reproduce a working outline of the Kingdom of God as foundation for ministry. • Identify the key issues surrounding Christ, culture, and the Church. • Recite select principles associated with evangelism, discipleship, and church formation in multi-cultural and unchurched contexts. • Articulate their own personal theology of ministry in these contexts. • Experience events from other cultures showing appreciation and critical engagement. The risen Lord Jesus commissions every new generation of believers to testify to the grace of God of the Gospel where they live. In a world that is dramatically diverse, increasingly pagan, and yet universally ready to hear the Good News of the Gospel, we must be diligent to understand the dynamics of culture and the principles of com munication to speak God’s Word clearly and boldly. Ministering cross-culturally in a post-modern context is taxing but important, and holds the promise of leading many searchers to him who alone can transform their lives by his grace. May the Lord grant you grace to become all things to all people in order that you may testify solemnly and yet joyfully of the hope God has granted to the world through his Son, Jesus our Savior and Lord.

~ Don Davis

Preface

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Assignments and Grading For our TUMI satellites, all course-relevant materials are located at www.tumi.org/foundations . Each course or workshop has assigned textbooks which are read and discussed throughout the class. We maintain our official Foundations for Ministry Series required textbook list at www.tumi.org/foundationsbooks .

For more information, please contact us at foundations@tumi.org .

Session 1 Training Cross-Cultural Ministers Multiplying Laborers for the Urban Harvest

Part I The Problem: The Emerging Untouched Mission Field of Ethnic People Groups and the Speed Bumps of the Evangelical Church

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Where Is Jesus of Nazareth in the Current Christian American Paradigm?

Christian America Can’t Be Ignored. Viva Bush! Christian America has spoken! We will not tolerate “gay marriages,” the murder of human beings via abortion and stem-cell research, or the violation of our fundamental right to free speech, i.e., removing prayer from schools, the Ten Commandments from government establishments, the phrase “under God” from our Pledge of Allegiance. Unbelievers, secularists, homosexuals, evolutionists, etc.: You are the minority. Democrats are frantically scurrying around trying to figure out how to make the party more relevant to mainstream Americans and keep it from slipping into perpetual minority-party status. Here’s their answer: Realize that there is one God, that he sets boundaries for us to live by, and that stepping over those boundaries will bring consequences each and every time. Quit catering to Hollywood and the progressives, and start standing for what is moral. ~ Jennifer Gerdes. The Wichita Eagle. November 20, 2004.

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I. The Need for Mobilization of Urban Workers and Reorientation of Theological Education in the Light of the Harvest

The church of the city needs to be mobilized for kingdom proclamation and advancement.

A. The challenge of the city itself to the Kingdom

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1. Population growth: over six billion people; in 1900 there were only about 1.6 billion, and as recently as 1970, only 3.7 billion. Almost four times as many people in 2000 as 1900 ( WCE2 , 1:4). 1 Most populous continent is Asia 3,683 million, Africa, 784 million, Europe, 729 million, Latin America 519 million, North America 310 million, and Oceania 30 million. (Asia, Africa, and Latin America comprise 82% of the world’s population!)

1 World Christian Encyclopedia , 2nd ed., 2002.

2. Complex, ethnic diversity: over 160 distinct languages spoken, numbering well over 60 million people, drawn to urban areas for economic, social reasons

3. Bastion of power, influence, civilization, and control: the modern city as the symbol and sign of human civilization; the seat of commerce, industry, politics, military, business, education, jurisprudence, religion, entertainment, athletics, government, medicine, etc.

B. The benign neglect of the evangelical church

1. As of 2000, 419,000 Christian workers are serving God outside of their home countries (this number includes missionaries of all traditions, Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Anglican, independent, and marginal Christian). The U.S. is the largest mission sending and receiving country on earth, sending 118,200 missionaries to other countries and receiving 33,200.

