Urban Impact: Reaching the World through Effective Urban Ministry

Foreword

Some books you read for just one chapter. Such is not the case with John Thompson’s wonderful book, Urban Impact: Reaching the World through Effective Urban Ministry. If it were the case, I can tell you that the one chapter entitled The Absent Father: The Greatest Problem in Our Society, would be worth the purchase price of the book and every second of the valuable time that it takes to read it. As very few others have done, John Thompson has not only assessed the problem but provided the reasons for the problem and actually given us a way to address what to many people seems to be an insolvable problem.

Of course, the two chapters on urban discipleship: Calibrating Our Compass and Turn the World Upside Down, along with the two chapters on Reaching the Disenfranchised are brimful of cogent information and inspirational challenge. It would be difficult to estimate how important the chapter is on Living in the City: Achieving Unbounded Success in a Degraded Environment. One reason that chapter is so very important is because for too many evangelical Christians there is a certain attitude of resignation about the possibility of doing anything in the urban areas of America.

Not only does this chapter of John Thompson’s book illustrate why that is an erroneous conclusion, but also the very existence of Armitage Baptist Church in Chicago where Thompson serves as Pastor of Discipleship is one of the great untold stories in America today. Beginning with a tiny congregation in an impossible place, Senior Pastor Charles Lyons moved into the community, began to win people to Christ, to live as an example among the people, and then gradually to find a new place to meet when the crowds became so large that he had to look elsewhere. Miraculously, God provided an old Masonic Temple with a perfect location to reach the whole inner city. John Thompson at a later time linked his life with that of Charles Lyons. Charles, the evangelist and preacher, and John, the discipler, have been a great team, and this book grows out of their experiences.

Recently, I had the opportunity to return to the church for a service. I had not been there in several years. The last time I was there, the church was still located in a declining, dilapidated, urban neighborhood even though the church itself had been refurbished and was probably the nicest-looking building in a one-hundred-block radius. But this time when I went back, I noticed something really impressive. The whole neighborhood immediately around the church was coming back. I knew that it was a direct result of the church. While it is true that they have faced the inevitable difficulty of people becoming believers and often moving out of the community, John Thompson has convinced many of the people to stay and plant their lives there in the inner city. As a result, the whole community around them has blossomed unbelievably.

The Armitage Baptist Church just may be the most thoroughly New Testament church in America today. Attending a service there is like attending a meeting of the United Nations. Literally people are from everywhere. Some have PhDs. Others never made it to kindergarten. But they all sit by one another, learn from one another, and bear an incredible witness for Christ.

Although Urban Impact: Reaching the World through Effective Urban Ministry is designed primarily to give a handle to those who feel the call of God to the desperate situations in the urban areas of our country, and for that matter the world, it also tells the secret of what God has done at Armitage. If I could only read one book this year on evangelism, and especially how to reach the teeming masses of people in the inner cities of our world, it would be this book by John Thompson. This will change not only your life but also the lives of thousands of others.

Paige Patterson

President, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

Fort Worth, TX

Acknowledgments

Great appreciation goes to Mrs. Dena Owens who tirelessly donated many hours providing editorial assistance. Her labor will always be greatly appreciated.

Also, I owe great thanks to Douglas Knoll for his many hours analyzing my manuscript and giving good advice as well as editorial assistance.

Introduction

H elp! is the first thought in the mind of one who moves to a large city to minister. What can I do in such a difficult and foreboding environment? Will my family be safe? Where do we start? What do I need to know?

Half of the population of the world lives in cities of one million or more. If we don’t reach and disciple people from these masses, our future missionary and pastoral force will be greatly diminished.

This book, Urban Impact: Reaching the World through Effective Urban Ministry, is a trumpet call to muster our forces and at the same time deals with the philosophy and practical principles that make any ministry in the city successful. This book is a practical how-to book on growing a successful urban ministry.

In an attempt to be practical, real life experiences are explained to help the reader understand the problems, burdens, and joys of urban ministry, and the powerful impact cities have on the rest of society. How can we leverage this natural influence in order to impact people in the city as well as other parts of our society? Please follow along as we proceed to answer these questions and many others throughout this book.

