Reach the City, Touch the World

“Ve drive cub.”  Standing in the center aisle after Sunday service, Sultan and Nurian spoke to me in limited, broken English.  Having visited Kyrgyzstan twice, I could scarcely believe these two new arrivals had made that impossible trek half way around the world to find a new life driving cabs in Chicago.

There are millions of stories like Sultan & Nurian.  They are a snapshot of what has been happening for the last hundred-plus years worldwide.

*In 1900, 9% of the world’s population lived in cities.  By the year 2030, 60% of God’s world will be urban.

*In 1900, there were 20 cities in the world of 1 million or more.  In 2003, there were 387 cities of 1 million or more.  In 2015, there were 550 such cities.

We live in a world ruled by cities.  The majority of the world’s population lives in cities.  The remaining non-urban population has been urbanized.  Quite simply, the impact and influence of global urban centers permeates the planet.

What power is mighty enough to mobilize masses and millions in such a compressed time period? The usual suspects are in the lineup – political instability, faltering economies, war, threat of war and famine.  All these forces have caused people to leave home, leave the familiar, leave their roots, journeying to an unknown but most often, urban future.

Technology is another force.  There is probably no way young Sultan can stand on a Kyrgyzstan goat trail looking at the glitz, glamour, shine, and wealth of the cities of the world on his phone and be content to stay on that hillside.

We arrived at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport with my elderly mother who needed assistance.  We were met by Nan, a wheelchair attendant.  The southeast Asian wisp of a girl was quite pleasant.  I inquired as to her accent.  Only months before she had arrived from Myanmar, one of the poorest nations in southeast Asia.  I told her she had not done badly for herself landing this little gig at the airport so soon after her arrival.

“Why would you leave everything familiar to come to this cold city?”, I asked. She spoke of religious persecution and political oppression.  Here she was, pushing a wheelchair through an airport on the other side of the world from her home, just seeking peace.

As a believer, I see “the world, and all who are in it” as “the Lord’s” (Psalm 24:1).  Nan does not exist by chance nor is her arrival in my city an accident.  She is here by design. Throughout history, God has used various “earthly” forces to move people.  Here lately, He has urbanized His world making it “easier” to reach the nations in these last days. Cities all over the world are filled with “Nans.”

We can’t help noticing the Holy Spirit led Paul from city to city throughout the Roman Empire. Was this urban trek incidental to the larger story of the Gospel being spread throughout the world? Or, was Paul’s life given over to a strategy that was as much Holy Spirit inspired as the Gospel he preached? The breathtaking success of the early church is undeniable.  Unfathomable.  To what do we attribute this? If we paid equal attention to the Holy Spirit’s message and method, would our efforts toward world evangelization be more effective?

Cities are amplifiers.  Whatever sounds in the city sounds out from the city.  Cities are distribution engines.  Whatever is in the city gets distributed from the city.

At least a portion of Artemis fame in Asia Minor was due to the power of Ephesus to disseminate that fame.  The Holy Spirit used those same dynamics to spread the Gospel (Acts 19:10).  The Great Commission gives us our marching orders. The book of Acts is a video of how God envisions this being carried out.

Not only are cities of the world vast mission fields, they are bases from which the Gospel is launched to regions close in and far flung.  For example, believers won in and from Manila, are now reaching every country in southeast Asia and beyond.

Urban ministry used to mean going down to the slummy part of town to help at the gospel rescue mission.  For a period, urban ministry was seen as serving black ghettoes.  Then came the international wave – filling urban spaces, a flood from Central America, streams of refugees from Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. No longer should city ministry be thought of as “inner city“ ministry. Certainly, those needs remain, but the city is much more than that. Click To Tweet

Cities today are not the cities of 50 or even 25 years ago.  Great change has taken place worldwide.  Cities have swelled to unimaginable and, in many cases, unmanageable sizes.  The urban density, immensity, diversity, complexity and velocity make for an intensity difficult to describe, impossible to quantify.

While scale and complexity has changed, cities continue to be centers of power, wealth, education, religion, entertainment, the arts, media.  In recent years, a flow of empty nesters has moved to city centers to take advantage of cultural amenities and new luxury residences. Cities have become magnets for generation X, Y, & Z.  International students are a common piece in the urban puzzle.  People dealing with sexual identity issues not considered mainstream, tend to congregate in cities.

I recently conversed with Cortney & her husband hailing from a small town in Oklahoma they claim only has one intersection.  Cortney hopes for acceptance into one of Chicago’s premier art schools.  They represent this flow of the last 10-15 years that presents tremendous need and Gospel potential.  They are a generation that needs to see love in action, not just hear what we believe. They need to see God’s people in motion, serving the community under the banner, Christ alone, the Way, the Truth, the Life.

In the city everything is magnified, multiplied & intensified . . .the good the bad and the ugly.

In the city everything is magnified, multiplied & intensified . . .the good the bad and the ugly. Click To Tweet

The city is where decisions are made, deals are struck, policies are shaped, laws are signed, art is created, opinions are formed and proclaimed. Lies loom large. Deception is expected. Corruption ever present.

What is in short supply? The truth, and certainly the truth of the Gospel.

The Great Commission is a call to action.  Pray for a city.  Investigate.  Find out what God is doing in that city.  Pray specifically for those city laborers.  Make your next mission trip an urban adventure.   Urban ministry training is available through various means from onsite residency and intern programs such as we offer at Armitage Church to online courses offered by various institutions.

Yes, the city flashes, dominates, shouts, hollers, slaps you on the back, offering you a drink and dream. The Gospel point is simple.  The cities are where the masses are.  The cities are where influence lives.  The city is where the present dwells and where the future is being built.  It’s where the battle is.

The cause of Christ in the 21^st century will rise or fall in the city.