Rethinking Urban Mission: Reconsidering Strategic Cell Fellowships as Tools to Reach and Disciple the Unreached Sub-Saharan Urban Dwellers
Issue: Vol.8 No.10 November 2022 Issue Article 3 pp 301-313
DOI : https://doi.org/10.38159/erats.20228103 | Published online 22nd December 2022.
© 2022 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
In the face of rising urbanisation, the urban church in Sub-Saharan Africa tackles the immense burden of reaching and discipling the unreached urban dwellers. Due to psychological overloads, social isolation, and social invisibility, urban residents shield themselves from casual and shallow relationships. Given the importance of true relationships in urban living, this article focuses on strategic cell fellowships as the most appropriate missional instrument for the urban church. It argues that for effective urban missions, cell fellowships strategically woven around vocational, recreational, and social networks must be explored. The article belongs to the discipline of missiology. It employs a transdisciplinary approach that incorporates the disciplines of theology, demography, sociology, psychology, and small group management, to identify practical ways to efficiently reach out to urban dwellers. This article demonstrates that God’s purpose to the unreached urban dwellers in the rapidly evolving Sub-Saharan region can be fulfilled when their relational needs are intentionally met through well-structured and specialised strategic cell fellowships.
Keywords: urban mission, strategic cell fellowship, social invisibility, psychological overloads
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Apostle Eric Jean-Ive Abrahams-Appiah is a holder of a Masters in Arts and Ministry from the Trinity Theological Seminary, Accra Ghana and is presently a second-year Master of Theology student in the same seminary. He also heads the Holy Worldwide Revival Missions, Achimota, Accra Ghana. His research focuses on Urban Missions.
Abrahams-Appiah, E J. “Rethinking Urban Mission: Reconsidering Strategic Cell Fellowships as Tools to Reach and Disciple the Unreached Sub-Saharan Urban Dwellers,” E-Journal of Religious and Theological Studies, 8 no.10 (2022): 301-313. https://doi.org/10.38159/erats.20228103
© 2022 The Author(s). Published and Maintained by Noyam Publishers. This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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