The SIAFU Guidebook

Part I : Assembling God’s Warriors

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Assembling God’s Warriors Toward a Strategy to Win the City

In order to understand why SIAFU can be important to the urban church and the penetration of the city with the Gospel of Christ, we must grapple with the first truths of the Kingdom as they relate to urban spirituality. We ought never begin a discussion of urban ministry with our own reaction and response to the chaos and need of the city. We should never pretend that who we are and what we think in our- selves can ever serve as the foundation of legitimate kingdom ministry. Rather, the apostle Paul’s word to the Corinthians must serve as the North Star of our perspective, lighting up our skies as we sail through the uncharted waters of urban mission.

To change this metaphor for a moment, Paul challenged the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 3.5-11 with a word concerning the importance of getting and keep the first things first:

What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and some- one else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.