The CITY is beautiful

Times Square is the most beautiful place in the world… People are the most beautiful creation of God, this creation is seen most densely in the city. Therefore, the middle of the city becomes then not just a congested capitalistic melting pot but it becomes the most beautiful place in the world. — A very loose quote taken from Tim Keller

Tim Keller, a pastor in New York who is drastically changing the church and changing the culture. His ministry sends out a resounding call to the Christian body to come and partake in the gospel’s transformational effect on the city. To not live in our comfortable homes with our individual notions of beauty, but instead to gather where there is culture, to engage, to see the beauty that God has to unearth amidst the sea of people. In the city. Amidst the rubble. Beauty seen not in just a tomato or a flower growing up from the cracks but beauty seen in life, blood, and humanity.

A friend shared with me her city last week and she opened up about their churches struggle to keep young families, to keep godly pastors at their church. Because their church is in the city and the reality is… The city is expensive… The city is scary… The city is not always comfortable. Instead of staying in the city- we grow up, have a few kids and move out to the suburbs, out to the country. We acknowledge the city is difficult and we do what is the best for our family and move them far away. Far enough so we can afford that 5 bedroom house. Far enough to find a nice safe street to ride bikes. Far enough away from the city to feel that comforting sense of security, of being safe. Far enough away to be free from the mess of lost humanity outside our front door.

We, who were the generation proclaiming change just a few short baby-free years ago. We, who so desired to see culture drastically impacted have taken in one form or another to become God in our own lives. To say, this is what my family needs. Yet isn’t it interesting that what we need is ending up the same for everyone. It involves a lot of comfort and very little risk.

And so the culture moves on, changing and transforming itself in the city. Without us, without the church, without a witness. Tim Keller goes on teaching and expounding on this in an article Urban Christian that you can read HERE quoted from below:

My first strategic point is simple: More Christians should live long-term in cities. Historians point out that by A.D. 300, the urban populations of the Roman Empire were largely Christian, while the countryside was pagan. (Indeed, the word pagan originally meant someone from the countryside—its use as a synonym for a non-Christian dates from this era.) The same was true during the first millennium A.D. in Europe—the cities were Christian, but the broad population across the countryside was pagan. The lesson from both eras is that when cities are Christian, even if the majority of the population is pagan, society is headed on a Christian trajectory. Why? As the city goes, so goes the culture. Cultural trends tend to be generated in the city and flow outward to the rest of society.

How do you know dear friend that a new stucco house with a nice yard and a pool in the suburbs is truly what you need to raise a godly family? How do you know that your call is not to the city? Are you really certain your family would not thrive in a cramped apartment or in a smaller home within the city? Maybe that is just what you need. Maybe that is just what your city needs?!?

How can we, the church, change the culture if we are constantly moving and removing ourselves from it?

BLESSINGS