City Focus: God's Plan

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11

This familiar promise is often repeated. Yet just this past weekend I learned that this is an urban promise to an Urban People of God.

Philip Ryken , the President of Wheaton College and former pastor in Philadelphia, spoke at our  Citylife Boston  Church Retreat. He unpacked several passages from Jeremiah that reveal God’s heart for cities.

Why do city dwelling Christians need this kind of promise from God? Because living in cities is hard. Cities stone prophets and are filled with idols, yet God can surely use us in cities. Charles Spurgeon says this well:

“The city is full of care, and he who has to go there from day to day finds it to be a place of great wear and tear. It is full of noise, and stir, and bustle, and sore travail; many are its temptations, losses, and worries. But to go there with the divine blessing takes off the edge of its difficulty; to remain there with that blessing is to find pleasure in its duties and strength equal to its demands.

A blessing in the city may not make us great, but it will keep us good; it may not make us rich, but it will preserve us honest. Whether we are porters, or clerks, or managers, or merchants, or magistrates, the city will afford us opportunities for usefulness. It is good fishing where there are shoals of fish, and it is hopeful to work for our Lord amid the thronging crowds. We might prefer the quiet of a country life; but if called to town, we may certainly prefer it because there is room for our energies.”

Despite the hardships, cities have a future and a hope. God has always been for cities. Genesis begins in a garden and God tells the caretakers to make a city: “fill the earth and subdue it”. Revelation ends with the Garden City of God coming down from Heaven. In between Jesus comes from nowhere but impacts cities. Paul is compelled to go to Rome and Athens because fulfilling the Great Commission means going to where the people are; and the people of every Nation gather in cities

That is truer now than it was in the days of Peter and Paul. And the future of the Great Commission is in cities. Watch this if you need any convincing:  www.192021.org

Cru has always had some influence on cities because the college students we work with end up leading in cities. But it seems to me that more college students than ever live in cities, but very few Cru staff have followed. Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, New York and Boston are teeming with college students, but only a relative handful is there to reach them. We are falling behind in the great migration to cities.

Would you consider moving to a mega city like New York, Los Angeles, Milan or Buenos Aires? God is there, and there is certainly room for your energy. And it is “good fishing where there are shoals of fish”.