“I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people:
to you is born this day in the city… a Savior,
who is the Messiah, the Lord.””
The “city” has been an important image in Christian theological and popular imagination since the beginning. Holy Scriptures point to the creation of the world centered in an idyllic garden, yet redemption on the cross and the restoration of the created order is narrated to happen in a city.
American Christianity developed mainly out of cities. Christian ministry and life in the United States, and indeed around the world, has a significant urban focus. Certainly, not all Christians live and worship in cities, yet there is a particularity to the challenges and opportunities of the urban contexts that seems to call on the imagination, passion, and commitment of Christians in very creative and sometimes consuming ways.
One of the challenges I see in urban ministry is the kind of spaces of vocational discernment and opportunities for training that this kind of contextual ministry requires. Urban ministry is not simply about understanding systems or having an awareness of intercultural realities. Urban ministry is about an active presence that struggles for justice, preaches equity, and lives the hope of love. In this article I seek to explore Christian imagination of the city and its current challenges and opportunities for the Church.
Some years ago I had the privilege of serving as parish associate of a congregation in the Plainfields of New Jersey. Leader from the five Presbyterian congregations in that area have been gathering intentionally to share about the challenges this urban context posed to the Christian witness and ministry, especially in the post-industrial era. It was interesting to experience the different (and sometimes differing) understandings of what a city is, of the historical and contemporary issues in the Plainfields, and of what the mission of a congregation to a city should be. There appear to be three distinct interpretative lenses through which the participants in these gatherings were reading the challenges of ministry: generational, ethnic, and historical. Although not the only hermeneutical categories named in the ongoing conversations, these three categories better articulated the narratives of hope and challenge of these leaders in their (personal and collective) understanding of the Plainfields, of urban life, and of the “parish” as a model of ministry and mission.
The stories of the history of Presbyterians in the Plainfields was the focus of the historical perspective of these conversations. Often handed down from one generation of leaders to the other, and often as an oral history, these narratives told stories that dated back to the first quarter of the nineteenth century. The Plainfields were sleeping communities for New York City. They rapidly developed an industrial economy that accounts for the steady and continuous growth of population and wealth through the first half of the twentieth century. This growth in population and wealth, in turn, led to a rapid increase of Presbyterian congregations and membership in these congregations. This period is still referenced by some in conversations about vibrancy in the life and mission of these congregations.
Another formative historical period often referenced is the rioting of the late 1960s. A situation with obvious racial undertones, the riots are commonly blamed, even today, for the area’s decline in prosperity. And although red-taping was fairly common practice prior to the riots, from the 1970s onward, there has been a clear ethnic and racial demarcation throughout the Plainfields. While unearthing the real reasons for the decline in industry and wealth, and of the not-so-covert racial lines between neighborhoods in the region, is not the purpose of this article, it is worth mentioning that today, nearly 60 years after the riots, storytelling and ethnic perspectives of this history continues to inform how some perceive the realities of the “city across the line.”
The experience of race and ethnicity are also a lens through which many of these leaders see the challenges and opportunities of ministry in the Plainfields. The ethnic stories of this area are far more rich and complex than the white and black framing of the riots of the 1960s might seem to suggest. The 2010 US Census reveals that 50% of the population in Plainfield is Black, while 40% is Latino. In North Plainfield, 44% of population is Latino, while 19% is Black. In South Plainfield, 13% of the population is Latino and 10% Black. I share these numbers to show that there is much more ethnic diversity to this area than the black and white history told of the area can convey.
What is more, the history of the riots - such an important historical reference point in racial/ethnic relations for many - is mostly unknown to new immigrant groups who have become an important social and economic presence in recent years. The presence of new immigrant groups, particularly in the last 30 years, has brought new challenges to racial/ethnic relations in the Plainfields, particularly around the issue of immigration and jobs. Of the five Presbyterian congregations I mentioned earlier, one is a Latino/a multicultural congregation, one is a Black congregation with a significant African and West Indian presence, and the other three self-identify as either multicultural or diverse.
Generational perceptions of history and context were another important lens of these gatherings. The effect of generational diversity was particularly evident in these conversations as folks offered distinct emphases and interpretations of important historical moments of the congregations and the city as a whole. It was interesting to note how these emphases inform (or don’t inform) the dreams and hopes for a renewed Presbyterian presence in the area. For the younger leaders of these congregations, particularly those who live, study, and/or work in the Plainfields, diversity – racial and ethnic, political and theological, social and economic – continues to be a fundamental part of their social imagination and witness engagement in the area. Many of these younger leaders have been keen to point out how these diversities are not reflected in Sunday worship or in the ministry of the congregations.
