ALAN WALKER, a city minister, writes: No apologies, please, for the Christian gospel. Tell it. Tell it on the mountains, tell it on the plains, tell it in the cities. Tell it, wherever people are found. Tell to the whole wide world that Jesus Christ is Saviour and Lord.1
But many city people are not hearing the message that Jesus Christ is Saviour and Lord! And why isn't the message of life reaching them?
There are numerous reasons, and this article will discuss some of them. First, a brief over-all scan of city churches. Second, the need for qualified leadership in the cities. And finally, we will examine the efforts of some churches to meet the gigantic challenge.
1. Church in the city. The New Testament and other early sources indicate that the church had its beginnings in the city. The gospel message raced at space-age speed from city to city until most of the city people were challenged by it. From the ancient cities new ideas and concepts spread throughout the world and Christianity likewise began penetrating the nations from city centers. These cities were not mere towns with minor influence, in stead they were "places from which the power of governments, business, education, and cultural life radiated. And it was in them that Christ won his first victory." 2 Even by today's concept of a large city, Corinth was an important center with 500,000 inhabitants.3
The early church was very influential in the cities, but today this influence has been shattered by the atomic-age megalopolis. The church has lost so much ground that the World Council of Churches in 1948 stated, "There are three great areas of our world which the churches have not really penetrated. They are Hinduism, Islam, and the culture of modern cities." 4
Today the city is seen by many as a way to freedom. For many it is freedom from religion that they feel has no practical function to perform in their lives.5 Will Herberg believes that Christianity does not shape the views of most Americans on economics, business, and politics.6 Many city people get their spiritual uplift from the philharmonic broadcast and not from the church.7 A church that does not challenge the city dweller or influence his daily struggle has no appeal to him. As a result, the role of the church has often been replaced by various forms of secularism.
The Church in Retreat
Why is it that today when "one in every eight of our population now lives in the five cities of over a million inhabitants each New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, and Philadelphia,"8 the church has lost much of its influence? One reason is that the church has retreated from the city battle scene to the suburbs. In New York, during a period when two hundred thousand people moved into the area be low Fourteenth Street, seventeen Protestant churches moved out." Once the churches leave, what happens in the vacated area? Nothing much. Before they moved at least some kind of ministry was carried on, but once the churches leave the area a spiritual blackout is often left behind. The action of many churches may be compared to an illegal walkout. There is, however, one main difference: The church is often not willing to negotiate---its mind is made up and it calls upon the Lord to sanctify its tactics.
Many church members have an attitude that approves such moves. Since man created the cities they feel the church should stay out of them. In part it is an attitude of unconcern for the city people. Perhaps the most accurate minidescription of this attitude is that written by Ogden Nash:
The Bronx?
No Thonx!10
This attitude toward the Bronx, a part of New York, may well be the attitude of many church members toward all cities.
2. Wanted: Leadership. But if the church is concerned about city residents, how will it show its concern? The voices of God and His people are often muffled out by the rattling air hammer, honking cab bies, rumbling subways, and music blasting out of the night clubs. If the city people show an attitude of not caring about God's message amidst the confusion, why then should the church care. "Because God cares about all people who inhabit metropolis, the church cares about them."11 God has appointed the church to be the "servant and the healer of the city." 12 It is a herculean assignment that cannot be carried out with an attitude of, We don't care for those lost city sinners! Strong leadership in the city churches is needed.
Lack of funds is often blamed for the failure of the church's witness, but Lyle E. Schaller feels that lack of pastoral leadership is more crucial. "In suburbia there will usually be one such (a professional) person for every 700 residents; in the inner city one for every 2,000 or 3,000 residents." 13 The Lord's calls for suburbia assignments seem to be more often answered than His pleas for ministry to the city people.
Lay Witness
However, the professional ministry by it self cannot effectively witness to city residents. Laymen have been asked to clean, paint, and decorate the church, but often not trusted to witness as mature Christians. Keith Miller feels the reason for the mistrust is that ministers are afraid to trust "the laymen with the Message for fear that they will somehow misrepresent and over simplify it."14
Once the local church is seen as a supply depot and not merely an ark of safety15 the ministry will properly train laymen to be effective in their witnessing. It is the lay man who will demonstrate to his co-workers the meaning of a living Christian faith. Many non-Christians will look at the church through the life of a layman and not through the life of the minister.
3. How some churches meet the challenge. Once the church recognizes its responsibility to city residents, it has to begin showing this recognition in an effective manner. The church must evaluate the effectiveness of its ministry and, if necessary, restructure its program. Paul E. Little points out that the church has to aim its outreach at the people who need it:
When our Lord called Simon and Andrew, He said, "Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men." (Mark 1:17). Among other things He was teaching that to catch fish one must go where fish are. A simple Simon with his line in a barrel is a pathetic figure. Yet some of us seem to be just that in evangelism, We hold evangelistic meetings with few or no non-Christians present! The fish avoid our barrel in droves. We must go where they are if we are to gain any significant audience for the gospel.16
There are churches that have accepted the challenge of bringing the message of Jesus Christ to the city residents. Here is a sampling of some of the approaches:
Open All Night
One church performed the simple act of opening its chapel on a twenty-four hour basis to the community. Even though previous to the opening, vandals did some damage to the church, by faith the chapel was opened and "about two hundred people a month visited it at night, between the hours of ten and four."17 This "night church" must have been the only church many of these individuals attended. The community was friendlier to the church after this simple and inexpensive program was started.
