For the City

For the City PDF Author: Matt Carter
Publisher: Zondervan
ISBN: 0310572495
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
What makes a healthy church? Specifically, what defines a successful church in heavily populated, richly diverse areas? This book will: Explore what it means to be a church for the city God has called you to engage. Help you learn from past success stories as well as past mistakes in urban ministry. Guide you in developing a philosophy of ministry that can lead to restoration and renewal in your city. According to the United States Census Bureau, over 80% of the population lives in urban areas. Churches in or near cities have to work hard to minister effectively to a diverse group of people, welcoming those of different backgrounds, engaging both the poor and marginalized as well as the wealthy and influential. Church-planters Matt Carter and Darrin Patrick explain the biblical, theological, and historical foundations of ministry within the urban core and how to plant churches where the gospel is faithfully shared and brings substantial benefits to those living in the community. For the City relates the wisdom gleaned from years of serving their cities for the sake of God's kingdom. Carter and Patrick practically equip church leaders and Christians to look at their city as a mission field where individuals and churches can faithfully proclaim the gospel and live out the reality of a community changed and transformed by its message.

For the City

For the City PDF Author: Matt Carter
Publisher: Zondervan
ISBN: 0310572495
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Get Book

Book Description
What makes a healthy church? Specifically, what defines a successful church in heavily populated, richly diverse areas? This book will: Explore what it means to be a church for the city God has called you to engage. Help you learn from past success stories as well as past mistakes in urban ministry. Guide you in developing a philosophy of ministry that can lead to restoration and renewal in your city. According to the United States Census Bureau, over 80% of the population lives in urban areas. Churches in or near cities have to work hard to minister effectively to a diverse group of people, welcoming those of different backgrounds, engaging both the poor and marginalized as well as the wealthy and influential. Church-planters Matt Carter and Darrin Patrick explain the biblical, theological, and historical foundations of ministry within the urban core and how to plant churches where the gospel is faithfully shared and brings substantial benefits to those living in the community. For the City relates the wisdom gleaned from years of serving their cities for the sake of God's kingdom. Carter and Patrick practically equip church leaders and Christians to look at their city as a mission field where individuals and churches can faithfully proclaim the gospel and live out the reality of a community changed and transformed by its message.

Why Cities Matter

Why Cities Matter PDF Author: Stephen T. Um
Publisher: Crossway
ISBN: 1433532921
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 178

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Book Description
We live in a unique moment in history. Right now, more people live in urban centers than ever before. This means that we have an unprecedented opportunity to influence the majority of the world through the church in the city. Helping us to make the most of this moment, urban pastors Justin Buzzard and Stephen Um lay out a compelling vision for cultural engagement and church planting in our world’s cities. If you’re looking for motivation to maintain a commitment to the city or for guidance as you consider going all in, this book provides a comprehensive analysis of urban life that informs, instructs, inspires, and answers questions including: Why cities are so important What the Bible says about cities How to overcome common issues and develop a plan for living missionally in the city Instead of retreating from or taking from our cities, here is a call to make the cities our home, to take good care of them, and to participate in God’s kingdom-building work in the urban centers of our world.

To Transform a City

To Transform a City PDF Author: Eric Swanson
Publisher: Zondervan
ISBN: 0310325862
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
To Transform a City is a valuable guide for those who dream big about the spiritual and social changes possible for the cities and towns that surround their churches. Two visionary leaders examine the foundations, history, theology, and practical methods of community transformation.

Center Church

Center Church PDF Author: Timothy Keller
Publisher: Zondervan
ISBN: 0310494192
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
Practical and Gospel-centered thoughts on how to have a fruitful ministry by one of America's leading and most beloved pastor. Many church leaders are struggling to adapt to a culture that values individuality above loyalty to a group or institution. There have been so many "church growth" and "effective ministry" books in the past few decades that it's hard to know where to start or which ones will provide useful and honest insight. Based on over twenty years of ministry in New York City, Timothy Keller takes a unique approach that measures a ministry's success neither by numbers nor purely by the faithfulness of its leaders, but on the biblical grounds of fruitfulness. Center Church outlines a balanced theological vision for ministry organized around three core commitments: Gospel-centered: The gospel of grace in Jesus Christ changes everything, from our hearts to our community to the world. It completely reshapes the content, tone, and strategy of all that we do. City-centered: With a positive approach toward our culture, we learn to affirm that cities are wonderful, strategic, and under-served places for gospel ministry. Movement-centered: Instead of building our own tribe, we seek the prosperity and peace of our community as we are led by the Holy Spirit. "Between a pastor's doctrinal beliefs and ministry practices should be a well-conceived vision for how to bring the gospel to bear on the particular cultural setting and historical moment. This is something more practical than just doctrine but much more theological than "how-to steps" for carrying out a ministry. Once this vision is in place, it leads church leaders to make good decisions on how to worship, disciple, evangelize, serve, and engage culture in their field of ministry—whether in a city, suburb, or small town." — Tim Keller, Core Church

The Torah, the Gospel, and the Qur'an

The Torah, the Gospel, and the Qur'an PDF Author: Anton Wessels
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 0802869084
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 334

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Book Description
Discussing the Bible and the Qur'an in one breath will surprise some Jews, Christians, and Muslims. But Anton Wessels argues that all three traditions must read the Scriptures together and not againsteach other. As his book title suggests, the three books, in the end, are actually one tale. Wessels accepts Muhammad as a prophet and takes the Qur'an seriously as Holy Scripture along with the Old and New Testaments -- without giving up his own Christian convictions. Respectfully reading the Torah, the Gospel, and the Qur'an together, he argues, is of crucial importance: our world often sees these religious books as the cause of conflicts rather than the solution to them.

