Urban Evangelism Essays - Urban Studies And Planning,

Urban Evangelism Go Ye Into All the World and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Acts 1:8 This commandment, given by Christ to his apostles, was one of action. First they were to go into their homes, or Jerusalem, then to their community, or Samaria, and then finally to the ends of the earth. The Christian church of today, however has lost sight of that directive. For too many years now we have sent thousands of missionaries abroad while ignoring the mission field next door. While many may witness in our homes few move out into the community, especially when that community is in an urban area. Joshua 8:7 says take the city. The LORD your God will give it into your hand. Now more than ever this call to take the city must followed by believers. The current population of the world is 5,983,000,000 (World POPClock, 1:57 p.m., April 28, 1999). Of those estimated 6 billion people, two thirds of them will be living in cities by the year 2000 (Giradet 1). By ignoring the call to evangelize the cities for Christ, upwards of 4 billion people my be lost. The shear numbers involved in urban evangelism should serve as all call to arms. The church must be involved in the cities of the world both physically and socially. Amos Howley says that Every social act in an exercise of power, every social relationship is a power equation (Hurst 92) Within that power equation, who better to serve at a catalyst for social action than the creator of power Himself. The Holy Spirit will enable the saint, but to effectively minister in the urban culture one must know the history, understand the lifestyle, and apply cultural relevancy to each and every action. First, a definition of exactly what the term urban means is essential. Benjamine Tonna in his book Gospel for the Cities gives a definition of urban that encompasses many of the far reaching aspects of this illusive term. Urbanhere covers all the things that characterize the fact of the metropolisThe central interest is in the process of urbanization, which can be defined as the phenomenon by which millions of men and women move en masse from rural to metropolitan areas, and - more importantly - which transforms the lifestyle (Tonnna 5). It is difficult if not impossible to characterize an urban area strictly in term of numbers or density. It requires far more than quantitative analysis but also qualitative analysis to understand the culture and lifestyle as well as the pure data. With this definition in mind, the history of the migration to cities must also be more fully understood. The industrial revolution spurred on a mass migration to the cities in the early part of this century. As jobs in manufacturing began to appear in large clusters at a particular city so did thousands workers to fill those positions. The boom in cities occurred at an astounding rate. while the total world population doubled during the first half of the present century, that of the cities with a population of more than 100,000 quadrupled (Tonna 49). This boom began in the United States and continued throughout the world for the next 30 to 40 years. Although the interests of the large corporations, and capitalization in general were well served through the advent of the city, more often that not the city was not a place where individual needs were met. The process of urbanization is unique from all other cultural migrations in that it was the creation of a privileged few for monetary gain and not a migration as a reaction to a social need or problem as had been the pattern in the past. Cities such as Madras and Calcutta, Hong Kong and Singapore were born as support bases for imperialist interests; they exercised commercial, administrative, and military function. These cities, and many others, in Latin America and Africa as well, sprang up from the concerns of the European population residing in them and the interests of the overseas metropolitan centers - mot from the needs of the local population (Tonna 11). This kind of development