2. Most workers go to the least needy fields, though over 60% of all people live in cities.

“The real, demonstrated sending priorities apparently emphasize helping Christians become better Christians rather than helping non-Christians consider Christ – or helping Christians of one kind (essentially Catholic or Orthodox) become Christians of another kind (evan gelical or Catholic or charismatic, and so on) rather than

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helping those who have not heard the gospel to hear it” (Michael Jaffarian, “The Statistical State of the Missionary Enterprise,” in Missiology: An International Review , Vol. XXX. No. 1, January 2002, p. 28).

C. Most theological Schools are not designed to prepare their own students (let alone the urban underclass) to be workers for Christ in the harvest fields of the city “Few will deny that the United States is an “urban” nation whose most profound problems are on display daily in its metropolitan areas. Nonetheless, only one third of the Association of Theological School accredited seminaries in this country offer (much less require) courses concerned with “urban ministry” (Robert V. Kemper, “Theological Education for Urban Ministry: A Survey of U.S. Seminaries” in Theological Education , Vol. 34, Number 1 (1997): 51-72). 1. Kemper’s article examined some 227 courses, 19 MDiv programs, 8 MA programs, 7 DMin programs and 14 institutes, research centers, and consortial arrangements focused on urban ministry in the context of regional and denominational diversity in the United States.

2. Of the 169 seminaries in Kemper’s survey located in 33 states, only 59 seminaries offered any urban ministry courses, with 110 offering not a single course related to urban life and needs.

3. These schools are unavailable to those who do not meet the academic requirements to enter their programs.

4. As a rule, these schools are very expensive and seek to locate themselves in places where urban problems are least experienced.

“Urban theological education further challenges the presumption of location for theological education. In

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addition to the dichotomous discourse of theory and practice, there is the question of the appropriate place for teaching urban theological education. Is the isolated environment of campus-based theological education the best place to train leaders for the urban church? Tradi tional seminaries should recognize the opportunity to expand their curricula paradigm beyond the monastic ideal of the traditional classroom to the wider community” (Warren Dennis, Katie Day, Ron Peters. “Urban Theo logical Education: A Conversation about Curriculum” in Theological Education , Vol. 34, Number 1 (1997): 41-50).

5. Traditional theological training is usually not relevant to the cultural or social experience of many urban Christian leaders or inner-city churches.

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The Alphabet of Urban Mission: The ABC’s of 21st-Century Ministry among the Poor

II. A – Acknowledge the Spiritual Place, Presence, Peril, and Promise of the City.

A. Scriptures

1. Jon. 4.10-11 (ESV) – And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. [11] And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”

2. Matt. 9.35-38 (ESV) – And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. [36] When he saw the crowds,

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he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. [37] Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; [38] therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” 3. Matt. 28.18-20 (ESV) – 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.”

B. Acknowledge the city’s strategic place in human civilization.

C. Acknowledge the city’s presence as a spiritual outpost for kingdom business.

D. Acknowledge the city’s spiritual peril: Nineveh as a model of the modern city (Jonah).

E. Acknowledge the city’s spiritual promise as a light for the world (Matt. 5.14-16).

F. Bottom Line: Only the most spiritually jaundiced will fail to recognize our inner cities as one of this century’s most strategic mission fields.

III. B – Believe in the Sovereignty, Selection, and Supply of the Holy Spirit to Raise Up Qualified Spiritual Laborers in the City.

A. Scriptures

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1. Zech. 4.6 (ESV) – Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.”

2. Acts 1.8 (ESV) – But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

3. Acts 13.1-3 (ESV) – Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a member of the court of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. [2] While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” [3] Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

4. Acts 4.13 (ESV) – Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recog nized that they had been with Jesus.

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People seem not to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

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B. Believe that crippling, menacing barriers exist for the urban poor in leadership education.

