c. from gossip to gospel

Urban Church MinistryAIIAS • July, 2004

1 3. Urban Disciples

C. From Gossip to Gospel

D. Planting Trees in the City

A. Wholistic MinistryB. Round-up Weed Killer



Three Spheres of Ministry:

Church

Growth

Budd

hismSocial Work

A. Wholistic Ministry



An integrated approach to mission in the city:

Com

mun

ion

Community

Commiss

ion

Commission

CommunionCommunity

+

The Acts Model

A. Wholistic Ministry


4 3. Urban DisciplesB. Round-up Weed Killer

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RoundupWeedKiller



Psalms 1:1 “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.”

Sit . . .Walk . . . Stand . . .

The very atmosphereof the city is hostileto positive Christian

thought and behavior

B. Round-up Weed Killer



“There are some who imagine that it is their duty to be church tinkers. It is agreeable to their natural feelings to be seeking spot and stain in others; they watch diligently for something to reprove, and they become narrower and narrower in their ideas, until they are ready to make one an offender for a word.




“In the Sabbath meetings, when all should be individually engaged in the worship of God, an accusing spirit is allowed to come in, and one bears testimony against another. This spirit is wholly unlike Christ, and leads to dissension and wrangling. God no more accepts such worship than he accepted Cain's offering.




“There is no more effectual hindrance to growth in grace than this disposition to criticize and condemn others. We have in our experience seen this accusing spirit gradually enter the hearts of church-members until it had leavened nearly the entire church, and the result was that little of real godliness or of the spirit of Christ remained” (HS 212-213).




The Pastor and the “Old Guard”




Share some difficulties you had with negative people in the church.




Psalms 1:2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.Only the Word of God has the power to miraculously enter a person’s mind and changes it from one who delights in human gossip to one who delights in divine revelation.




2Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”


“Souls that have borne the likeness of Satan have become transformed into the image of God. This change is in itself the miracle of miracles.”



“A change wrought by the Word, it is one of the deepest mysteries of the Word. We cannot understand it; we can only believe,” (AA 476).



14 3. Urban DisciplesD. Planting Trees in the City

One large tree can provide oxygen for 4 people.

Trees can significantly reduce pollution and saves energy.Studies show that hospital patients with window view of trees recovered significantly faster.

http://www.treecanada.ca/publications/trivia.htm, accessed June 9, 2004



Psalms 1:3 He is like a tree, planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.




Planted by Stream Bearing Fruit Prospers Everything

Knowing Loving Doing

Communion Community Commission

Mary Martha

Take Root Below Bear Fruit Above Isaiah 37:31




Take Root Below

Joseph in PrisonMoses in the Wilderness

Jonah in WhaleJesus in Wilderness




Matthew 7:20 “You shall know them by their fruits.”

Bear Fruit Above




1Corinthians 13:3 “If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.”

Bear Fruit Above




“The object of the Christian life is fruit bearing, the reproduction of Christ’s character in the believer that it may be reproduced in others” (COL 67).

Bear Fruit Above




Bear Fruit Above

“When we live by faith on the Son of God, the fruits of the Spirit will be seen in our lives; not one will be missing” (DA 676).




Whatever they do Prospers!

9T 189 “If we would humble ourselves before God, and be kind and courteous and tender-hearted and pitiful, there would be 100 conversions to the truth where now there is only 1.”




“All things are possible with God, and by faith we may lay hold on His power. But faith is not sight; faith is not feeling; faith is not reality.

"Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." To abide in faith is to put aside feeling and selfish desires, to walk humbly with the Lord,




“to appropriate His promises, and apply them to all occasions, believing that God will work out His own plans and purposes “in your heart and life by the sanctification of your character; it is to rely entirely, to trust implicitly, upon the faithfulness of God.




“If this course is followed, others will see the special fruits of the Spirit manifested in the life and character (FE 341-342).




Psalms 1:4 Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Psalms 1:5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. Psalms 1:6 For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.




It should be obvious that growing fruit bearing Christians is a blessing to both the fellowship of the church and its witness.

Take some time discussing in your groups how you are going to make this important element of growth a part of your strategy for urban ministry.


c. from gossip to gospel

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