MAKE DISCIPLES OF ALL PEOPLE AND ALL NEIGHBORHOODS
WHY WE CARE
As the United States races towards a post-Christian context, the need for healthy church plants has increased. The problem is that most church planters are starting new churches in the suburbs or in parts of the city that are as far from the troubles seen in the inner city. Churches in America have spent years training people to go overseas to make disciples of all nations but have spent very little time training people to go to the other side of their city to reach the hard neighborhoods.
WHY “URBAN THEOLOGIANS?”
Urban Theologians is operated by and features real people doing urban ministry. We are constantly encountering the challenges of reaching people that come from different educational backgrounds, ethnicities, ages, and socioeconomic classes for the sake of the gospel. People know that Scripture calls us to reach all people and have a desire to do so but knowing practically how to do that is difficult. As more and more people around the world are moving to cities, Christians continue to face complexities that they are not equipped to handle. Urban Theologians is a place that Christians can learn how to on mission in their city.
WHAT IS DIFFERENT ABOUT THE URBAN CONTEXT?
The advice you most often hear in regard to ministry in the urban context is “just preach the Bible.” However, most people who offer this advice aren’t aware of how the gospel has been contextualized to them. Like a fish that doesn’t realize the water it’s swimming in, it’s hard to see how the gospel has been preached in your context. The reason the church in the west is so uncomfortable in harder neighborhoods is because the cultural differences are immediately put on display which is a nerve-racking thing for people. Confronted with these differences it’s easier to push ahead with a more suburban style of ministry that isn’t effective in the urban context or abandon all efforts entirely.
1 Cor 9: 19-23 says, ” For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.”
Paul is saying here that to reach the inner city you need to understand the people there. It’s crucial to know how to be on mission for and with them, how to defend the faith in the urban context, and how to preach the gospel in a contextualized way.
3 Major Differences in The Urban Context
1. Socioeconomic Diversity
The urban context can generate some of the wealthiest and poorest people in a city. People in cities do everything they can to stay within their class, but the gospel calls the church to destroy this divide. People in poverty tend to have problems out in the open. You see the drugs on the street and the empty alcohol bottles on the block. For wealthier families, it’s much easier to use money to hide the same problems. The church in the city must learn how not just to exegete the text but exegete the rich and poor who both live within the same city.