1. Too expensive for the poor to afford

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2. Inaccessible academically

3. Takes too much time

4. Contextually misapplied: simply too long, offered far from ministry environment – offered in a “foreign context”

5. Not culturally conducive to their life and ministry

6. Irrelevant in form and content, esoteric content

C. Believe that the Holy Spirit calls even the urban poor to represent his Kingdom in the city.

D. Believe that God’s call and gifting are irrevocable even for the poor (Rom. 11.34; James 2.5).

E. Bottom Line: The cities of the world can be reached as we equip and train the poor to minister to the poor.

IV. C – Concentrate Our Focus Investment in Strategic Focus: Equipping Leaders among the Poor

A. Scriptures

1. Eph. 4.11-16 (ESV) – And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, [12] to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, [13] until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, [14] so that we may no longer be

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children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. [15] Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, [16] from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

2. 2 Tim. 2.2 (ESV) – . . . and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

3. Acts 20.28 (ESV) – Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

4. James 2.5 (ESV) – Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?

B. Concentrate on equipping not just ministry: Train workers for ministry: “A fish sandwich give-away ministry” versus “A fisherman’s training school.”

C. Concentrate on multiplying indigenous laborers for the urban harvest (2 Tim. 2.2).

D. Concentrate on seeding unreached urban poor fields with urban laborers.

E. TUMI’s current partners: 31 satellites, four countries, with a goal to expand to 150 over the next four years

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F. Our vision: to facilitate evangelical movements among the poor through coordinated leadership networks and their churches

G. Bottom Line: It is more efficient and effective to equip an urban worker than to train a foreign missionary!

H. Feel the urgency of the hour. . . . “ We are not a post-war generation, but a pre-peace generation. Jesus is coming ” (Corrie ten Boom).

V. D – Don’t Delay in Strategic Focus on the Unreached Cities of the World.

A. Scriptures

1. John 4.35 (ESV) – “Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.”

2. Rom. 13.11-14 (ESV) – Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. [12] The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. [13] Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. [14] But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

3. 2 Cor. 6.1-2 (ESV) – Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. [2] For he says, “In a favorable time I listened to you,

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and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

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Let’s respond immediately, right where we are with what we have . . . We can do no great things; only small things with great love.

~ Mother Teresa

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B. Recognize the critical role of urban mission at the end of the age. See the city’s strategic place: “as the cities go, so the world will go.”

C. Acknowledge the unbelievable spiritual stakes: the largest field perhaps in the history of the world (433 cities of a million or more!). “The God of the Bible is the initiator and the director of the missionary enterprise. He cultivates green plants and governs the creation for the well-being of the human race, but his chief concern is focused particularly on people. For their salvation he sends his prophets, as he sent his Son, to the city” (Greenway and Monsma. Cities: Missions’ New Frontier ).

D. Quip: In missions it pays to know your limits . . .

Muhammed Ali: Stewardess:

~ Little, Brown Book of Anecdotes

E. Mobilize your praying and giving to take advantage of this unprecedented opportunity: every urban neighborhood can be a sending center!

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F. Respond to the urgency of the need: the ever burgeoning urban poor.

G. Quote: Join us in equipping laborers to plant churches among the poor.

“Some people ask, ‘Don’t we have enough churches already?’ The answer is ‘No!’ For example, metropolitan Los Angeles has ten million people of which eight million are unchurched. If we planted 100 churches for each of the next 25 years (the average church in America has around 100 members) . . . “. . . we would have reached 500,000 people, leaving seven and one half million unchurched. We will not have enough churches until every person is in one. We encourage all evangelical churches to join with us in a massive cross cultural church planting effort among the urban poor” (Dr. Keith Phillips, Out of Ashes ).

H. Pray earnestly, give generously, serve faithfully until the urban poor populate the New Jerusalem: “raise up an army, O God!”

I. Bottom line: A sign in Hudson Taylor’s home with two words: Ebenezer and Jehovah-jireh (“Hitherto as the Lord helped us,” and “The Lord will provide”)

J. Challenge: Sell out everything to the Christian story.

Indeed, to be a Christian is to be in the business of kissing frogs and nursing ugly ducklings, for nothing is as it appears to be. Nothing in heaven or on earth can prevent the Kingdom of God from coming to the cities of America and the world. Nothing! Forgive me please, but I am unashamedly fanatic concerning this glorious vision . . . “ A fanatic is someone who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject ” (Winston Churchill).

