You must remember this: Part 2

Several big ideas have shaped Redeemer over the years. Kathy wrote about the most important one last month — the centrality of the gospel. One that I’d like to reflect on is the importance of city ministry.

The Bible teaches several things about the city. First, respect for its importance, and second, realism about its evil. Theologian Geerhardus Vos wrote that the city, while accumulator of the energy of culture, is also an accumulator of the potencies of evil. The city draws and aggregates people’s talents together in such a way that the greatest works of culture are produced there. But it does the same thing with human sin. So the city is like a magnifying glass, bringing out both the best and worst in human beings.

Further, the Bible teaches that the city should draw out our love. God chastises Jonah for not being moved to compassion for the massive spiritual need in the great cities of the world (Jonah 4:11).

Christians today have several different attitudes toward cities. Some romanticize the city, and often they use the language of “loving the city.” But it might be more accurate to say they love the experience of the city — the excitement, energy, and options. They don’t put time and effort into supporting the life and health of the city, and they tend to remain in the cool and sophisticated parts of it. Others disdain the city. They don’t come to the city, or, if they have to be here, they hold their breath until they can leave. They often resent the pride of the big city, or the liberal politics of it — with much warrant. They may dislike the competition, the expense, and the difficulty of working in such dizzying plurality.

There is another group who is simply indifferent to the city. They don’t particularly love or hate the city, but they are not keen on making any special investment of time, money, and life in city ministry. They don’t see why it should be treated any differently.

I would say that each of these attitudes fails to be informed and shaped by all of the biblical teaching.

Those who romanticize the city forget the spiritual darkness that cities generate: the power in the city of the human idols of sex, money, and power. Christians with a naïve view of cities will not be attentive to the ways in which the city can seduce us into ‘the spirit of the age.’ They also can make believers who are not called to city living and ministry feel guilty.

Those who disdain the city forget the call to love — they forget God’s reasoning with Jonah. “Should I not have compassion on the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty-thousand people who do not know their right hand from their left ...?” God is not saying that Jonah should love urban life and experience — he is asking how Jonah could fail to be moved by the size of the spiritual need.

Those who are indifferent to the city forget the importance of the city. Vos’ astute observance that cities are ‘accumulators of the energies of culture’ is exactly right. If Christians are not willing to live and work in cities, then we should not complain that the culture is reflecting less and less of the wisdom of the Bible.

Those who hold together all the biblical insights about cities should love the city itself (not just the experience) through witness and sacrificial service to the well-being of neighbors, whether they believe what we do or not (Luke 10:25-37). They should expect hostility, to never be fully accepted (1 Peter 2:12) and yet not bristle or be hostile in turn. They should love the city by praying for and seeking its good (Jer. 29:7).

There is one more balance that I think we should strike. We must never give the impression that every Christian is called to live in the city. I’ve met and heard of believers who have come to believe that they are simply being disobedient and selfish if they do not come to minister in the city. But not only is there no biblical statement to that effect, and therefore no one’s conscience should be bound to live in cities (see Westminster Confession Chapter 20 “On Liberty of Conscience”) but it only makes sense that we should have Christians living and ministering everywhere there are people. Jesus told us to go into “all the world” and make disciples of “all nations.” That means all.

On the other hand, social scientists tell us that across the whole planet, there are at least 5 million people moving into cities from the countryside every month. The number of churches per capita in the country and towns far exceeds the number in cities. People are moving to cities where there are fewer places of gospel witness for the population, and that situation is worsening by the day. For example, New York City will be gaining a net of one million people over the next 25 years. That is bigger than Charlotte, North Carolina. Will we be planting as many new churches here as are in Charlotte? Probably not.

So put the balance like this. We need churches everywhere there are people — but the people of the world are moving into cities much faster than the church is. Jesus told us to go into the world to make disciples (Matt 28:18-20). If we fail to go where the world is going then we are not heeding our Lord’s command. So certainly we must never rigidly insist that everyone should do city ministry, nor that gospel ministry in one place is intrinsically better than in another place. But we should not shrink from emphasizing city ministry as never before.

Don’t romanticize or demonize or shrug at the city. Love the city, Redeemer Church, as Christ loved you.

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Articles in this Issue

		The familiar made new: Redeemer returns to Lincoln Square Will Anderson and Elizabeth Blaufox
		Writing about God to know God Whitney Bauck
		Upholding the necessity of women in minstry Leon M. Brown
		Meet four awesome volunteers
		Thank You for Making Stories of Hope Possible Corrie Mitchell