The following is the 1st in a series on "The City as a Strategic Center for Kingdom Outreach." A full bibliography will appear at the end of the final post.
Urban centers of the world pose one
of the more significant challenges for world evangelization. Just the sheer
numbers of people in mega-cities present enormous opportunities as well as
obstacles for the 21st century church. Today over one-half of the world’s
population has become urbanized. That trend will only continue in the coming
years.
Densely
populated cities are becoming larger and more numerous on every major continent.
In New York City
alone, one of every 300 people on earth lives within 50 miles of Times Square . That totals more than 21 million people
(Pier 2009, 28). High-rise apartment buildings, especially in Asia ,
have become cities unto themselves! One district in Shanghai , China
As
the world becomes more urbanized, the church has not responded in proportion to
the challenge. The trend in the North American church during the last half of
the previous century was to escape the urban centers as congregational members
relocated to the suburbs. Their church buildings, as well as their influence in
the neighborhoods, were often left abandoned in the process. For those who did
remain, ministry has been difficult, “…and Protestantism in particular has
found the metropolis an unfavorable environment in which to grow” (Greenway
1978, 18). However, neither the departure of the church that “gave up” on the
city nor the reluctance of the church to re-engage urban ministry means that
God has abandoned the city.
There
are a variety of reasons why the church resists urban ministry. The expanding
cultural and ethnic diversity of cities present an overwhelming challenge to
congregations with a mono-cultural mindset. While racial, caste and economic prejudices
do manifest themselves among some Christians, the more imposing obstacle may be
the inability to know how to minister among various ethnic groups. Ethnic
diversity usually brings religious pluralism, which can be intimidating to the
typical church. Societal problems such as poverty, crime and gangs are not
unique to urban areas but always seem amplified in the inner city. The economics
of doing ministry in the city are also a unique challenge. Building costs can
be astronomical and prohibitive for new churches seeking to enter the city with
a traditional ministry.
All
of these familiar impediments contribute to an additional challenge, which may
present the greatest hindrance to urban ministry: an anti-city bias held
by Christians who live in rural areas, small towns and quiet suburbs. Some may
go so far as to suggest that God’s creativity is best seen in the rural landscape
(one feels “…closer to Him in the country than in the city?”), while the devil is
responsible for creating the city (Conn
and Ortiz 2001, 85). New York City
pastor Tim Keller describes how “…fears of inner cities have clouded our views
of the ministry opportunities there. We are controlled by many myths: that the
city is by nature irreligious, that stable ministries cannot grow there, that
there is no one there but the poor” (1993, 40). On the contrary, megacities all
over the world are filled with people with intense spiritual longings, many of
whom belong to a growing middle-class with a love for the city (White 2006,
41-42). What are the possibilities if the church overcame its bias and saw the
potential of reaching this generation?
Cities tend to be
overwhelming and intimidating to most people. Constant changes in urban centers
produce new challenges. The fact that urban dwellers tend to be more open to
change creates unique opportunities for existing churches to minister (Conn and Ortiz 2001, 26).
However, a church with an anti-city bias or a change-resistant mindset will
neither be attracted to nor flourish in that environment. Instead the plight of
cities will only worsen.
Urban
researcher and strategist Ray Bakke asks urban pastors around the world to list
the greatest barriers they face in evangelizing their cities. Their answers are
always surprising. “Nearly all barriers are created by church politics,
policies, priorities or personalities, and not by the big, bad city itself.”
Bakke then adds, “We will reach out to the urban masses far beyond the existing
churches only when we understand what our barriers are” (1987, 60). His
analysis reveals that the greatest obstacle to city ministry is not the city
but the church itself. Since the city will not change to accommodate the
church, then the church—whether an existing congregation struggling to maintain
a presence in the inner city or a new ministry seeking to gain a foothold in a
community—must rethink how God views the city and how He wants the church to
respond to urban opportunities. Traditional ways of doing evangelism will not
be effective. Christians must first understand the worldview of urban dwellers
and be able to contextualize the gospel in ways that address how they think
and live, which is different from most churches.
Christians tend to
view the church with a rural mindset, and the reason for that is quite simple. Most
of the ministry of Jesus—the founder and head of the church—was set in the
countryside or at the seashore. His teachings grew out of the everyday
experiences of the people He encountered and seem more applicable to rural
tenants than city dwellers. He was quite comfortable with “common” people such
as farmers and fishermen and shepherds. His parabolic teachings focusing on
soils, seeds and sheep and were delivered to anxious crowds who gladly heard
Him whether they gathered on a plain, hillside, roadway or seaside. When Jesus got
into trouble with the authorities in the city—which He frequently did—He distanced
Himself from the place of controversy as much as possible. Yet, He who wept over
Jerusalem
obviously loved the city. So must the church today.
If the church is
called to make disciples of all peoples, and the majority of the world’s
population increasingly resides in urban areas, then the church must not
forsake the city. Robert Linthicum reminds us, “A crucial way for the church to
look at the city is to recognize that the church is not foreign to the city. It
has been placed by God in the city….” (1991, 176). Therefore, in God’s eyes, both
the city and ministry to the city are important to Him. Certainly both are rooted
in Scripture.
[1] Compare
this to the most densely populated city in the West which is Paris, France with
25,000 people per square kilometer; or to Los Angeles, CA with a mere 2,730
people per square kilometer (Gailey and Culbertson 2007, 166).