Unfortunately, there is a tremendous vacuum of pastors and missionaries reaching the masses of people in the cities. This came about because of a great exodus to the suburbs in the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s. Christian colleges and seminaries have recognized this need and are mounting a growing emphasis in preparing students to fill the void.

As we discuss the philosophical and biblical foundation for urban ministry, many questions will be answered such as: Why did God design the city? Why is there so much evil? What are the qualities and benefits of cities? What are the problems faced each day by living in large urban areas? How are the cities of our world changing? How is urban ministry both a biblical mandate and the most effective strategy for reaching the world?

The first two chapters of this book, entitled The Mother of All Challenges and A Place of Unparalleled Potential, provide a powerful analysis for addressing the biblical and philosophical need for ministering in urban areas. These chapters also illustrate how planting churches in the city is the most powerful strategy to reach the world. This approach worked for the Apostle Paul and the early church with astounding success, and the power of this strategy is just as effective in the twenty-first century. The church has done a poor job of following this strategy. We can do much better. We must!

The third and fourth chapters of this book discuss biblical principles missing in many ministries. These principles, if practiced, would revolutionize any ministry, but they are strategically necessary in the city. As the seven principles are illustrated, the reader will see their importance as well as their practical necessity.

Chapters 5 and 6 are entitled Calibrating Our Compass and Turn the World Upside Down. One might wonder what two chapters on discipleship are doing in a book on urban ministry. I believe that in twenty-nine years of serving in the city of Chicago, there has been no more effective tool than discipleship to help an urbanite overcome strongholds, become solid spiritually, learn to lead as a good example for others to follow, become a leader, and impact others for Christ. Nowhere in our society is there a greater need for people to come alongside as a mentor; to encourage, hold accountable, and guide another through a destructive and difficult environment. It is my prayer that these chapters will challenge the reader to create a life focus of discipling people, especially those serving in the city.

Chapters 7 and 8 discuss a strategy to reach the disenfranchised. These are the people in the city, especially the inner city, who come from the worst backgrounds and carry the greatest amount of baggage. In these two chapters topics covered are as practical as racial discrimination, dealing with a poor self-image, helping one break addictions of drugs and alcohol, and how to deal with depression, poverty, and homelessness.

Is it really possible to reach people with such debilitating problems? Should I look past them to prospects who don’t have as many problems? God has a special love for the least of these. In a multicultural church with Thirty-seven different nationalities thriving in the inner city of Chicago, we can testify that they can be reached with the gospel, their direction can be reversed, and they can become co-laborers in our mission of discipleship.

A needy follow-up to the chapters on reaching the disenfranchised is the vital chapter 9, The Absent Father. This chapter covers one of the greatest problems in our society. It is the cause, especially in the city, of most of the societal problems and it has caused the disintegration of the family. This chapter gives helpful advice on how to begin healing the wounds of people who are scarred by this life-debasing component of their childhood and the additional problems that come from a mother who has to fill the gap.

Chapter 10 deals with a topic that is rarely covered in books on urban ministry, Living in the City. Why are there so few pastors and missionaries moving to the cities? How do we cope with unsafe conditions, the negative environment, and a poor educational system? The chapter is concluded with an exposé about the common problem of burnout in urban ministry and how to prevent and recover from this disorder. Included in Appendix 1 there is a helpful inventory the reader can take to test one’s own propensity to burnout.

The final two chapters on planting an urban church are important because the failure of men and women of God who are attempting to plant churches around the world is far too common. These chapters cover seven types of churches one may plant to reach people of multiple ethnicities in the city, and suggest an urban strategy that is being used successfully in numerous urban settings. The valuable section on choosing a team, how to begin, and effective outreach ideas readers will also find to be helpful.

Throughout the book I have shared real life stories for illustration purposes. In order to protect the identity of the subjects in the stories, I have substituted their name with an alias.

