Life in the city can often be viewed as something to be avoided if at all possible. The idea that life in the country is better and that it is more conducive to walking with God is often how many Christians think.
I believe that such a perspective needs to be challenged in our increasingly urbanised culture. All across the world it is evident that God is moving more and more people into cities. We are seeing that to live and move and have our being in God is to live and move and have being in an urban context.
Since the mid 19th Century many have viewed cities as centers of chaos and places of evil and danger to be avoided. The outworking of this has been the retreat of the church from the city and the loss of the gospel in the city. Christians have become afraid of the city and often do not know how to relate to it even as it moves closer and closer towards them in suburbia.
Cities have existed since the earliest of times and through the ebb and flow of history they have grown and developed in their nature and make-up. Now in the early years of the 21st Century we are seeing the urbanisation of the world even to the point where cities are possessing more power than nations.
The Christian church must respond. The city presents many and varied opportunities for gospel mission. Government, education, commercial, medical and media centers pervade the city and regions are influenced by cities as the apostle Paul clearly understood.
We need to respond positively and bring the city of God to the cities of our world. Churches arise and put your armor on. Pray for the peace of your city and the influence of the gospel to spread throughout it, bringing hope, righteousness and justice to its people.....!!!
Hey Robert, glad to see you writing again.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good subject. There is undeniable truth in what you write concerning the necessity of churches being in cities and towns. We've got to be where the people are - common sense really!
However the last phrase of this sentence needs to be emphasised,
"The idea that life in the country is better and that it is more conducive to walking with God is often how many Christians think."
The false logic of people who think this is dangerous for a number of reasons.
a) It is a fleshy strategy to deal with a spiritual problem...
b) It is doomed to failure, as the Puritans (and possibly Augustine) said we take the world with us in our hearts, no matter where we go.
c) It is a somewhat cowardly strategy which is hardly harmonious with Ephesians 6 - stand and conquer!
d) It may be self-defeating, multi-culturalism also brings with it an openness to discuss religion and faith (albeit our mad governments are scared of that!).
Paul
Looking at the unfolding of God's purpose in redemption I am becoming more and more persuaded of the need for missions strategy to focus on the major urban centres of the world.
ReplyDeleteTragically the church is often the first barrier to mission in the city. Urban bias and the fact that many in our generation who answer the call for ministry have grown up in a more rural context means the city is not a place we desire to minister in or one that we look upon with negativity rather than positive perspectives.
The city itself is also a barried to mission. It is a complex place with various dimensions to it. Often it can been institutionalised in religious terms whether conventional religion like Romanism, Islam or like Utah, Mormonism, it can be hard to break in.
Yet on the other side we need to see the city as the pathway to mission. Goverment, commerce and trade, education and media, medicine and entertainment make it the center of regional areas. Reach the city and you reach the region as Acts 8v1-8 shows us.
Training our people to minister Christ in the office, in the school, in the college, in business or in hospital will spread the word far and wide.
As we draw up our mission strategy this is a central tenet that I am committed to following through.
We have a growing homeless city in a part of our downtown and I am going to prayerfully see how might take the gospel to them. I met a brother in Christ who has already been down there and he estimates about 800-1000 are living in tents near the river.
The fields are white unto harvest......
Robert,
ReplyDeleteHere's an article on the tented city at Sacramento.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1159677/Pictured-The-credit-crunch-tent-city-returned-haunt-America.html
Paul