Why Focus On Cities?
God is urbanizing America, and internationalizing the cities.
- In 1800, 2% of the population lived in cities.
- In 1900, 8% of the population lived in cities.
- In 2000, the majority of the population lived in cities.
God is urbanizing America.
In Flushing, New York 133 of the World's 200+/- nations are represented in one zip code. In Detroit/Dearborn there are 250,000 Arabs (inc. 50,000 Iraq Christians.) In Pittsburgh there are 60,000 Serbs, Chicago has more Poles than Warsaw ,(in fact there are more Poles in Chicago than people in San Francisco), and New York has more Jews than Israel!
God is internationalizing the cities of America.
Psalm 107:1-7
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever.
Let the redeemed of the LORD say this—
those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,
those he gathered from the lands,
from east and west, from north and south.
Some wandered in desert wastelands,
finding no way to a city where they could settle.
They were hungry and thirsty,
and their lives ebbed away.
Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
He led them by a straight way
to a city where they could settle.
God is orchestrating the greatest migration in human history and they're migrating to our cities.
Mission in the past meant crossing the ocean, crossing the desert; now it's crossing the street because the World is now our neighborhoods. The challenge is no longer geographical distance, it's cultural difference. This reality should not only change the way we look at the World, it should also cause us to rethink 'mission' and rethink the way we 'do' church. Understand the city and you can read the world because,
'God is urbanizing and internationalizing the cities.'