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Part II The Solution: TUMI’S VISION Rethinking the Elements for a Biblically Informed Paradigm for Urban Christian Leadership Development

I. Shift from Suburban, Eurocentric, and Middle- to Upper-Class Accessibility to Biblical and Theological Training to a Deliberate Intention to Provide Quality Biblical Investment to the Poorest of the Poor in Urban Areas in Their Own Cultural Context.

A. Theological Tenet: The poor are rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom of God, James 2.5.

B. Paradigmatic Ramification: changing our view of the urban poor from the benefactors of our paternalistic aid to the warriors and ambassadors of God in the city

C. Our Ministry Implication: TUMI unashamedly provides the best leadership resources available to leaders emerging from urban poor/underclass congregations.

II. Shift from Bible College, Bible Institute, Seminary, Christian Liberal Arts College, Missions Agency, or Para-Church Context to the Local Christian Community/Congregational Context.

A. Theological Tenet: the centrality of the church, 1 Tim. 3.15-16.

B. Paradigmatic Ramification: resourcing the churches so they can make their own decisions for kingdom advance and expression as the Holy Spirit leads

C. Our Ministry Implication: TUMI provides its leadership resources to leaders within and through the Church, in all of its forms and venues.

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III. Shift from Prosaic, Discursive Treatments on Theological Minutia to a Narratival Retelling and Embodiment of the Kingdom Story, with Christ as Center.

A. Theological Tenet: the biblical Story of Christ and his Kingdom, Matt.6.33

B. Paradigmatic Ramification: dramatic alteration of curricula and procedure regarding what constitutes legitimate theo logical maturity and leadership development; focus on the narrative of the story, with a concentration on the Christ event in light of the already/not yet Kingdom

C. Our Ministry Implication: TUMI builds its entire theological vision around the biblical theology of the Kingdom of God, and its meaning vis-a-vis the church and the world.

IV. Shift from External-to-the-Local-Church, Normally Academic and Professional Credential as the Confirming Sign of Church Office to Church Offices Given and Conferred through the Anointing and Gifting of the Spirit, Recognized in the Midst of the People of God.

A. Theological Tenet: gifted members of the people of God, anointed and gifted by the Spirit, confirmed and commis sioned by the church, 2 Tim. 1.6-14.

B. Paradigmatic Ramification: shifting from using academic, professional, and external criteria as the primary means of selecting church leaders to an understanding that church leaders must be set apart for their tasks and offices through an acknowledgment of their gifts of the Spirit and their testimony, confirmed through the consensus of the church and its leaders

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C. Our Ministry Implication: TUMI exists to encourage and equip leaders who have been recognized in their congregations as gifted, anointed, and commissioned officers of their church.

V. Shift from Producing Trained Professionals to Equipping Ordinary Church Men and Women for the Work of the Ministry.

A. Theological Tenet: universal priesthood of all believers, Eph. 4.11-16

B. Paradigmatic Ramification: shifting from credentialing a class of professionals to training clergy to equip ordinary Christians for the work of the ministry using the Christ endowed gifts that have been distributed by the Holy Spirit

C. Our Ministry Implication: TUMI makes its materials available to any and all Christians in the city who sense God’s call to minister.

VI. Shift from Technical Expertise with Traditional Missional and Pastoral Materials and Procedures to an Awakening of the Empowering Presence of the Spirit in the Life of the Church.

A. Theological Tenet: the presence of the Holy Spirit as the arrabon (down payment and pledge) of the kingdom promise, Eph.1.13; 2 Cor. 1.20

B. Paradigmatic Ramification: awakening to the empowering presence and leading of the Holy Spirit in the midst of the church, become aware and sensitive to what he is doing both within (and desires to do without) the local church

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C. Our Ministry Implication: TUMI believes and seeks to express its confidence in the Holy Spirit as the all-sufficient guide for ministry display and development.

VII. Shift from Training Ministry Professionals to Manage Structures and Procedures to Identifying Gifted and Burdened Christians Who Can Be Equipped and Released to Fulfill the Ministries the Holy Spirit Has for Them to Do (Ministry Entrepreneurs).

