Winning the World

Session 7: Summary 147

been given to me. [19] Go therefore and make disciples of all nations , baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, [20] teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” 2. Definition of the pair: We must strive to see each church grow and mobilized as a healthy, vital assembly while at the same time, develop standardized procedures to see hundreds, even thousands of vital churches planted throughout urban America. 3. Description of the problem: the tendency to focus either on the survival and growth of each single congregation as the end-all-and-be-all of our missional activity or to give limited attention to the needs of individual congregations for the sake of expansive numbers of new churches being planted among a people group 4. Deepening our perspective and practice: We must do all we can to provide each congregation with competent pastoral care as well as do all we can to see the multi plication of many new churches within a particular homogenous people group among the city’s populations.

John 7.24 (ESV) Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.

III. Conclusion: Let Us Fly on the Wings of an Eagle . . . Both of Them!

Whatever model we select, whatever procedures we endorse, and whatever strategies we commit to, we must do all we can to ensure that our churches individually and together coincide with the New Testament definition of the body of Christ, as well as the Nicene theology of the Church embodied in the creed, i.e., that which defines the church as one (biblical identity), holy (shared spirituality), catholic (historic roots and connectivity), and apostolic (representative authority).