Why have we failed so miserably to plant strong churches amidst the masses of people needing the gospel in the cities? The answer to this question may be the greatest hindrance to effective church planting in the cities. This book concludes with a discussion on perhaps the greatest asset to effective church planting in the city. Travel with me through these pages and see if God might tug at your heartstrings and cause you to ask: Is He calling me to the city? If not, how can I pray, support, and send others?

1

The Mother of All Challenges

Constant Change, Enormous Needs,

But-for-God Impossible Difficulties

It was one o’clock in the morning and I awoke with a whining sound in my ears. In the fog of sleep I thought it was the eerie, human-like sound occasionally made by cats as they whine. As the cobwebs began to lift, I could hear the sound of an engine and tires screeching. I soon realized the whining was not a cat at all but the sound of a young lady who was being dragged back and forth in the alley behind my home. As I jumped out of bed and looked out my rear window, I could see someone in the dark hanging out of the passenger side of a car. In the moonlight I could see that the person had little on, with her blouse pulled up over her shoulders and caught in the door mechanism. I screamed for the driver to let the woman go. Slightly afterwards, but almost in tandem, a man in a house across the alley hollered the same words. With a shout, the driver said that he was trying to let her go and as he pushed the door open she fell curled up on the alley pavement. As the car sped away, the woman struggled to her feet. Seeing she was partly naked and in need of help, I asked my wife to take a blouse to her and see if we could bring her into our home or provide help in some way. She took the blouse, refused our help, and began walking down the alley as a blue strobe light began to appear. Such is an example of experiences one may face in the inner city of a large urban area.

Why is there so much evil in the city? What are the qualities and benefits of cities? What are the problems faced each day as one lives in a large urban area? How are the cities of our world changing? How is urban ministry both a biblical mandate and the most effective strategy for reaching people for Jesus Christ? These and other questions will be answered as we explore one of the most amazing and effective opportunities for discipleship known to man.

What do we mean when we use the term urban? The U.S. Government Census Bureau offers a definition of urbanized areas as being the fully developed area of a city which may have one or more central places and adjacent built-up areas (i.e., suburbs or urban fringe) with a minimum population of fifty thousand people.¹ An inner city can be defined as a poverty area in which there is much government activity and control but little activity by the private sector. Often merchandisers, businesses, and churches have left the area. . . . But governmental agencies, public housing, and social institutions are visible.

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Why Did God Design the City?

According to Redeemer Magazine, God designed the city to be first of all a place of refuge and shelter for the weak. . . . The earliest cities provided refuge from wild animals and marauding tribes and criminals. . . . In Israel, God designated certain cities to be ‘cities of refuge’. . . . Today the city is a place where minorities can cluster for support in an alien land, where new immigrants can work together for a foothold in a new world, where refugees can find shelter, and where the homeless and poor can better eke out an existence.³ The weak and powerless need the city because they cannot survive in the suburbs and small towns.

Secondly, God designed the city as a cultural and human development center. The city stimulates and forces the gifts, capacities, and talents of people, the deep potentialities in the human heart. To summarize the Redeemer Magazine article: The city brings you into contact with so many people with different abilities and skills, producing greater works of art, science, technology, and culture. Even the description of the new Babylon shows the power of the city to develop culture. In Revelation 18 we see the city is a place of music and the arts (v. 22a), of crafts and manufacturing (v. 22b), of technological advance (v. 23a), and of trade and retailing (v. 23c).

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Thirdly, God designed the city as a place of spiritual searching and temple building. Ancient cities were built around a ziggurat—the original skyscrapers—temples where a particular god was thought to come down." Cities were the royal residences of the god, and the city was dedicated to him or her. When God creates a new city in the desert, he does so by dwelling among his people in the tabernacle, for the city of God will be his dwelling place. Later, in the earthly city of Jerusalem, the city stands as the central integrating point of the city’s architecture and as apex of its art and science and technology. Thus any city has a spiritual vacuum within it. The turmoil and climate of cities make people religious seekers. Protestant Christians abandoning the city inevitably make it easier for the city to turn to false gods.

