ARTICLE TOOLS

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The story of God's people begins in a garden. In that prelapsarian paradise, the first man and the first woman experienced deep intimacy with both Creation and its Creator. They walked with God in one-on-one communion … face-to-face. They tended the garden. Through sin they lost Eden and its glorious possibility. But though sin marred their relationship with the Creator, it did not destroy the image of God in them. And even in a fallen world, the natural landscape still reflects the supreme majesty of the one who made it.

Since that time, we've never stopped searching for that intense, individual experience of communion with God. So it seems natural that many people leave their urban and suburban homes to return to the wilderness, in search of isolation from man-made noise and clutter. They come to the land in search of spiritual renewal, a truer vision of how God intended life to be.

But have we idealized the undeveloped landscape? What messages do we send when we flee the city in pursuit of God? It's easier to lose sight of the Creator amid concrete and steel, the innumerable commercial and civic transactions that characterize the city. Historically, many Christians, from the early desert fathers to everyday American families, have left the city. Some have fled the perceived excesses of the metropolis. Others have left the city for the suburbs, thinking they'll find a connection to the land. But over the years, more and more people, including more Christians, have returned to the city, because the city, like the wilderness, uniquely reveals God's power and plan for his people.

In the popular imagination, the city often represents society's vices: violence, crime, sexual deviance, drugs. With the heightened visibility of suffering through homelessness, poverty, and racial discrimination, we see the more extreme effects of living in a sinful world. And though certainly not exclusive to the city, these realities are, like everything else in an urban environment, more concentrated.

With this concentration of need, fueled by increases in both immigration and internal migration, many who live outside the city see it primarily as a place that needs saving, an opportunity for evangelism. Short-term missionaries come to the cities from all over the country to serve in soup kitchens and homeless shelters, to perform street theater, and pass out tracts. They're hoping to win souls to Christ, and perhaps, in the process, to offer temporary relief to the hungry, aid to the less fortunate.

While short-term missions have their place, those who've built a life in the cities have some different ideas about the meaning of urban ministry. For many in the ministry, the name of the urban game is diversity. After all, those who minister to the urbanites face a different set of challenges than those who minister in the inner city. Dedicated inner-city churches face some of the bleakest problems, preaching to the marginalized—the homeless, the drug addicts, the mothers on welfare, the gang members. Day in and day out, they meet not only the spiritual needs, but often the basic physical needs of their congregations. They preach a message of hope in the midst of gang violence and extreme poverty. By sponsoring practical ministries in addition to simply holding services, they encourage their communities to develop their own resources and promote their own dignity.

To urban church leaders, led by nationally recognized figures like Ray Bakke in Chicago and Tim Keller in New York City, cities are more than just a present-day Sodom and Gomorrah, quietly awaiting their downfall, or crying out for salvation from the redeemed rural world. Instead, they're concentrated centers of transformation, communities with the opportunity to demonstrate God's grace. They're opportunities for individuals from diverse backgrounds to live, work, and play in near proximity, and in so doing, to participate in the authentic work of the gospel. Cities allow close-knit networks of churches to provide vital resources, for Christians to share the news of God's desire to break down barriers to justice, responsibility, and brotherly love.

As churches and ministry centers target and address urban issues, they must also find ways to fill the gaps with positive changes. And as we might expect, the cities, and their churches, offer plenty of options. From public art projects and after-school sports programs, to political activism and community gardens, the transforming power of the gospel is growing strong throughout the cities of the United States.

It's true. The story of God's people begins in a garden. But let's never forget that it ends in a city—a redeemed and glorious city. Through the work of his church, God never ceases to call the cities of the world to himself, each with a dense concentration of invaluable opportunities to see the workings of grace. So the next time you need a mountaintop experience, you might try looking for it in a skyscraper.

Melody Pugh is a Chicago-based freelance writer and graduate student in the humanities.