Five years ago Fellowship Bible Church was a participant in a leadership community in Dallas with churches from all over the country. At the time, they were reluctant to think it would be very useful. They went down there on faith. It actually gave te team time to focus on where they were and where they wanted to go. They made a commitment that they would continue this process with those churches for the next two years every six months. It was a discipline but it was encouraging to hear from like-minded churches from all over the country. Then, Fellowship thought that it would be good to do it with the churches local to Central Arkansas, to build relationships and to collaborate. Later they had the opportunity to partner with Glenn Barth of Good Cities, and this is the third meeting, started two years ago.
Glenn Barth spoke about the Biblical implications of this work. The Bible begins with a garden
and ends with a city. Jesus was born in a village and died in a city. There are several passages that speak about the importance of the city. In Acts 18:9, 10 it says "Do not be afraid...for I have many people in this city." We get overwhelmed by what we need to do, but the reality is that God already has the people there to do it. Acts started in a city and went to the world. It speaks powerfully of unity when people can look at the church as see how we love one another. Jeremiah 29:7 says to "seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive." Glenn continued to say that we are in the world but not of the world, and we are citizens of a different city. Instead of thinking of it as a ministry, we need to see it as having the same calling as Jesus. Jesus could lay down his life knowing he was changing not only Jerusalem but the whole world. We too need to go to the tough places to make the sacrifice today to see change tomorrow.
Good Cities Leadership Community is about connecting and resourcing people who want to transform their city. Their mission is the help city leaders combine the good deeds and good news of the gospel ito the life of the city to bring about kingdom transformation, and their vision is to change the world by engaging the church worldwide in the needs and dreams of their communities so as to bring about spiritual and societal transformation. The dreams and needs are already in the community. They come alongside to see how they can help. Good Cities likes to work with smaller groups who want to see how they can become more externally focused and mobilize volunteers. They also do ministry coaching, provide resources like Don Simmons today, offer city consultations, and do publishing.
Glenn Barth spoke about the Biblical implications of this work. The Bible begins with a garden
and ends with a city. Jesus was born in a village and died in a city. There are several passages that speak about the importance of the city. In Acts 18:9, 10 it says "Do not be afraid...for I have many people in this city." We get overwhelmed by what we need to do, but the reality is that God already has the people there to do it. Acts started in a city and went to the world. It speaks powerfully of unity when people can look at the church as see how we love one another. Jeremiah 29:7 says to "seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive." Glenn continued to say that we are in the world but not of the world, and we are citizens of a different city. Instead of thinking of it as a ministry, we need to see it as having the same calling as Jesus. Jesus could lay down his life knowing he was changing not only Jerusalem but the whole world. We too need to go to the tough places to make the sacrifice today to see change tomorrow.Good Cities Leadership Community is about connecting and resourcing people who want to transform their city. Their mission is the help city leaders combine the good deeds and good news of the gospel ito the life of the city to bring about kingdom transformation, and their vision is to change the world by engaging the church worldwide in the needs and dreams of their communities so as to bring about spiritual and societal transformation. The dreams and needs are already in the community. They come alongside to see how they can help. Good Cities likes to work with smaller groups who want to see how they can become more externally focused and mobilize volunteers. They also do ministry coaching, provide resources like Don Simmons today, offer city consultations, and do publishing.
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