Ripe for Harvest

P REFACE • 15

your own, unique questions and context to bear on the material, for maximum benefit. • Further Resources : Here you will find additional tools and helpful resources (e.g., bibliographies, suggested materials) that can be of use to you over the life of your church plant. • Appendices : At the end of each session, you will see a listing of some key articles, graphics, and/or diagrams that are specifically related to the concepts in that lesson. All appendices can be found in the complimentary volumes connected with this guidebook entitled Planting Churches among the City’s Poor: An Anthology of Urban Church Planting Resources, Volumes I and II . Please note: These reference books are essential in order to receive maximum benefit from this guidebook. They should be purchased and used as a set. This is why these books are offered with this guidebook in the TUMI store [ www.tumistore.org ] at a discount, although each book can also be purchased individually. Please ensure that you have copies of the anthology handy for the various seminars, exercises, and discussions that make up each session’s work. The appendices are arranged at the end of each session, helping to both clarify and illumine the concepts and themes covered in the material. Do not be alarmed if you see the same appendices referenced in different sessions . This was done on purpose! If certain concepts need to be reiterated, underscored, or reemphasized, they may appear multiple times throughout the manual. Certain concepts are so fundamental that they will demand multiple looks, dialogues, and considerations. Do your best to think through the materials for the sake of bringing the key lessons of each session into greater focus, i.e., those tough concepts that you and your teammates will need to master along your church planting journey. Coaching and Training with Ripe for Harvest This book is designed to be best used in conjunction with the Evangel Church Plant School . Several issues should be highlighted regarding the materials both in Ripe for Harvest and its complimentary text, Planting Churches among the City’s Poor . The first issue is about designations and terms . Since Planting Churches among the City’s Poor is essentially an anthology, we sought to preserve our earlier documents in their original form, and did not go back through the documents and revise the language used in our earliest schools. This is not a major difficulty, however, because although we use different