Reaching A City

More than half of the world's population live in cities and it is estimated that in 2050 more than 2/3 of the world will live in cities. Cities have been the epicenter of human growth. As a port of trade, cities facilitate different cultures, ideas, goods, and people to interact with one another. I think that it is interesting that the flocking towards cities seems universal as a uniting human characteristic. The incredible flow into cities will call for massive reforms in energy consumption, waste management, transportation, education and health. An initiative known as 19.20.21 will gather and organize information regarding the growth of cities and the impact of consumers around the world.

Understanding global trends in and towards cities is imperative to grasp future trends and how as followers of Jesus we can respond. Blogger Jon Tyson proposes that urban christian communities adopt the city parish model. The city parish model is an urban church community composed of several neighborhoods working together for the common good of the city. This kind of community should have a missional focus with each member of the community using his or her gifts to build the ministry. In turn, each member of the church community will have intimate relationships with smaller groups within the larger community. Every so often, these separate church communities would meet together for worship and to share stories. To prepare the Jesus follower in an urban setting it is important for them to know that within a large city there will be innumerable subcultures and once those subcultures are recognized, how to integrate them to create a large christian community. While people will flock to one city, the mashing together of so many diverse people will result in tribal communities, each with their own values and methods of doing things. Finding veins of similarities between people groups will find a common goal that all people value.