A. Theological Tenet: the gifting and unction of the Spirit, 1 Cor. 12.1-27

B. Paradigmatic Ramification: concentration upon helping gifted and burdened Christians identify the place and opportunities for ministry that the Holy Spirit has called them to do, and commissioning and resourcing them to do it C. Our Ministry Implication: TUMI seeks to generate ministry entrepreneurs who, under the guidance of their spiritual leaders and the prompting of the Holy Spirit, will invest their lives and efforts in new and diverse ways of ministry, both in the church and to the world.

VIII. Shift from Expensive, Professional, Isolated-from-Ministry-Context Approach to Leadership Development to Affordable, Culturally Conducive Theological Mentoring in the Context of the Church and Ministry.

A. Theological Tenet: the universality of Jesus’ call and the ubiquity of the Holy Spirit, Rom. 12.3-8; 1 Pet. 4.10-11

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B. Paradigmatic Ramification: focusing on reorienting both the venue and context of leadership development to make it affordable, meaningful, and grounded in the locale in which the Spirit has both called and resourced his leaders to function

C. Our Ministry Implication: TUMI seeks to provide excellent, affordable, and culturally sensitive training for urban church leaders in the context of their lives, equipping them to live and minister with integrity wherever God has called them.

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Conclusion

Multiplying laborers for the urban harvest calls for new paradigms of leadership development based upon fresh, open readings of the Scriptures on the poor. If the Church of Jesus Christ is to awaken to the marvelous and yet up-to-the-present wholly untapped resource of urban Christians and their ability to multiply ministry, men and women must commit to fresh, new readings of the Scripture regarding the poor, the city, the church, the kingdom, and other biblical themes which suggest that God has elected the poor to be heirs of the kingdom, and the barons of faith. Without these new perspectives anchored in the prophetic Scriptures, we will continue to believe that nothing profitable ever can emerge from the Nazareth of the present day, the inner cities of America.

Session 2 The Story of God

Theological Foundations for Ministry in a Multi-Cultural and Unchurched Society

• What is the relationship of “metaphor” and “reality” in the biblical parlance?

• To what extent ought theology and concept precede praxis and application?

• How far are we to take the motifs and language of warfare and battle mentioned in the Scriptures?

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I. The Significance of Story, the Importance of Myth, and the Kingdom of God

A. Human beings operate according to their interpretive frameworks: human beings exist as “walking worldviews.”

1. Every human existence is basically a “story-ordered world.”

2. Myth-making as a primary act of human beings

3. The role of culture: enabling us to compose our realities from scratch

B. Integrating the details: story and the need to live purposefully

1. Purposeful mindset: relating all details to the whole

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2. Provisional mindset: relating to details as wholes

C. Elements of a comprehensive biblical worldview

1. Panoramic perspective of the whole

2. Strengthened conscience and conviction

3. Clarification of personal values

4. Philosophical big picture: telos (ends)

5. Dealing with areas of personal security and significance

6. Knowing to whom I am attached: belongingness

D. Components of a guiding worldview: (Arthur Holmes)

1. It has a wholistic goal (where did we come from and where are we going).

2. It is a perspectival approach (from what vantage point do we see things).

3. It is an exploratory process (how do we continue to understand our lives).

4. It is pluralistic (what other views are suggested by our collective vision).

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5. It has action outcomes (what ought we to do in light of our mythic vision).

E. Key Propositions of Story Theology

William J. Bausch lists ten propositions related to story theology that help us understand the significance and importance of the study of stories in the understanding of Bible and theology (William J. Bausch, Storytelling and Faith . Mystic, Connecticut: Twenty-Third Publications, 1984).

1. Stories introduce us to sacramental presences .

2. Stories are always more important than facts .

3. Stories remain normative ( authoritative ) for the Christian community of faith.

4. Christian traditions evolve and define themselves through and around stories.

5. The stories of God precede, produce, and empower the community of God’s people.

6. Community story implies censure, rebuke, and accountability .

7. Stories produce theology .

8. Stories produce many theologies .

9. Stories produce ritual and sacrament .

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10. Stories are history .

