The Evangel Dean Basic Training Resource Handbook

S EMINARS • 69

II. Church Planting From and For the Urban Poor

A. The distinctive mark of Evangel’s Church Plant Schools is its commitment to equipping church planters from and for the urban poor. 5

1. God has chosen the poor (James 2.5; 1 Cor. 1.27−29).

a. In prioritizing the poor we are “working with the grain of the universe.”

b. eklegomai – “it involves preference and selection from among many choices.”

2. Who are the poor?

a. The poor are a major theme in Scripture.

b. They are “those whose need makes them desperate enough to rely on God alone.”

c. They are “those who have been denied God’s shalom.”

3. Four fundamental responses

a. Respect (as demonstrated by Paul with Onesimus)

b. Love, compassion, and justice

c. Preach the Gospel

d. Expect great things: the principle of divine irony in leadership selection

(1) The Vision of TUMI and Evangel ( Multiplying Laborers , 31-32)

(2) How Capstone got its name (Ps. 118.22−23)

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5 Don Davis, “Our Distinctive: Advancing the Kingdom among the Urban Poor,” in Multiplying Laborers for the Urban Harvest: Shifting the Paradigm for Servant Leadership Education , 15th ed. Wichita, KS: The Urban Ministry Institute, 2013. pp. 23−29.