What is our response to the teeming cities that are scattered about this world? As we smell the pollution that billows and the cuisines coming from thousands of kitchens, do our senses demand of us a response?
What about when we are standing in a subway, bus or elevator with humanity pressed up against us? Do we see the masses as a blob of flesh moving in some chaotic dance or do we see each individual face that represent families, livelihoods and dreams?
What is our response when we stand on a lonely city street late at night with the neon blinking and the people slipping in and out of the shadows? For some of us, our response is to pity these city-dwellers. Others survive the city by keeping their guard up and keeping people at arm’s length. Still others thrive in the busyness of the city street.
But our response to the city should not be based on how we feel should it? Instead our response should be centered on Scripture and our actions driven by obedience to Christ’s heart for the city.
That is the theme of Tim Keller’s Cape Town 2010 Advance Paper called “What is God’s Global Urban Mission?” Tim takes us beyond our feelings about cities to the strategic importance of these amazing places to the cause of global evangelization. What moved me about this paper is that it provides us with a context for how God has worked in cities throughout time and then asks the big questions about what effective ministry looks like in these places.
JD Payne, a member of the Lausanne Blogger Network, wrote a helpful response to Keller’s paper that put an exclamation point on one of his key themes. In relation to the growing significance of cities in setting the global agenda, he asked, “How many of us are leading our churches, seminaries, colleges, mission agencies, etc. with this reality guiding our strategies?” What a great question! We know cities are important but so many times we fail to train up believers to see cities as a critical element to global evangelization.
Keller also talked about the chaos of cities and the instability they can bring to those who are not prepared to minister in the urban environment. The challenge for those who come from rural or suburban settings will be to learn how the streets of a city work and how to reach out to those who walk on them. But it seems to me that for those city dwellers, who are now the majority of all people on this planet, the challenge is a different one. It is a challenge of seeing beyond their apartment building, ghetto, subway stop or church building. City dwellers have the unique challenge of feeling completely comfortable in a city where they know almost no one and where they have carved out a routine. To go beyond your network of people and to break that routine must be a very difficult task.
So for those outside of the city, we must redouble our efforts to understand their strategic importance so we can engage in this dynamic environment. For those inside the city, we must come to grips with our sphere of influence and ask God what new part of our city He wants us to bless.
Participation: Because this is one of the Advance Papers, we really need your input and comments in order to craft the document that will finally go to the congress. Will you take time to read the entire paper and share your thoughts, additions and changes? Click HERE to go to the Advance Paper.
Engagement: Identify the closest city to where you live (you might be right in it!) and ask yourself what you should do over the next few months to have a greater impact on that city.
Ownership: Take an urban ministry you are a part of or one that you have now identified and ask yourself how you can help share the vision within your sphere of influence. Pick a very specific activity (short-term mission trip, a fundraising event, etc.) to make this cause something that those you know can begin to understand.