Front Matters

F RONT M ATTERS : P REREQUISITE R EADINGS FOR THE E VANGEL S CHOOL OF U RBAN C HURCH P LANTING • 7

World Impact’s Strategy for Church Planting Rev. Efrem Smith

“Crowns of Beauty: the indigenous and urban church planting initiative of World Impact.”

Church Planting Purpose Striving to plant as many churches as possible among the various cultures represented by the urban poor, in all of our cities and beyond. 1. Credibility • We are not a Para Church or Suburban Church coming into the city. We are an urban missions’ organization with 40 plus years of incarnational, cross-cultural ministry experience. • Multiple staff that has over 20 years of Church Planting experience. • President and CEO, has extensive church planting, church planting training, and church planting design experience. • Significant research has been done on urban church planting through TUMI • We are unashamedly evangelical (Gospel, Christ, and Word- centered) • We are an interdenominational organization. 2. Theology and Biblical Foundations • Use Isaiah and Ezekiel to lift up significance of “Crowns of Beauty.” • Embracing the Entire Epic of the Bible- “People of the Story” • Embracing the multi-ethnic, multicultural, urban, and liberating dynamic of the Bible. • Engaging the Kingdom of God and Christus Victor . • We are informed by the Great Tradition. • Planting urban churches which function as communities of theology, worship, discipleship, and witness.

Source: Planting Churches among the City’s Poor, Volume 1, pp. 288-291