Planting Churches among the City's Poor - Volume 1

164 • P LANTING C HURCHES AMONG THE C ITY ’ S P OOR : V OLUME 1

the courage and strength to fight for personhood, deliverance, and liberation. There was no separation of evangelism and the social gospel in these church plants. Without formal institutions for credentialing and theological training, somehow Black Churches were planted. Without committed funding strategies, somehow Black Churches were planted. I believe these were both evangelistic and missional churches led by the indigenously oppressed of what was supposedly a Christian nation. The oppressed would have to seek a God beyond the God of the slave owners. The oppressed would have to repent to, seek salvation from, and be empowered by a Christ that looked different than the Christ of the slave owners and yet was more authentic to the Christ of the Scriptures they had to teach themselves to read and interpret in many cases. What a powerful church planting movement. This Black Church planting heritage led to Black Churches that were leadership and community development centers during Jim Crow segregation. Black colleges, businesses, and social organizations would come into existence because of this Black Church planting heritage. The roots of this church planting movement provided fuel for what would eventually become the Civil Rights Movement. The roots of Black Church planting could be the very medicine needed to be injected into today’s Black Church that it may inform the broader body of Christ towards a more biblical and missional understanding. You see the roots of Black Church planting aren’t very different from the church planting movements of Scripture. The first Christian Churches were planted under the oppression of the Roman Empire and religious power structures. Paul, when his name was Saul was known as a zealous religious Jew and Roman citizen who persecuted Christian church planters. Biblical Church Planting was done by a Jewish, multi-ethnic, multi cultural, minority, and oppressed people. The roots of church planting biblically were about evangelism, discipleship, empowerment, and liberation. In many places on this planet this is exactly the kind of church planting movement we need today. In many under-resourced nations these types of indigenous movements are already taking place. My own nation must live into this more proactively. In the United States, church planting for the most part, seems to begin with the privileged and the resourced in mind. Black Church planting and biblical church planting seems to begin with the poor, oppressed, and marginalized. At World Impact ( www.worldimpact.org ) we are about facilitating church planting movements among the unreached urban poor in the United States and beyond. We also see the empowerment and training of