Planting Churches among the City's Poor - Volume 1

P ROLOGUE • 17

last twenty years. We have learned much about what it means to display the light of the Kingdom in at-risk communities, and we thank God for his leading and direction. Still, we are ever-learning, ever-reforming, ever-willing to learn new things, to explore new directions, and be equipped to do greater things in the name of Christ, for the sake of the city and the poor. Our humble intent is to share the lessons we’ve learned, not to give the definitive thinking on these matters, but reveal the lessons we have gleaned through planting communities of the Kingdom in the city. Your interest in this work reveals your connection to three great themes which inform a truly biblical theology of missions: the city, the poor, and the church. Until the Great King returns and makes righteousness roll down like a mighty stream among the nations of the world, we have a sacred obligation to finish the Great Commission (Matt. 28.18-20). While human life began in a garden, it will consummate in a city of God’s own building, inhabited by those who were poor in spirit, and will therefore see God. Those from every kindred, tongue, people, and nation who make up the redeemed of God, his church, will live in a new heavens and earth where Christ is Lord. Until that day, we are charged with the task of prophesying deliverance in the name of the Lord to the nations of the earth, whose majority population live in urban communities. The kingdoms of this world will become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever (Rev. 11.15). Your research and engagement in this great mission can contribute to this grand biblical vision. Our prayer is that God will use this work to provide you with greater insight, illumination, and understanding as to how we can plant these outposts of kingdom life among the poorest of the poor in the cities of the world. This is our vision, and our desire is to see the church in America rediscover the fruitfulness and fire of planting churches of among the city’s poor. As John Yoder has referred to them, the poor are the “grains of the universe,” ripe for harvest. May God send forth qualified spiritual laborers worthy of the risen Christ to plant communities of the Kingdom in his urban harvest.

Rev. Dr. Don L. Davis March 20, 2015