Multiplying Laborers for the Urban Harvest

O f W h o s e S p i r i t A r e W e ?

enabled them to represent nobly the Kingdom of God in their time and lay a foundation and example for us to follow today.

Because of this, we are convinced that a critical retrieval of the Great Tradition can enhance our ability today to bear witness to the Kingdom in a troubled and lost society. Let’s be plain about our goals in this effort. Our retrieval of the Great Tradition does not naively assert that everything the early Church believed and practiced ought to be reproduced today, regardless of what they asserted or did. Furthermore, neither do we suggest that they were a perfect community. In our view it is wrongheaded and unbiblical to advocate a nostalgic return to simply repeat whatever they did in an ape-ish and unthinking fashion. That goes against both our biblical conviction that the Berean spirit is noble (who even vetted the teaching of Paul the Apostle over against the Scriptures, cf. Acts 17.11) and our Protestant heritage of being reformed and always reforming. Truly, our time is our time, and we cannot merely attempt to return to the “good old days” of pristine community. Like it or not, it has been over 2,000 years since the Church of Jesus Christ was formed, and the Spirit of God has been active throughout that entire history, with all its speed bumps and bruises included. Rather than seeking a nostalgic return, we desire to learn from the Great Tradition in order to meet our challenges in this pressing hour. I am convinced that the rediscovery of this Tradition can empower urban leaders and their congregations to withstand the temptations of our time, and help them to maintain hope and courage in the face of societal and spiritual evil. Above all, embracing the Great Tradition can enable all of us who love Christ to reconnect with the historic origins of our faith, and be transformed again by returning to the sacred roots of our spiritual source – the apostolic tradition canonically informed by Scripture, climaxing in the glorious person and work of our risen Lord Jesus. Retrieving the Great Tradition can empower us to affirm our past, live courageously in our present, and anticipate our future and the coming reign of God in Christ. We Do Not Live to Study But Study to Live and Bear Witness to the Living Christ in the City This Story of God in Christ is the fuel in the engine of authentic theological preparation and leadership development, and every satellite must confess what

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