Choosing to Live in the City for the Cause of Christ
February 11, 2010 – 10:41 amI recently came across a message by John Piper that he delivered in 1995. His message was related to a new urban-suburban partnership they were seeking to promote in their church (located in the city of Minneapolis). As part of his challenge to his church, he clarified why he would be issuing calls for people to move from the suburbs into the city for the sake of the gospel:
“The choice to live in the suburbs is the easier choice. It’s the one that most people take, if they can afford it-black or white or Asian. If you can afford it, you leave. That’s the natural thing to do. I don’t know of any church that has developed a program to help their urban people be willing to move to the suburbs.
Such programs are not necessary. Almost all the natural gravity pulls in that direction. There never has been a white flight-or any other colored flight-from the suburbs to the center of the city. Downward mobility is un-American.
Therefore, I take as part of my calling in this church to so preach and to so live as to persuade some Christians to move to the city to spread a passion of the supremacy of God in all things. Not because I think it is wrong to live in the suburbs, but because it is most definitely right-and gloriously right-to live for Christ and his kingdom in the city, and almost nothing in our materialistic, security-driven, fun-seeking culture is going to motivate you to consider it.
In short the church doesn’t need as much help to spread itself as salt through the suburbs as it does to spread itself as salt through the decaying inner city.”
I was reminded of the recent report our church heard about our church plant in Hamtramck (after which Pastor Pearson illustrated the uniting power of the gospel as a reverse prism). As part of that church planting effort, several families from our church moved to the city of Hamtramck to minister in that community.
I was encouraged by the mindset these families displayed by choosing a more difficult place to live in order to minister more effectively. (Of course, not everyone needs to move from the suburbs into the city, but conservative churches are nowhere close to abandoning the suburbs.)
I pray for more people who will fight against the self-serving mindset of our culture and choose their residence in light of eternity rather than comfort or convenience.
