The Church is the Hope for the City

“We need new churches if the body of Christ in a city is going to grow”  Tim Keller

  I grew up in the city. My childhood home was just inside the city of Atlanta limits. When my Dad built our home in the early 1960’s, it was a totally Caucasian neighborhood. Our church was seven miles away in a suburb called East Point. That small burb and our church were also Caucasian. But like many southern cities, Atlanta was changing. African-Americans began buying homes in white dominated areas. There was an ensuing panic and “white flight” began to take place. The neighborhood around our church also changed. Eventually, the church merged with another church, moving some 30 miles away to the suburbs.

  It’s easy to second guess what churches and people did in the past because of neighborhood and ethnic changes. My concern is that while white churches followed their white congregations into the suburbs, often they didn’t leave a Gospel witness behind. While the ethnic and economic make-up of the church’s neighborhood may have changed, there were still people there – people who needed the Gospel. It’s a scene that’s been replayed in America countless times. Drive through any urban area and you’ll see empty church buildings or that have been transformed into something other than a church. The former church has ceased to have a ministry in that neighborhood.  

  Several years ago I read Missionary Methods: St. Paul's or Ours? by Dr. Roland Allen. When Dr. Allen first wrote this book in 1962, it was considered revolutionary. Unlike other studies, he didn’t focus on Paul’s doctrine or character but on his missionary methodology. As you study Paul’s missionary journeys, you discover that Paul focused on urban areas.  

  There’s no question that Paul was the greatest missionary of all time. His missionary strategy was designed to reach the greatest number with the highest efficiency. What he did was also abhorrent to his own Jewish countrymen. While Paul didn’t neglect the Jews, he didn’t stop with the Jews. He did something that’s still rare even today – Paul reached out to people groups that were very different from him. Few churches take the initiative to reach out to those who are different than the majority of the congregation. Few Christians step out of their familiar circle across economic, ethnic, age or moral lines to reach someone with the Gospel.

  Paul took the Gospel places it’d never gone before (2 Cor. 10:16), “not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man’s foundation” (Rom. 15:20). Not only did he concentrate on the great cities, he concentrated on economic centers. He’d come from the large city of Tarsus himself and preached in world’s political capital, Rome, as well as in Athens, the world’s cultural center. Philippi was the “chief city” of Macedonia (Acts 16:12), as were Corinth in Achaia and Ephesus in Asia Minor. Antioch, Troas, Thessalonica—all were great seaport cities. Establishing solid churches in such cities provided centers for carrying the Gospel throughout the world. Over the course of his life, Paul traveled some 15,000 miles and preached to thousands of people.

  Our own church was started by a church in the City of Racine, Calvary Memorial. The Pauline model of missions begins in an urban center and then reaches out to the regions beyond those urban centers.

  Too often, evangelicals have abandoned the cities. The church I grew up in gave $200,000 annually to world missions. While they sent missionaries around the world, even to Africa, there was little concern for their African-American backyard. Churches pour missions money reaching the far ends of the globe, yet fail to consider needs a few miles away in the city. Too many of us see the problems in the city, yet overlook Gospel opportunities.

  For example, a city is where you can do cross-cultural ministry without having to leave the States. Many are centers for universities and colleges with international students. When we reach international students with the Gospel, often we send back “missionaries” are already prepared for the culture. They know the language and because they have a degree, have the financial support they’ll need. With a college degree they’re respected members of society. It’s similar to the account of the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch repeated in a contemporary setting (Acts 8:26-40).

  We’ve lost the “War on Poverty.” Sixty years later our cities are worse than they were when President Johnson declared “war” in his State of the Union address in 1964. From a biblical worldview, it’s because we’ve used the wrong “weapons.” There’s no question the inner city needs jobs, housing and education. Sixty years later we know that merely adding those things fails to bring lasting change and does nothing for eternity. One can work hard, live in a nice home, even have a Ph. D and yet not know Jesus.  Contrary to the conventional wisdom, a job is not the best social program.

  Tim Keller who planted a powerful church in New York City points out neighborhoods stay largely the same if new types of residents (richer, poorer, or culturally different from the rest) comprise less than 5% of the population. But when the number of new residents reaches somewhere between 5% and 20%, the whole neighborhood ethos shifts. Perhaps if instead of planting more churches in white middle class America, we used our resources to plant churches in cities, we’d see transformational change. 

  This morning it’s a privilege to welcome Tom & Joanna Kubiak to Grace. The Kubiaks are planting their second church in the city of Chicago and we hope to partner with them in this wonderful Great Commission endeavor! 

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