http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/347338553

The neighborhood retreat a window into the kingdom of God

This book describes a neighborhood retreat held for the Sterling neighborhood and representatives of four partner churches in Greenville, South Carolina. The retreat was the culmination of a process that extended over a five year period of developing relationships with residents and partner church members to create a vision for Sterling. One goal of the retreat was to increase the awareness of all retreat participants of the spiritual giftedness of the Sterling residents. A second goal was to unite the residents and church partners together behind a strategic vision for the neighborhood that the residents had developed for themselves. The third goal was to develop a vigorous theology of neighborhood. Chapter one describes the Sterling neighborhood. Chapter two explains the planning for the retreat. Chapter three reviews implementation of the retreat. Chapter four is an evaluation of the retreat. The final chapter is a theology of neighborhood derived from the Sterling experience. The theology has four major themes. First, a neighborhood is sacred ground. The people of the neighborhood live out a sacred history that begins with the Biblical record and continues into the present day. Second, God has provided spiritual gifts to each person in the neighborhood. Christ's use of these gifts reveals his presence at the heart of the neighborhood. Third, the institutional church has responsibility for defining the spiritual reality that exists in the neighborhood and teaching their members to expect an encounter with Christ in the neighbors they meet. Finally, Christ challenges the people of the neighborhood to recognize that the kingdom of God is at hand. Christ's ongoing fulfillment of his kingdom gives hope for the future.

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