Foundations for Christian Mission, Student Workbook, SW04

1 2 2 /

F O U N D A T I O N S F O R C H R I S T I A N M I S S I O N

• Show how Jesus’ own ministry was rooted in city work, and his proclamation mandate included the preaching of the Kingdom in Jerusalem; also, how Christianity was birthed in a city, and spread through the Roman empire in the first century via the great urban centers of the time (in places such as Damascus, Antioch, Corinth, Philippi, Thessalonica, Athens, and Rome itself). The apostolic ministry (including the Pauline journeys) were urban in character, centers which proved to be the gateways to the larger Roman empire. • Give an overview of the size, scope, and population of some of the major urban centers today. Further, show how these cities serve as centers of government, education, health-care, information, entertainment, trade, commerce, business, industry, jurisprudence, the military, and religion. Outline the cities in regard to their significance in terms of cultural cities (which lead the world in fashion, trends, and ideas), political and administrative cities (centers of worldwide decision making bodies, or those containing governments and their bureaucracies), industrial cities (noisy, blue-collar, factory centers host to central manufacturing industries) commercial cities (giant marketplaces or bazaars where goods and services are exchanged on worldwide basis), symbolic cities (cities where great historical struggles are fought, settled, and symbolized), and primary cities (those which combine all of the characteristics together). • Lay out the ways in which cities today serve as magnets for the oppressed, the broken, and the poor, including the biblical focus on God’s heart for the poor, the trend of urbanization (and its concentration on the poor) as the most powerful characteristic of modern times, and the logical argument that if God is concerned for the poor, he likewise is concerned about the American inner city because of its staggering number of underclass and poor families. • Summarize the key biblical data on how the city is the picture and symbol of our spiritual destiny and inheritance, in the sense of the hope of the New Jerusalem; this will be the city not where God is absent and where arrogance rules, but where God is present, and Jesus is adored as Lord of all. Show how the explicit goal of mission is to rob the cities of the world in order to fill up and populate the New Jerusalem, the true mother of all believers ( God’s final urban renewal project ).

3