Get Urban or Die

The world is becoming increasingly urbanized. Urban centers increasingly have more in common with urban centers in other countries than they do with rural areas of their own countries. New York City, in many ways, has more in common with Tokyo than it does with rural communities in New York State. Tokyo, in turn, has more in common with Paris than it does with other areas of Japan. This is vital to understand in the context of global evangelical ministry. The combination of increasing global urbanization and the commonalities that exist in urban communities with each other means two things. First, if the evangelical church doesn't excel at urban ministry, it will die as the rural areas decrease around the world. Secondly, what works in NYC might be a good model for Tokyo, or Paris, or London, or Calcutta. Evangelicals need to look at the urban ministry successes they have had in America as good starting points for urban ministry around the globe. This is slowly dawning on evangelical missionary organizations, and the extent to which this becomes the dominant thinking is the extent to which we can anticipate evangelical renewal in cities all over the world that know they are lost, despite the bravado they often portray.