Tim Keller, Senior Pastor
Redeemer Presbyterian Church (NYC)
- Expect to reach the suburbs from the city, but never to reach the city from the suburbs. Contrary to popular opinion, people will come into the city to church but will not leave it to go to church. And in the city you find “future suburbanites”: the young, students, immigrants, etc.
- Have a clear vision for your city’s tomorrow, not just for your church in the city. Have a clearly articulated dream not just for your church but for the whole city itself. Have a positive love relationship with your community. If you have a negative attitude toward urban life you will only attract the same, and they are the most transient, the least useful for ministry.
- Establish an attracting quality of corporate worship. Tradition, kinship, and guilt cannot bring people to church in the city as in other settings. Power and majesty and heart-piercing preaching are needed to bring the “Pilgrim” back, though the loyal church member does not require them. Worship excellence is critical.
- Assume unimportance of inherited loyalties. People are open to new institutions that address their concerns; denominational loyalties mean less in the city than small towns and suburbs. Don’t talk about distinctives (just do them). No one is interested in them for their own sake.
- Plug into existing urban social networks. Get indigenous. Urban churches do not gather disconnected individuals through advertising or visitation. Urban professionals have smaller families and are more tied into vocational, recreational, relational networks. Often they are suspicious of hype and advertising. Find the grapevines, and find people on the grapevines.
- Form (especially “same-size”) urban church coalitions. Churches cooperating in cities replace denominational networks, because urban churches (that are truly indigenous) have more in common with each other than their own denominational sister churches. Find ways to do youth groups together, etc.
- Offer all sorts of options and choices. Love diversity. City people are used to more choices than anywhere else, and diversity. Be multi-cellular and even multi-congregational from the start.
- Manage and expect transience (unless a first generation immigrant church). Accept the coming and going of many parades of people. Think of it as a Campus ministry. Train leaders with that in mind. Most of all, don’t get so disappointed with the turnover. The best way to manage turnover is to grow faster than the turnover.
- Become wholistic in ministry, even if you don’t minister to “down and out”. Rediscover the “corporal works of mercy”: feeding, clothing, sheltering the homeless, caring for children, tending the sick, etc. Add “development” to the traditional works of mercy – rebuilding communities, providing employment.
- Change and reinvent yourself as fast as the city does. In the city programs and events lose their effectiveness quickly. You should be in a constant “learning mode” and should be changing in response to new realities. Don ‘t get attached to programs. Community social/ethnic make-ups change rapidly, etc.
- Assimilate through cell groups, not programs or large groups. It is too expensive to make room for classes and groups. Also, formal follow-up doesn’t work–people change places and jobs and statuses too fast. Thirdly, urban people have so much “restructuring” (theologically, psychologically, etc.) that classes and programs are insufficient. Only group life will do it. Fourth, group life accommodates the diversity of the city better than large group classes and programs.
- Expect evangelism to be easier, and discipleship “harder” in the city. People are in more turmoil and are more rootless. People you would never think to consider the gospel (Jewish. gay, etc.) will! But the same lack of loyalty and commitment that enables such people to consider the gospel makes it hard to disciple. They won’t want to join or “dig in” to the faith as quickly.
- Localize mission. More missions money is put into “back yard” urban ministries than “overseas” missions. Urban people are highly motivated to help in their awn cities.
- Become a center for personal problem-solving. Counseling and support groups are crucial to address broken lives.
- Fully use women’s gifts; but strongly emphasize male responsibility. Greater proportions of urban population is female. Be sure to make the fullest possible use of gifts. Yet, emphasize male headship and responsibility, for passive men are common in urban areas.
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