Why We Do What We Do

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S-Men-Understanding TUMI Category

TUMI is unashamedly evangelical but not sectarian. Your students may come from Baptistic, Reformed, Pentecostal, Methodist, Holiness, Independent or any other of the varied traditions that represent evangelical Christian belief. Our theological framework is the Nicene Creed and our focus is on the essentials of the faith held in common by all orthodox Christian traditions. On non-essential issues of doctrine there is freedom to disagree. Theological Diversity (pages 46 - 50 in your TUMI Mentor Manual) addresses the evangelically orthodox stance of TUMI, and, correspondingly, our interdenominational orientation.

Teaching Critical Skills
A major goal of our ministry training is helping our students not to over-react or respond unthinkingly to ideas and viewpoints different from their own, especially those they encounter in their textbooks, or in heated class discussions. In order to help us understand how to train our students in the skills of dialogue and critical thinking, Dr. Davis has written a short but fine essay that everyone should read and distribute at their satellite. The title of the essay is Holding Fast the Good: Developing Critical Thinking Skills in Leadership Development, and deals with how we have to handle diversity of thought and opinion in our training.

In the Early Church, credential for leadership training involved comprehending and defending the elements in the Nicene Creed. As a matter of fact, this document served as a basic “bottom line” for orthodoxy in preparing candidates for ordination in the church. Not only can we appropriate the Creed in the same way for urban leaders, we can concentrate our theological training on the essentials of the faith itself. The Nicene Creed is our curricula’s critical foundation. It serves as our understanding of historic orthodoxy, and provides us with the content to create various syllabi for catechetical teaching in Christian belief and doctrine. We are convinced that a vital, spiritual understanding of the Nicene Creed can ground new believers in the faith, serve as a basis for doctrinal and theological education for the Church, and can be effectively integrated as a key component in our services of worship (liturgy). Furthermore, we believe the Nicene Creed provides us with the essential outline for doctrinal formation of the church’s leaders and undershepherds.

We offer the following documents to assist you in understanding the vitality and centrality of the Nicene Creed for both worship and leadership development.

Another way to familiarize yourself with the Nicene Creed is through song. Dr. Don Davis has written the Nicene Creed in hymnic form, adapting it metrically in both common meter and 8.7.8.7. We’ve included a list of tune possibilities for use with these lyrics. As you know, the hymn meter system is designed to any number of well known hymn melodies to various sets of hymn lyrics. With the Nicene Creed in hymn form, you can select well-known hymn melodies and sing together the faith of the Creed as a class, with your whole heart!

The Nicene Creed hymn – Common Meter
The Nicene Creed hymn – 8.7.8.7

Foundations for Ministry Seriesfoundations for ministry intro 600x400

We designed The Foundations for Ministry Series from select training venues (courses, workshops, meetings) which we have hosted at our local seminary, Hope School of Ministry. The topics and materials covered in these resources are foundational to effective urban ministry, and will undoubtedly prove invaluable to anyone seeking to equip leaders in urban churches.

All Foundations for Ministry Series are specially designed to help leaders grow in their knowledge of Scripture, theology, the Christian life, and practical ministry. Ideal for either individual or group study, including Sunday schools, Bible studies, and small groups. Get seminary-level training in these studies at an affordable price!

All of our Foundations for Ministry Series books are now available on Kindle!

 

All of our courses can be applied to one or more of our Certificate or Diploma study programs:

  • The Certificate in Christian Leadership Studies
  • The Certificate in Urban Theological Studies or
  • The Ministerial Studies Diploma.

The Christian Faith is anchored on the person and work of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, whose incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection forever changed the world. Between the years 100 and 500 C.E. those who believed in him grew from a small persecuted minority to a strong aggressive movement reaching far beyond the bounds of the Roman empire. The roots produced in this era gave us our canon (the Scriptures), our worship, and our conviction (the major creed is the Church, and the central tenets of the Faith, especially regarding the doctrine of the Trinity and Christ).

Capstone was created to help you equip your students to understand, embrace, and defend our shared common faith, i.e., our Sacred Roots. Once understood and embodied, then we can train them to defend and contextualize our common faith in their churches and ministries. Capstone can enable our students to ground new believers in this essential biblical story of their new-found faith, and show them how to instruct maturing Christians to deepen their faith on the solid foundation that Christ's story represents. Our desire is for you as Site Coordinator and Mentor to learn to show your students how they can benefit from hearing the story of Jesus told over and over again in the context of both private devotion and public worship. As you have treasured Christ and his salvation story for years, may he continue to transform you through it, deepening your own walk and revealing how you may fall in love with him afresh as you both retell and remember the Greatest Story ever told.

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  1. Of Whose Spirit Are We? A Primer on Why We Seek to Retrieve the Great Tradition for the City Church

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