Planting Churches among the City's Poor - Volume 1

P ART II: T HEOLOGICAL AND M ISSIOLOGICAL P RINCIPLES AND I NSIGHTS • 191

1 Tim. 3.15 – if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of truth. 1. To protect the canon (the Holy Scriptures) as interpreted by the Great Tradition, 2 Tim. 3.15-17 – and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. 2. To guard the flock of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Acts 20.28-30 – Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. 3. To contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints, Jude 1.3 – Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. Eph. 3.10 – so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. 1. In the assembly of the faithful, we make the Great Confession : Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father, Phil. 2.5-11. (Cf. Phil. 2.9-11 – Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.) B. The Church stands out in urban mission as the foretaste and trophy of God’s saving acts in Christ.