Winning the World

Append i x 237

Authority and Indigenous Church Planting Movements, continued

their own kind within a culture that is affirmed to contextualize that identity. Without both the shared tradition and the freedom to contextualize that tradition within an ethnic or people group, CPMs do not multiply churches. 6. “CPMs share the same fundamental characteristics wherever they occur. Therefore, CPMs among the C 1 American urban poor communities will most likely develop in ways similar to those that have occurred in various places around the world, regardless of context and ethnic populations.” The American inner city, although sharing some salient elements with urban poor populations around the globe, represents a distinct and difficult field. It is different from many urban poor populations worldwide. First, the American inner city is simply not as indigent and poor; hundreds of thousands of people live on dumps, are homeless, and have been chronically unemployed around the globe in conditions that are far worse off physically than the US ghettoes. Second, the demolition of the family within the majority of American urban poor communities fractures the society in ways that make it far more difficult to penetrate. Also, the level of violence in the American inner city is unparalleled when compared to urban slums around the world. Finally, the cultural animosity generated by the American underclass to evangelical Christian norms and values makes evangelism nigh impossible among certain C 1 urban poor groups. To become a Christian is to become affiliated with white, middle-class, Republican values and norms which have historically been perceived as alien and oppressive to these cultures. The greatest challenge for authentic urban mission among America’s inner-city poor is to contextualize the Gospel of Christ. This kind of contextualized Gospel must be careful to retain the historical connection to the Great Tradition of the Church, while at the same time, allow for liberty in Christ for the urban poor to make the Gospel their own, within their own culture and milieu.