F. The importance of the biblical framework of the Kingdom

1. Kingdom teaching is the ultimate point of reference.

2. Teaching on the kingdom story was the heart of Jesus’ teaching.

3. The central focus of biblical theology

4. The final criterion for judging truth and value

5. The indispensable key to understanding human history

6. The kernel of authentic meaning in the created order

7. The basic concept that enables us to coordinate and fulfill our destinies under God’s reign

II. Tua Da Gloriam: The Story of God’s Glory

Ps. 115.1-3 – Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, But to Your name give glory, Because of Your mercy, And because of Your truth. Why should the Gentiles say, “Where now is their God?'' But our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases. From Before to Beyond Time: Adapted from Suzanne de Dietrich, God’s Unfolding Purpose (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1976).

A. Before Time (Eternity Past)

1. The Eternal Triune God

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2. God’s Eternal Purpose

a. To glorify his name in creation

b. To display his perfections in the universe

c. To draw out a people for himself

3. The Mystery of Iniquity

4. The Principalities and Powers

B. Beginning of Time (The Creation)

1. The Creative Word of the Triune God

2. The Creation of Humanity: The Imago Dei

C. The Beginning of Time (The Fall and the Curse)

1. The Fall and the Curse

2. The Protoevangelium : the Promised Seed

3. The End of Eden and the Reign of Death

4. First Signs of Grace

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D. The Unfolding of Time (God’s Plan Revealed through Israel)

1. The Abrahamic Promise and the Covenant of Yahweh (Patriarchs)

2. The Exodus and the Covenant at Sinai

3. The Conquest of the Inhabitants and the Promised Land

4. The City, the Temple, and the Throne

a. The role of the prophet

b. The role of the priest

c. The role of the king

5. The Captivity and the Exile

6. The Return of the Remnant

E. The Fullness of Time (Incarnation of the Messiah)

1. The Word Becomes Flesh

2. The Kingdom Has Come in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth

a. Revealed in his person

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b. Exhibited in his works

c. Interpreted in his testimony

3. The Secret of the Kingdom Revealed

a. The Kingdom is already present

b. The Kingdom is not yet consummated

4. The Passion and Death of the Crucified King

a. To destroy the devil’s work: Christus Victor

b. To make atonement for sin: Christus Victum

c. To reveal the Father’s heart

5. Christus Victor : The Resurrection of the Glorious Lord of Life

F. The Last Times (The Descent and Age of the Holy Spirit)

1. The Arrabon of God: the Spirit as Pledge and Sign

2. “This Is that”: Peter and Pentecost

3. The Dwelling of God with His People

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a. The Temple of the Holy Spirit

b. The making of the new humanity

4. The Age of Sabbath

5. The Time of Jubilee

G. Living between the Times (The Church Militant)

1. The Church as Foretaste of the Kingdom

2. The Church as Locus of the Kingdom

3. The Church as Agent of the Kingdom

a. Ambassadors for Christ

b. Ministers of the New Covenant

c. The Body of Christ

d. The Army of God

4. The Bride of Christ to Be

H. The Fulfillment of Time (The Parousia of Christ)

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1. Completion of World Mission: the Evangelization of the World’s Ethnoi

2. The Apostasy of the Church

3. The Tribulation and Judgment on the World

4. The Parousia : the Second Coming of Jesus

5. The Reign of Jesus Christ on Earth

6. The Great White Throne and Lake of Fire

7. “For He Must Reign”: The Final Placement of All Enemies under Christ’s Feet

I. Beyond Time (Eternity Future)

1. The Creation of the New Heavens and Earth

2. The Descent of the New Jerusalem: the Abode of God Is among Humankind

3. The Second Adam, the New Humanity, and the Glorious Freedom of the Children of God

4. The Lord Christ Gives Over the Kingdom to God the Father

5. The Age to Come: The Triune God as all-in-all

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III. “Thy Kingdom Come”: Living under God’s Reign in the Already/Not Yet Kingdom

