The New Testament writings provide abundant information about the mutual care ministries of church members toward one another. These ministries cover the New Testament landscape, with various examples and commands in both the narratives in Acts and the prescriptive one-another passages in the epistles. Sadly, standard systematic theology manuals give little treatment to this major New Testament theme. Many say little about any form of church ministry, fewer address ministries to members, and fewer still address member-to-member ministries, mentioning only the work of elders and deacons. Chapter one overviews the New Testament evidence and summarizes the deficiencies among systematic theologians. It provides justification for my thesis, namely, that the New Testament presents the church as God’s designed agent and setting for the ministry of mutual Christian care Chapter two explores four ways the New Testament uses the term church: household church, citywide church, regional church, and universal church. We focus on the first two, with the stress on local churches meeting in homes as the normal setting for shared life and mutual ministry. Moreover, the pictures of the church as Christ’s body, God’s family, and God’s new priesthood encouraged members to serve their Christian brothers and sisters. Chapter three demonstrates that the ultimate foundation of all New Testament one-another ministry is found in the salvation work of the triune God. God, Christ, and his Spirit provide models and motives for church members, as recipients of his redemptive grace, to minister to each other. God’s love in Christ, Christ’s self-sacrificial death on the cross, and the Spirit’s relational graces (e.g., the “fruit” of the Spirit) and ministry gifts guide and empower church members to care for each other. Chapter four examines seventeen varied ways that the New Testament describes and prescribes these practical ministries of mutual care, organizing them under three headings—attitudes, actions, and words. These seventeen ministry categories show the wide range of ways in which the New Testament called church members to care for the physical and spiritual needs of fellow members. Chapter five provides a brief conclusion with five summary lessons and some suggestions for further study. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / D.Th. (Systematic Theology)

The New Testament writings provide abundant information about the mutual care ministries of church members toward one another. These ministries cover the New Testament landscape, with various examples and commands in both the narratives in Acts and the prescriptive one-another passages in the epistles. Sadly, standard systematic theology manuals give little treatment to this major New Testament theme. Many say little about any form of church ministry, fewer address ministries to members, and fewer still address member-to-member ministries, mentioning only the work of elders and deacons. Chapter one overviews the New Testament evidence and summarizes the deficiencies among systematic theologians. It provides justification for my thesis, namely, that the New Testament presents the church as God’s designed agent and setting for the ministry of mutual Christian care Chapter two explores four ways the New Testament uses the term church: household church, citywide church, regional church, and universal church. We focus on the first two, with the stress on local churches meeting in homes as the normal setting for shared life and mutual ministry. Moreover, the pictures of the church as Christ’s body, God’s family, and God’s new priesthood encouraged members to serve their Christian brothers and sisters. Chapter three demonstrates that the ultimate foundation of all New Testament one-another ministry is found in the salvation work of the triune God. God, Christ, and his Spirit provide models and motives for church members, as recipients of his redemptive grace, to minister to each other. God’s love in Christ, Christ’s self-sacrificial death on the cross, and the Spirit’s relational graces (e.g., the “fruit” of the Spirit) and ministry gifts guide and empower church members to care for each other. Chapter four examines seventeen varied ways that the New Testament describes and prescribes these practical ministries of mutual care, organizing them under three headings—attitudes, actions, and words. These seventeen ministry categories show the wide range of ways in which the New Testament called church members to care for the physical and spiritual needs of fellow members. Chapter five provides a brief conclusion with five summary lessons and some suggestions for further study. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / D.Th. (Systematic Theology)

This paper attempts to evaluate Training for Trainers (T4T) as an aid for developing healthy and sustained church planting movements (CPMs). The thesis is that Training for Trainers (T4T) can enable and sustain (by the Spirit’s power) healthy church planting movements because a discipleship process is built into the methodology that develops believers in their personal and communal growth and equips them to repeat the process with other individuals they reach. The very format of the T4T process provides a context for developing disciples inwardly and training disciples to minister outwardly. The T4T process continues over the course of months and years to systematically move believers through the essential stages of sustained church planting movements: Bridges in conversations with the lost from non-spiritual topics to the gospel in order to find those God is preparing (knowing whom to talk to and how to start) • Reproducible evangelism methods that are effective in the local context and can be learned by any new believer • Reproducible discipleship that addresses both short-term and long-term spiritual growth in a manner appropriate to the local worldview and able to be passed on by a new believer • Reproducible church models appropriate to the local context and able to be led and passed on by new believers • Leadership development and multiplication patterns that develop leaders rapidly in the context of ministry and enable the number of leaders to keep pace with the number of new churches. T4T moves each new generation of disciples (trainers) and churches through this process because it casts vision for and gives loving accountability for disciples to truly become trainers of others. It does this primarily through a three-thirds training process. T4T is training for trainers who will train trainers who will train trainers. T4T attempts to initiate movements of God in which at least four generations of new disciples and churches emerge. This paper evaluates T4T is based on case studies, survey instruments and biblical principles and then offers recommendations for CPM practitioners. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Missiology)