Planting Churches Among the City's Poor - Volume 2

P ART I: C OACHING U RBAN C HURCH P LANTERS • 31

and social-ethical issues,” in The Cambridge Companion to John Calvin , ed. Donald McKim, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. p. 157).

C. Christian Missionary Alliance

1. A modern movement. “The Alliance is a 118-year-old missions denomination with nearly 2,000 churches attended by 420,000 people in the United States. Internationally, C&MA national churches and ministries are located in 84 countries with 3 million followers of Jesus in 18,000 churches” (Downloaded from http://www.cmalliance.org/ whoweare/president/president.jsp on Sept. 25th, 2008).

2. Significant impact on the wider evangelical movement. A.W. Tozer; Rev. Todd Grant.

III. Reflection: Contextualization, Commonality, and Connectivity: The Threefold Cord to Tie Our Knots in the LA Association/s? (See Appendix 4).

A. Contextualization: This component deals with culture. As we think about our associations we need to think about “the identity of the particular people group who come to embrace the Gospel holistically in such a way that those within the culture both understand and accept [it] as their very own” (Don Davis, Winning the World: Facilitating Urban Church Plant Movements , Wichita: TUMI Press, 2007. p. 257). Our target group is the urban poor in the United States (See Appendix 10: 105 – 80% Window) 2. Associations for CPM’s will tend to follow class lines. We want to fully trust the Holy Spirit’s work, and empower the poor to be leaders by making sure that all believers are solidly connected to the Great Tradition. (See Appendix 15 – Tradition , especially “Three Levels of Tradition”) B. Commonality: This is the element that deals with the spiritual aspect of the movement. “an urban church planting movement must be rooted in a shared spirituality, theology, liturgy, and praxis that empowers its members . . .” 1. Associations for CPM’s will tend to follow language.