A. The distinctiveness of Jesus’ gospel: “The Kingdom is at hand,” Mark 1.14-15

B. Jesus and the inauguration of the Age to Come into this present age

1. The coming of John the Baptist, Matt. 11.2-6

2. The inauguration of Jesus’ ministry Luke 4.16-21

3. The confrontation of Jesus with demonic forces, Luke 10.18ff.; 11.20

4. The teaching of Jesus and his claim of absolute authority on earth, Mark 2.1-12; Matt. 21.27; 28.18

C. “The Kingdom has come and the strong man is bound”: Matt. 12.28,29

1. The kingdom of God “has come” – ephtasen

2. The meaning of the Greek verb: proximity or actual presence

3. The invasion, entrance, manifestation of God’s kingly power

4. Jesus as the binder of the strong man

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Christ’s death for our sins – His payment of the penalty declared against us – was His legal victory whereby He erased Satan’s legal claim to the human race. But Christ also won dynamic victory. That is, when He was justified and made alive, adjudged and declared righteous in the Supreme Court of the universe, Satan, the arch foe of God and man, was completely disarmed and dethroned. Christ burst forth triumphantly from that age-old prison of the dead. Paul says that He “spoiled principalities and powers” and “made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2.15).

~ Paul Billheimer, Destined for the Throne , p. 87.

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D. Two manifestations of the Kingdom of God: The Already/Not Yet Kingdom (Oscar Cullman, Christ and Time , George Ladd, The Gospel of the Kingdom )

1. The first advent: the rebellious prince bound and his house looted and God’s reign has come

2. The second advent: the rebellious prince destroyed and his rule confounded with the full manifestation of God’s kingly power in a recreated heaven and earth

IV. The Christo-centric Order: Jesus of Nazareth as Centerpiece in Both God’s Revelation and Rule

Jesus’ message was the Kingdom of God. It was the center and circumference of all He taught and did. . . . The Kingdom of God is the master-conception, the master-plan, the master-purpose, the master-will that gathers everything up into itself and gives it redemption, coherence, purpose, goal.

~ E. Stanley Jones, Is the Kingdom of God Realism?

A. His mission : to destroy the works of the devil, 1 John 3.8

B. His birth : the invasion of God into Satan's dominion, Luke 1.31-33

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C. His message : the Kingdom’s proclamation and inauguration, Mark 1.14-15

D. His teaching : Kingdom ethics, Matt.5-7

E. His miracles : his kingly authority and power, Mark 2.8-12

F. His exorcisms : his defeat of the devil and his angels, Luke 11.14-20

G. His life and deeds : The majesty of the Kingdom, John 1.14-18

H. His resurrection : the victory and vindication of the King, Rom. 1.1-4

I. His commission : the call to proclaim his Kingdom worldwide, Matt. 28.18-20

J. His ascension : his coronation, Heb. 1.2-4

K. His Spirit : the arrabon (surety, pledge) of the Kingdom, 2 Cor. 1.20

L. His Church : The foretaste and agent of the Kingdom, 2 Cor. 5.18-21

M. His session in heaven : the generalship of God’s forces, 1 Cor. 15.24-28

N. His Parousia (coming): the final consummation of the Kingdom, Rev. 17

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God’s Kingdom means the divine conquest over His enemies, a conquest which is to be accomplished in three stages; and the first victory has already occurred. The power of the Kingdom of God has invaded the realm of Satan–the present evil Age. The activity of this power to deliver men from satanic rule was evidenced in the exor cism of demons. Thereby, Satan was bound; he was cast down from his position of power; his power was “destroyed.” The blessings of the Messianic Age are now available to those who embrace the King dom of God. We may already enjoy the blessings resulting from this initial defeat of Satan This does not mean that we enjoy the fullness of God’s blessings, or that all that is meant by the Kingdom of God has come to us. . . . the Second Coming of Christ is absolutely essen tial for the fulfillment and consummation of God’s redemptive work. Yet God has already accomplished the first great stage in His work of redemption. Satan is the god of This Age, yet the power of Satan has been broken that men may know the rule of God in their lives.