Integrative Ministry

Integrative Ministry PDF Author: Timothy Keller
Publisher: Zondervan
ISBN: 0310516951
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description
Our goal as Christians and Christian ministers is never simply to build our own tribe. Instead, we seek the peace and prosperity of the city or community in which we are placed, through a gospel movement led by the Holy Spirit. Movements like these do not follow a “bounded-set” approach in which you only work with others who can sign off on nearly all your distinctive beliefs and practices. Rather it follows a “centered-set” orientation in which you work most closely with those who face with you toward the same center. That center is a classic, orthodox understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ, a common mission to reach and serve your city, and a commitment to have a generous, Christ-focused posture toward people who disagree with you. It’s a type of movement that is missional, integrative, and dynamic. This eBook contains the seventh part of Center Church, “Integrative Ministry.” In it, Keller examines what is required to apply a Center Church theological vision to four “ministry fronts.” Churches must first seek to connect people to God through evangelism and worship. Second, an integrated church will work to connect people to one another through community and discipleship. The church should also seek ways of connecting people to the needs of the city through mercy and justice ministries. Finally, churches must help connect people to the culture through the integration of faith and work.

Urban Ministry

Urban Ministry PDF Author: Harvie M. Conn
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 9780830878871
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 528

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Book Description
No. 3 in the 2002 Academy of Parish Clergy Top Ten Books of the Year! Cities--the anvil of civilization, the center of power, the metaphor for society itself--have been with us for thousands of years. Here converge piety and trade, security and politics. Yet just two hundred years ago only 3 percent of the world's population lived in cities. Today half does. Despite this tremendous explosion of urban growth, the work of the church has generally lagged behind. The city presents serious challenges that cry out for answers: poverty, racism, human exploitation and government corruption. How can the church move ahead in the midst of these demands with the gospel of hope? Here, in one comprehensive volume, Harvie Conn and Manuel Ortiz, two noted scholars and proven practitioners of urban ministry, address the vital work of the church in the city. Their dual goal: to understand the city and God's work in it. Through four great waves of development, Conn and Ortiz trace the history of the city around the world. Then they tackle the critical issue of a biblical basis for urban mission. How does the Bible view the city? Are we closer to God in the country than the city? Does the Bible have an anti-urban bias? These questions are given a thorough analysis that unveils God's urban mandate as reflected in both Old and New Testaments. From this foundation the authors unpack the multifaceted nature of the city as place, as process, as center, as power, and as a place of change and stability. They move us beyond fragmented stereotypes to a new way of seeing that is holistic enough for a fully biblical ministry to develop. In addition, Conn and Ortiz lay out what the social sciences have to offer urban mission, including ethnographic and demographic studies. While showing how such studies have identified unreached cities and unreached groups within cities, they do not become captive to research but demonstrate how to keep kingdom priorities in view. Finally, Urban Ministry focuses on the essential element of leadership. While there are many books on the topic, little has been said about the particular issues and needs of urban leadership. Therefore, the authors give significant attention to developing and mentoring leaders while equipping the laity for ministry in the city. This is the essential text for bringing God's kingdom to the city through the people of God.

The City of God and the Goal of Creation

The City of God and the Goal of Creation PDF Author: T. Desmond Alexander
Publisher: Crossway
ISBN: 1433555778
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 118

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Book Description
“For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.” –Hebrews 13:14 At the very heart of God’s plan for the world stands an extraordinary city. Beginning with the garden of Eden in Genesis and ending with the New Jerusalem in Revelation, the biblical story reveals how God has been working throughout history to establish a city filled with his glorious presence. Tracing the development of the theme of city in both testaments, T. Desmond Alexander draws on his experience as a biblical scholar to show us God’s purpose throughout Scripture to dwell with his redeemed people in a future extraordinary city on a transformed earth. Part of the Short Studies in Biblical Theology series.

Grace to the City

Grace to the City PDF Author: Hannah Nation
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781954874008
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
There is a gospel movement quietly spreading through the largest country in the world. Despite secularism, materialism, and social decay, despite government control and persecution, "house churches" are attracting millions of new believers throughout the major cities of China. Among these churches, a new movement of pastors form a true indigenous expression of Reformed theology, preaching prophetically to a postmodern audience and preparing and strengthening their flocks for suffering. In this book, five Chinese house church pastors apply scripture to life in modern China, which mirrors a fast-paced globalized world that has lost its moral framework. Developed from sermons on the five solas, these essays speak to pastors and laypeople alike who seek to follow Christ out of Christian complacency and provide a beacon to the alienated modern global citizen.

Gospel for the Cities

Gospel for the Cities PDF Author: Benjamin Tonna
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1592449727
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 223

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Book Description
Traditionally, the city has been the locus for the development of civilization. The scholars, the poets, the persons of commerce and politics came to the city for inspiration and acceptance. The city has been both an intriguing place and a place of intrigue. For weal or woe, the city fashions our culture while altering cultures. The person who wishes to analyze with competence the sociological and theological dimensions of the city would do well to study thoroughly 'Gospel for the Cities'. It is a study for us who live and work in the urban centers of North America as well as for the missionary today who must bring deep insight - biblical, historical, and sociological - to the awesome task of working in the cities of the twenty-first century across the world. We have waited long for this book. Msgr. John J. Egan, University of Notre Dame Many books have been written...about cities and urbanization. But in an era of severe compartmentalization in knowledge, they have come from specialists in one discipline. Thus, we have the sociology of the city, the city in history, or the challenge of the city to the church. Now [this unique volume] provides a genuine and compelling interface between competent social analysis and historical description with first-rate mission theology and a solid biblical perspective. This difficult task has been accomplished with depth and comprehensiveness by Benjamin Tonna in a book of particular relevance to the Third World, but useful to all of us committed to concern for the cities in God's world. George W. Webber, President, New York Theological Seminary