Picturing Theology

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P i c t u r i n g T h e o l o g y

Let God Arise! (continued)

could be done leisurely and conveniently “every other quarter” or so. Rather, what we advocate here is an entirely new vision of ourselves and the city as powerless without the Lord’s intervention. We are asking here for a radical reorientation of our lives toward prayer to God based on a rediscovery and reaffirmation that only God can change the inner cities of America. Frankly speaking, my deepest conviction continues to be that America’s inner cities are simply unwinnable without a new and fresh visitation from God. Nearly sixty million people live in our poorest urban communities, with more than 90% of these residents claiming no knowledge of or relationship to God in Jesus Christ. These tortured communities have been deeply scarred and marred by violence, are severely neglected and exploited economically, and suffer from horrific and severe health-related problems. Our American inner cities are hazardous on a number of different points, and yet they continue to swell from immigrant populations and mind-numbing ethnic and racial diversity. Perhaps the greatest liability of all, America’s inner cities suffer from discouragement and nihilistic despair; everyone seems to live in fear and dread, with a keen sense of hopelessness. Tragically, you can even find Scripture-quoting Christians prophesying alongside the chorus of liberal and conservative nay-sayers who lament the tragedy and demise of the city. Some missiologists suggest that America is already won, and that ethnic and urban churches can finish the job in America’s inner cities. Others even doubt whether the city is worth winning, giving a kind of grotesque judgment that those who suffer there are merely reaping what they deliberately have sown. In the face of such physical poverty, broken families, sub-par schools, inferior social services, and general spiritual darkness, most expect little from the city. Their words and demeanor give their deepest beliefs away: they truly wonder if anything good can really come out of our inner cities, arguably our 21st century Nazareths. Despite such low levels of belief, I am convinced that the biblical record is correct when it asserts that nothing is impossible with God (Luke 1.37). Nothing is too hard for God (Jer. 32.26), and he through his power can touch and transform the inhabitants of the city! We stand ever ready and hopeful that God will visit his people in the city, and that through outpourings of his Spirit we can see explosive movements of spiritual awakening and cross-cultural disciple making among the urban poor. These movements will not occur due to human ingenuity and effort, but through times of refreshing that come from the Lord (Acts 3.19). We are convinced that only a breakthrough of God’s divine power in remarkable ways