Planting Churches among the City's Poor - Volume 1

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

Indigenous Churches

The goal of World Impact is to plant indigenous inner-city churches. “Indigenous” means “having originated in and being produced, growing or living naturally in a particular region or environment.” 20 Such churches are composed of people who reside in the inner city. They share the life of their communities, and are controlled and financed by the people themselves, not by outsiders.

Alan Tippet supplies six identifying characteristics of an indigenous church. 21

1. It has an indigenous self-image. 2. It is self-functioning. 3. It is characterized by self-determination. 4. It provides self-support. 5. It is self-propagating. 6. It is self-giving.

The aim in planting indigenous churches is to develop congregations that share an inner-city culture and are able to govern themselves, support themselves and reproduce themselves. The term `self’ when applied to the indigenous church does not imply a negation of the Holy Spirit’s role in forming the church. It simply means that institutions or people from outside the culture do not control the indigenous church. Self-Image Church members see themselves as God’s church in their community. They feel responsible as God’s people in their city. If the indigenous church looks, sounds and functions as part of the indigenous culture, its self-image will be positive. It will feel that it has a self-identity from God, not one passed down from some other culture. In a multi-cultural church body it is important to promote positive self-identity among each people-group represented. “Neighborhood people will expect to see some of their own forms of expression in

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20 “indigenous”, Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary (Springfield, MA: G. & C. Merriam Co., 1974)

21 Alan Tippet, Introduction to Missiology (Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 1987), pp. 377-381