I share with you this “story in progress” of the Plainfields as a way to narrate the complexity (and outright difficulty) of ministry in urban contexts. Not only does every interested party has its own understanding of what the city is and what kind of Christian presence is required, but it sometimes feels that many congregational leaders in cities (or interested in doing urban mission) think that being aware of demographic data, socioeconomic situations, and development potential is enough to develop a “strategy” for the city. The Plainfields, like other urban centers throughout the US (and the world), are in dire need of well-intended plans and actions for social, economic, and political development. However, none of these efforts from Christian congregations and not-for-profit groups will make sense or ultimately succeed without two essential elements: Presence and Witness.
Regarding the Church’s work in and with the world, Pope Francis (Messages for World Mission Days, 2013) has repeatedly said that,
…the Church’s missionary spirit is not about proselytizing, but the testimony of a life that illuminates the path, which brings hope and love. The Church…is not a relief organization, an enterprise, or an NGO, but a community of people, animated by the Holy Spirit, who have lived and are living the wonder of the encounter with Jesus Christ and want to share this experience of deep joy, the message of salvation that the Lord gave us. It is the Holy Spirit who guides the Church in this path.
Appropriate and effective Christian ministry requires presence – the incarnation of Jesus Christ in the hopes, challenges, and opportunities of the peoples and the spaces we are called to serve with and in. Cities are especially in need of a Church that is present. Wherever people come from to worship, congregations whose sanctuaries are located in cities are often challenged by a membership that does not reflect the composition of the cities where they are located and which they are called (primarily) to serve. The Church should not be an organization where people come to be served, nor one whose primary objective is to bring people into its fold. The Church is not in any way, shape, or form a building. The Church is a gathering of believers in Jesus Christ, called by God to gather, to worship, to discipleship, and to witness.
This very public, very intentional presence is also called to be a witness. The Church is not private gathering. It is (and must be) a public testimony of the God that calls, gathers, sends, and saves. Ronald Peters (Urban Ministry: An Introduction, 2007) says that,
…congregations with effective urban ministries typically structure the teaching of the faith within the parish to enable believers to live empowering lives in the urban context in a way that inevitably enhances the quality of city life in the public sector… one has to take seriously the public realities of city life. Urban ministry, therefore, evidences a strong orientation in the values and interests that inform effective public ministry.
Urban contexts yearn for such a public and intentional presence speaking hope into economic despair, reconciliation into wounded relationships, healing into illness and pain, restoration into political disenfranchisement, love into violence and hatred, peace into social hopelessness, salvation into the City. Urbanites of all walks of life and origins are ready to hear good news for all people – salvation can be born in the city, for the city, and most certainly by the city.
These news, however, cannot come from outside the urban setting. For this witness to be relevant to urban diversity it requires that congregations not just talk about cities but rather work with those who work and live in the city. Presence and witness in urban settings must be of the city, by the city, and for the city. Christian theology, history, praxis, and Scriptures have never advocated for “physical withdrawal from the urban space. What does become apparent, however, is that the record of faith does show how people of God have responded to the urban environment and its wider socioeconomic context and how that encounter has been a contributing factor in the experience and understanding of community and faith.” (Davey, Urban Christianity and Global Order: Theological Resources for an Urban Future, 2002)
The question remains: how does one faithfully go about ministry and mission with the city? My response is still that I’m still working on it. There is no one answer to the challenge of urban ministry, and I am not one to advocate for generic models being applied to congregational ministry. Context is, surely, everything. And we have to keep on working on it. In 2011, 51% of the world’s population, and 82% of the population in North America lived in urban areas; it is expected that by 2050, 68% of the world’s population will live in cities and metropolitan areas. (United Nations, World Urbanization Prospect: The 2011 Revision, 2012)
I am still working on it. I am doing so by encouraging the missional and witness entrepreneurship of church leaders through the region I have the privilege of serving. I am doing so by worshipping with my family in a church in the center of Albany - a congregation engaged precisely in the difficult and reforming conversation of how to intentionally connect to the city and its people. I am doing so by staying connected to friends and colleagues who are engaged in the kind of ministry that transforms the lives of congregations by creating the space for the stories of the city to frame and challenge the discernment of Christian folk. I am doing so by intentionally making myself available to the fears, challenges, hopes, and dreams of folks who are wanting not only to be in the City but for the City. I invite you, also, to engage these fears, challenges, hopes, and dreams by being for the City. And bring with you the good news of great joy for all people: salvation is born in the city for the city, even today.
This is a revision of an article written originally for Justice Unbound in April 2014 as part of an urban ministry series.