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 | Church Planting in a First Century Urban Context |
| Church Growth in the First Century |
The objective of the first section of this module is to establish a biblical base for the practice of modern mission, in terms of finding principles that can be applied in the modern era to the practice of planting new Christian churches and in enabling such churches to grow.
The module contains an investigation of the Acts of the Apostles with specific reference to the early models of church planting in an urban context and a pluralistic society.
The syllabus will cover the urban missionary in terms of person and ministry; models of urban mission in terms of structure and organisation; methods of mission in terms of charismata (spiritual gifts); community and communication; and message in mission in terms of core, content and contextualisation. Students will be expected to address issues of primary, political, religious and cultural influences within their social context. It will also address the role of the supernatural and the problems arising from such a wide diversity of issues.
The objective of this second section of the module is to establish a biblical base for the practice of modern mission, in terms of finding principles that can be applied in the modern era to the specific task of enabling churches to grow in an urbanised pluralistic culture.
The module includes an investigation of 1 Corinthians with special reference to this early example of a first century, urban-centred, church seeking to survive and grow within a pluralistic society.
The syllabus will cover the social and economic factors at work in terms of wealth, patronage, and hospitality; communal and ethnocentric factors in terms of racism and status conflicts; cultural and intellectual factors in terms of ideologies, literacy and ignorance; spiritual and religious factors in terms of theology and worship preferences; and leadership and ministry issues in terms of authority structures, roles and gifts.
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