Planting Churches among the City's Poor - Volume 1

P ART I: D EVELOPING U RBAN C ONGREGATIONS • 27

This prophetic witness of the church includes creating and sustaining a reconciling community of believers, recognizing the true enemy, renouncing the world’s definition and practice of power, and working for justice in society. 13 David Shenk and Ervin Stutzman, in their discussion on church planting, accent the church’s prophetic role in standing against evil powers, especially in the inner city where oppression is rampant. They say, Authentic Christ-centered church planting is confrontational, not only with the host of spiritual forces, but also with people who control the centers of power. When people use those powers to the detriment of the poor or the exclusion of people from opportunity and justice, they are serving evil. Power encounters in church planting often require confronting those who exploit the poor and obstruct human rights. When we love the poor as Jesus loved them, we discover that the task of evangelism also includes the obligation of confronting those who trample the powerless, the poor, and the oppressed. 14 Summary Creating churches that function as a community of discipleship, worship and witness is a supernatural act. It depends upon the power of the Word of God and upon the creative work of the Holy Spirit. This model should guide the planning of church planters in the inner city, to insure the development of churches that evidence the the Kingdom of God.

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13 Howard A. Snyder, Community of the King (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1978), pp. 107-114

14 Shenk and Stutzman, p. 81