Have you been to the city lately? Our urban population centers are suffering. Poverty, crime, delinquency, drugs, and illegitimacy are just some of the raging issues of our urban areas. Like the remaining Ford and GM dealerships, our churches have abandoned the urban areas and moved to the wealthier and safer confines of the suburb.The US isn’t just comprised of red and blue states but also a heavy, conservative and spiritual concentration in the Midwest and the South and particularly in the rural and suburban areas. Even in the North and the West, the church flourishes in the suburban communities outside of Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle.
If we lose the urban areas, we lose period. Our cities of Washington DC, New York, Chicago and San Francisco, are the “cultural forming wombs” of the society to quote Pastor Tim Keller of New York’s, Redeemer Church. We need to remember that even if we aren’t “of the world” we are certainly to be “in it”.
Our desire for comfort and for safety has led our exodus from the cities to the suburbs. Nowhere in the Bible are we encouraged to go and seek safety and comfort and maybe while we are on that journey, build gleaming churches that mimic the suburban sprawl.
Our cities need redemption. The urban dwellers need redemption. We have the answer to the urban problems of poverty, crime, delinquency, drugs, and illegitimacy. Remember that our finest educational institutions that are training tomorrow's leaders are usually in urban areas as well or at least embrace the urban culture.
Take the chance pastor; reach out to the urban poor, the disenfranchised, the uninformed and the lost. The greatest opportunity we have today is to take the great commission seriously and that is to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to our present day Jerusalems.
