Planting Churches Among the City's Poor - Volume 2

P ART II: C HURCH P LANTING T OOLKIT • 247

4. View of church in terms of the experience of painful experience with a particular church (confusion, anger, rejection, disappointment, etc.) 5. Often views of the church are drafted and argued for impersonally and in an isolated way : “We cannot forget the church is you and I. A personal private faith in Christ begins the Christian life. However, to be whole, we need others called the “church.” They complete our faith as we complete theirs. The church at its best represents the body of Christ. ‘Boss man, I’m a churchman,’” p. 12. 6. Church planting invaluable: “Church Planting is the number one method of evangelism!” p. 12 (Mull believes we need to plant more churches). 1. Mull’s method of analysis: “My attempt will confine itself to the NT book of Acts. Using the Book of Acts as a primary guide for our considerations hopefully will give biblical authority to what I want to share,” p. 15. 2. Traces the uses of the word church ( ekklesia ) in its eighteen times of use in Acts, and related synonyms for the body (e.g., brothers ) 3. Chapter One of Acts concludes the “personal, visible ministry of Jesus Christ on earth,” and chapter two explodes with the day of Pentecost (i.e., the sending of the Holy Spirit on the assembly of disciples of Jesus). 4. Pentecost sermon serves as a foundation event for all world evangelization that takes place afterward (the names areas of the then-known world are represented in Jerusalem during the time of Peter’s Pentecost sermon), p. 17. 5. The work of church planting by the apostles and their assistants in Acts (e.g., Simon Peter, Paul, Luke, Silas, Timothy) is merely encountering people who were at Pentecost, and heard Peter preach.

C. The Church and the Book of Acts, p. 15