Winning the World

88 Wi nn i ng the Wor l d: Fac i l i tat i ng Urban Chur ch P l ant i ng Movement s

II. Dialogue on Barna and Garrison’s Notion of Structure and Religious Authority in Church Planting Movements

1 Thess. 5.21 (ESV) but test everything; hold fast what is good.

How do their view of religious authority coincide with the New Testament and Nicene theology of the Church as one (biblical identity), holy (shared spirituality), catholic (historic roots and connectivity), and apostolic (representative authority)?

A. Clarification between the facts and the claims

B. Evaluation of the evidence supporting the claims

1. The facts of the matter

2. The teachings of Scripture

C. Re-evaluation of the claims based on our understanding of the evidence

Titus 1.5 (ESV) This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you. Acts 14.23 (ESV) And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed. 2 Tim. 2.2 (ESV) And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

D. Conclusions to draw

III. The View of Structure and Religious Authority from Kreider and Mull

A. Structure and religious authority as restoring the New Testament simplicity of relational connections in house church networks, Kreider, pp. 81-91

1. Simplicity as the fundamental underlying principle of structure and authority of the church in the NT: “The church in the NT was so simple that the common people gladly received the Word of God and met in homes enjoying the Lord’s presence and their newfound spiritual