~ George Ladd, The Gospel of the Kingdom , p. 50.

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V. The Kingdom of God as Present and Offered in the Midst of the Church

A. The Shekinah has reappeared in our midst as his temple, Eph. 2.19-22.

B. The people ( ecclesia ) of the living God congregates here : Christ’s own from every kindred, people, nation, tribe, status, and culture, 1 Pet. 2.8-9.

C. God’s Sabbath is enjoyed and celebrated here, freedom, wholeness, and the justice of God, Heb. 4.3-10.

D. The Year of Jubilee has come: forgiveness, renewal, and restitution, Col. 1.13; Matt. 6.33; Eph. 1.3; 2 Pet. 1.3-4.

E. The Spirit ( arrabon ) indwells us: God lives here and walks among us here, 2 Cor. 1.20.

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F. We taste the powers of the Age to Come : Satan is bound in our midst, the Curse has been broken here, deliverance is experienced in Jesus’ name, Gal. 3.10-14.

G. We experience the shalom of God’s eternal kingdom : the freedom, wholeness, and justice of the new order are present here, Rom. 5.1.

H. We herald the Good News of God’s reign ( evangelion ): we invite all to join us as we journey to the full manifestation of the Age to Come, Mark 1.14-15.

I. Here we cry Maranatha !: our lives are structured by the living hope of God's future and the consummation, Rev. 22.17-21.

VI. The Kingdom as “Already and Not Yet”: Jesus's Defeat over the Devil and the Meaning of the "Binding"

When Christ took his seat in the heavens, He proved conclusively that Satan’s devastation was complete, that he was utterly undone. Hell was thrown into total bankruptcy. Satan was not only stripped of his legal authority and dominion, but by an infinitely superior force he was stripped of his weapons also. But this is not all. When Jesus burst forth from that dark prison and “ascended up on high,” all believers were raised and seated together with Him “But God . . . brought us to life with Christ. . . . And in union with Christ Jesus he raised us up and enthroned us with him in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 2.4-6 NEB). ~ Billheimer, Destined for the Throne , p. 87

A. Through the Incarnation and the Passion of Christ, Satan was bound.

1. Jesus has triumphed over the devil, 1 John 3.8.

2. Jesus is crowned as Lord of all, Heb. 1.4; Phil. 2.5-11.

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3. Satan is now judged, Luke 10.17-21.

4. Satan’s power has been severely curtailed, James 4.8.

5. His authority has been broken, 1 Pet. 5.8.

6. His minions are being routed, Col. 2.15.

7. His system is fading away, 1 John 2.15-17.

8. Those he enslaved are being set free, Col. 13-14.

9. His eventual doom has been secured, Rom. 16.20.

B. Although Satan has been defeated, he is still lethal and awaits his own utter destruction.

1. “Bound, but with a long rope,” 2 Cor. 10.3-5; Eph. 2.2

2. “A roaring lion, but sick, hungry, and mad,” 1 Pet. 5.8

3. Satan continues to be God’s active enemy of the Kingdom.

4. Blinds the minds of those who do not believe, 2 Cor. 4.4

5. Functions through deception, lying, and accusation, John 8.44

6. Animates the affairs of nations, 1 John 5.19

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7. Distracts human beings from their proper ends, cf. Gen. 3.1.ff.

8. Oppresses human beings through harassment, slander, fear, accusation, and death, Heb. 2.14-15

9. Resists and persecutes God’s people, Eph. 6.10-18

C. Satan’s final doom is future.

1. He has been both spoiled and utterly humiliated in the Cross, Col. 2.15.

2. His final demise will come by Christ at the end of the age, Rev. 20.

D. Missions is the announcement and demonstration of the defeat of Satan through Christ.

1. The ministry of reconciliation, 2 Cor. 5.18-21

2. The ministry of disciple-making, Matt. 28.18-20

VII. Implication: God’s Call to Ministry and the Kingdom of God

A. God’s call to ministry involves PARTICIPATION by faith in the Kingdom promise of God.

1. Salvation by grace through faith, Eph. 2.8-10