Multiplying Laborers for the Urban Harvest

M u l t i p l y i n g L a b o r e r s f o r t h e U r b a n H a r v e s t

Of Whose Spirit Are We? A Primer on Why We Seek to Retrieve the Great Tradition for the City Church

In theology and worship, in discipleship and outreach, nothing is more important than knowing your spiritual legacy, the roots of your spiritual ancestry, the proverbial Rock out of which you were dug. In order to discern the origins of our own heritage, we need to do some spiritual genealogical work, as it were, to detect more precisely what constitutes the roots of our faith in Jesus Christ. Like all believers worldwide, we who count ourselves as disciples of Jesus of Nazareth believe that in his incarnation the Kingdom of God has come to earth. While not fully consummated, the coming of theWord made flesh (John 1.14-18) into the world means that the long reign of the Curse has been broken through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As our Lord and Messiah, Jesus has set his people free from the oppression of the devil, the condemnation of the Law, and the power of sin and death. Because of this freedom Christ granted to the people of God, we may now explore and employ different forms of worship and service to God in the Church, provided of course that we remain faithful to the Gospel and well anchored in the apostolic tradition as expressed in the Holy Scriptures. Throughout the history of the Church, Christians have expressed their liberty in Jesus to change, transform, abridge, or edit their respective structures, norms, and practices. Such freedom has been confirmed on the basis of the consent of the churches and their duly commissioned leaders, and always with a view to glorify God in Christ. These expressions, whenever valid, have sought to recover in richer expression our full Christian heritage as guided by the Holy Spirit. Truly, our liberty in Christ permits us to follow our consciences as we express our worship and service in ways consistent with Scripture. All people of all cultures who follow Christ in

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