Foundations for Christian Mission, Student Workbook, SW04

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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

Let God Arise! (continued)

In America’s Inner Cities

The entire Let God Arise! idea began with a deep conviction that the American inner city cannot be won without the direct intervention and provision of the Lord. The hardness of this field makes plain and clear the truth of the psalmist’s argument in Psalms 127.1 (ESV), “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.” This movement believes that all efforts at winning the unreached millions in America’s inner cities will be futile unless God visits the city. We further hold that this visitation will only occur if godly men and women lay hold of God in intercession on the city’s behalf. Only a breakthrough of God’s power will transform our cities. While the city is arguably the greatest single creation of humankind in civilization, it has nothing to glory of, in and of itself. The modern megapolis represents the bastion of injustice, ungodliness, and immorality. Truly, it is not possible to think of America without its greatest and most influential cities–New York, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago, Houston, Miami, San Francisco, Boston, Portland, Atlanta, Denver, St. Louis, Dallas, Seattle, San Antonio, and on and on and on. These great centers represent the highest in culture, education, art, medicine, law, jurisprudence, government, politics, business, commerce, industry, entertainment, and power. Yet they also represent some of the most desperate places on earth; our cities bulge with teeming millions whose lives are filled with empty pleasures, great injustices, and horrible experiences. Undoubtedly, the levels of darkness, poverty, and discouragement in America’s inner cities are at an all-time high. Tragically, many evangelical congregations and Christian denominations have abandoned the city, escaping to calmer winds in the suburbs, taking along with them their Bible Colleges, seminaries, Christian publishing houses, and para-church organizations. Believers have left the cities in record numbers, and abandoned those who do not know Christ to their own devices and oppression. Content to reduce Christianity to their own kind of parochial religion, many evangelicals have narrowed the scope of our Cosmic Drama; they have whittled down the majestic call of saving faith in Christ to nuclear family ethics, strong patriotic fervor and political conservatism. With no sense of a stained or disturbed conscience, many Christians have turned their backs to the cries of the dying in the city. For a Church called to be like our Master, this is totally unacceptable!