Planting Churches among the City's Poor - Volume 1

P ART II: T HEOLOGICAL AND M ISSIOLOGICAL P RINCIPLES AND I NSIGHTS • 105

Bestowed exclusively on Israel, the chosen people ( ‘am segullah ), as a mark of God’s election-love the Shechinah now rested on the poor, who, as the new Israel would inherit its splendor in the coming messianic Kingdom.

~ James B. Adamson. “James 2.5.” The Epistle of James. The New International Commentary on the New Testament . Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976. p. 110.

In the New Testament the poor replace Israel as the focus of the Gospel.

~ C. M. N. Sugden. New Dictionary of Theology.

Key Team Leader Virtues: Leads the team in a group prayer life that wrestles with God by reminding him of his own stated promises and purposes (Deut. 9.25-29; Ps. 74; Jer. 14.20-21; Luke 18.1-8). Guides the team into finding every opportunity for evangelism because of the confidence that the team is working among those whom God has chosen.

IV. Is Our Mission Among the Poor Characterized by Respect and Expectation?

If you want to do something and have no power to do it, it is talauchi (poverty).

~ Nigeria

When one is poor, she has no say in public, she feels inferior. She has no food, so there is famine in her house; no clothing, and no progress in her family. ~ a woman from Uganda. For a poor person everything is terrible - illness, humiliation, shame. We are cripples; we are afraid of everything; we depend on everyone. No one needs us. We are like garbage that everyone wants to get rid of. ~ a blind woman from Tiraspol, Moldova

~ “Voices of the Poor.” PovertyNet. http://www.worldbank.org/poverty/voices/listen-findings.htm#1

A. Respect, Respect, Respect

I believe in the Aretha Franklin approach to a theology of the poor. “R-E-S-P-E-C-T find out what it means to me.”