The Central Methodist Mission in Sydney, Australia, started in 1963 its Life Line program. The main purpose of the program is to have a trained Christian, minister or layman, available over the telephone twenty-four hours a day. Suicide, marriage problems, alcoholism, drug addiction, are only a few of the problems discussed. Then there are the lonely city people, who just need someone with whom they can talk. A youngster called because "my parents have left for the evening and I am scared. Will you talk with me?" What an opportunity for Christian witnessing! This program opened lines of communication between the church and city residents.
Telephone Evangelism
There are, of course, many uses for the telephone. The kidnaper may use it to call for the ransom, the bill collector will use it to demand payment, but Christians may also use it. Here is one example: Under the direction of Roy B. Thurmon, the Metropolitan Evangelistic Crusade in New York City began using the telephone in conjunction with the It Is Written telecast. Immediately following the telecast viewers may call to ask for additional information or to discuss the program. During the week the crusade staff keeps in touch with the viewers; Bible studies and prayer are possible over the telephone. The telephone is not a substitute for personal contact, but it is a means of reaching those who otherwise may prove untouchable---the apartment residents.
Health Care
Some programs are well suited for lay men, combining work and witnessing. One such program is helping individuals needing health care after they are released from a medical institution. This help they may need for several days or for a longer period. Dunbar W. Smith, M.D., and Mrs. Carrie Carbone, R.N., started a pilot project of training laymen in the New York area for these health-care jobs. Several agencies have been organized throughout the area that advertise the services of these individuals.
As the laymen work they have an opportunity to witness for Jesus Christ. In 1969 alone, 467 laymen were trained in New York, with some 240 graduating in November, 1969.18 Other training sessions have followed. Presently Yonkers, New York, alone has some eighty health aides. The goal according to Karen Campbell, director of Bates Nurses Registry, is to have "one thou sand workers in New York." 19
City residents are often plagued by fires, forcing them to flee with almost everything left behind. Can the church help these individuals? In cooperation with the Red Cross, the Jackson Heights Seventh-day Adventist church in Queens, New York, developed a program of helping fire victims. A clothing van is on call at all times and it responds to calls throughout the city. According to John Luppens, former assistant pastor of the church, the laymen are organized into teams and they are most helpful on fire-filled weekends. Pastor Gilbert Andersen, originator of the program, tells of a visitor's experience. A night fire abruptly drove out a Floridian from his hotel. He was able to escape, minus his tie. The van supplied him with a tie and he continued on his trip. Weeks later he returned the tie to the church, cleaned, pressed, and with a thank-you note!
The Now Challenge
The city people have a need the need of Jesus Christ. Only Christ is able to fully meet their problems. The church has a responsibility and it dare not close its eyes. Years ago a poet described American cities with these overly optimistic words:
Thine alabaster cities gleam,
Undimmed by human tears! 20
But today tears are coming in torrents! When Jesus came in sight of Jerusalem He burst into tears (Luke 19:41).
What do you do when you come in sight of the city? What is a nice church like yours doing in the city?
1 Alan Walker, A Ringing Call to Mission (New York, 1966), p. 11.
2 Ibid., p. 30.
3 Ibid.
4 William Peterson, "The Protestant Ethos and the Anti-Urban Animus," The Church and the Exploding Metropolis (Robert Lee, ed., Richmond, 1965), p. 61. (Italics supplied.)
5 Murray H. Leiffer, The Effecting City Church (New York, 1961), p. 14.
6 William Baird, The Corinthian Church—A Biblical Approach to Urban Culture (New York, 1964), p. 15.
7 Leiffer, op. cit., p. 44.
8 Ibid., p. 19.
9 Baird, op. cit., p. 15.
10 Peter L. Berger, "Community in Modern Urban Society," Cities and Churches (Robert Lee, ed., Philadelphia, 1962), p. 67.
11 George D. Younger, The Church and Urban Renewal (New York, 1965). p. 158.
12 Lyle E. Schaller, Planning for Protestantism in Urban America (New York, 1965), p. 157.
13 Ibid., p. 155.
14 Keith Miller, The Taste of Neai Wine (Waco, Texas, 1965), p. 113.
15 Walker, op. cit., p. 191.
16 Paul E. Little, How to Give Your Faith (Downers Grove Illinois, 1966), p. 27.
17 Robert A. Raines, "New Life New Mission," Groups That Work, p. 69.
18 Personal letter from Roy B. Thurmon, coordinator, Metropolitan Evangelistic Crusade, New York November 25, 1969.
19 Personal letter from Karen Campbell, director, Bates Nurses Registry. Yonkers, New York, November 25, 1969.
20 Katherine Lee Bates, "O Beautiful for Spacious Skies," The Church Hymnal (Washington, D.C., 1941), No. 503.
