Planting Churches among the City's Poor - Volume 1

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compilation includes materials referenced in World Impact Regional and National leadership meetings, our Winning the World TUMI course on church plant movements around the world, and presentations from our School of Urban Cross-Cultural Church Planting . We have taken a smattering of graphics from our seminary-level modular series, The Capstone Curriculum , and from our World Impact missionary Candidate Assessment Program , as well as from actual church plants we have done in the past. We have drawn from many venues, and though full of useful resources, it is not exhaustive! It does represent, however, some of our best thinking from various courses, consultations and reflections on the nature of planting churches among the poor. We have organized the references in Planting Churches among the City’s Poor in two complimentary volumes: Volume One, Theological and Missiological Perspectives for Church Planters , and Volume Two, Resources and Tools for Coaches and Teams . Volume One contains a range of materials related to the whys and wherefores of a biblical theology of mission and church planting, especially how that theology touches upon urban missions, church planting, and the development of healthy congregations and movements. Volume One, Part I: Developing Urban Congregations , is a reprint of our formative, seminal essay on urban church planting which served as the foundational biblical and theological piece which informed our initial forays into church planting among the poor in the city. Volume One, Part II: Theological and Missiological Principles and Insights provides a treasure of resources related to urban missions, ministry among the poor and oppressed, and church planting, including biblical theologies of the Church, retrieval of the Great Tradition among churches which serve the poor, and the role of color, class, and race in making disciples in underserved communities. The resources in Volume One, Part III, Planting Urban Churches , concern mainly the theory and practice of actually planting churches among the urban poor, with a focus on the calling, character, and competencies of the church planter, that God-called, Spirit-filled individual who has been led to plant outposts of the Kingdom for Christ among the city’s poorest and most vulnerable populations. Volume Two, Resources and Tools for Coaches and Teams , provides a toolkit, an asset depot containing various materials, tools, and helps to outfit the church plant coach or mentor to lead teams. Additionally, this volume contains numerous specific aids that the planter and his/her team will find invaluable as they engage in their church planting effort.