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A Community of Assets and Liabilities

As millions of immigrants approached the coast of the United States at New York City, they were met by the Statue of Liberty with an inscription printed on the base of the monument with these words: Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free. . . . Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. Since the earliest settlers traveled from England to this country, America has been a country of immigrants. During the nineteenth century, huge numbers met the Statue of Liberty as they came in waves to escape poverty, famine, political unrest, or persecution. Many came for better education or for personal advancement. On every continent, large cities are the gateways to the world, the port of entry for millions of immigrants. Ray Bakke states, The twentieth century has produced the greatest global migration in the history of the world. The Southern hemisphere is coming North; East is coming West and everyone is coming to the cities.

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Cities are known for diversity. The ethnicity of the world is clearly present in the cities. Ray Bakke has stated, Yesterday, cities were in the nations; today all the nations are in the cities.⁷ More immigrants entered the United States in the 1990s than in any previous decade.⁸ The largest immigrant populations are in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, respectively.

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This immigrant growth will not end anytime soon. According to environmental writer Mark Nowak, it is estimated that 60 percent of the population increase in the United States between 1994 and 2050 will be attributed to immigration and the descendents of immigrants.

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Cities are known for their assets. Cities are abundant with many cultural, recreational, entertainment, and educational institutions. Opportunities to learn through their many colleges, seminars, and conferences are abundant. The range of merchandise is enormous, making it possible to purchase almost anything conceivable. Though large cities are diverse in what they offer, cities are also known for specialization. For example, New York is known as the financial center of the world. Until the more modern era, Los Angeles was known as the entertainment capital of the world, and, not too long ago, Chicago was known as a manufacturing city. Therefore, large cities are abundant in resources that can truly enhance the daily lives of their citizens.

Cities are known for their problems. I agree with Charles Lyons, Senior Pastor at Armitage Baptist Church in Chicago, when he says, In the city everything is intensified, magnified, and multiplied. With tongue in cheek he goes on to say, Ministering in the city is like tent camping in a hurricane. This tempest-filled environment is expressed on a daily basis in many ways:

The problem of stress: Those who live in large urban areas experience extra stress in day-to-day living. In the larger cities rush hour traffic has expanded to most of the day, traffic tickets have become a major form of government revenue, there are long lines at government agencies like the Post Office and the Department of Motor Vehicles, and you have to wade through the bureaucracy when dealing with issues such as traffic tickets, property taxes issues, errors in utility bills, city service problems, and accident reports, to name a few.

Several years ago the county made a mistake on my property tax bill, charging me double what they should have based on the assessed value. Since my bank was automatically paying my taxes through escrow withholdings, the big jump in my tax bill was paid without the bank noting the increase. I soon received a notice that my house payment would increase by about fifty dollars per month for two years because of an increase in property taxes. Because I was an inner-city missionary at the time, and living on minimal income, I could not afford this increase, so I quickly went downtown to the county tax department and endured a frustrating meeting before finally convincing the clerk that there was, in fact, an error made on my bill. He proceeded to fill out a Declaration of Error assuring me that I would receive a $1,000.00 refund. Even though the error was obvious, the tax complaint would have to go through the Court of Appeals, which was a two-year process. I did get the refund without, of course, the benefit of interest and only after my family lived through a very stressed budget for the two-year waiting period. During my twenty-nine year tenure in Chicago, I have also gone through time consuming and frustrating experiences trying to correct a major error with the water department as well as with the county property tax bill.

High cost of living: In Chicago, apartment rentals run from $500 to $5,000 per month. In the neighborhood near our church, assuming you stay off the boulevard, the rent will be between $800 and $1,800 per month. The ten most overpriced places to live in 2004 were all cities with a population of 240,055 or more. Among the cities included, Seattle ranked as number one, Chicago as number eight, and New York City ranked as number nine. Below I have included these ten most overpriced places from an article by Betsy Schiffman, published in Forbes Magazine.

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According to the article, the rankings in Forbes’ Best Places To Do Business are based on a 1 to 150 scale,