Urban Ministries: The future of missions?

With about 60 percent of the world’s population projected to be living in cities by the year 2025 , does it make sense to focus more missions efforts on urban areas?

Over the last few weeks, we’ve discovered that many needs exist in metropolitan areas around the world. So, by making urban areas the center of missions outreach, it might be argued that missionaries can reach the most people with a variety of needs and beliefs.

But that does not mean that rural areas are exempt from needing a helping hand. In some areas, rural peoples continue to be the poorest and most neglected groups.

So what are missions organizations and missionaries to do in light of these global issues?

Week #4: Christian missionaries aren’t the only ones asking questions about urbanization. Other religious groups, such as the Mormons, have already begun efforts in the cities in order to influence people in these diverse areas. Is Christianity behind the curve? And if the future of missions is in the cities, what must happen to existing rural ministries?

These questions may seem overwhelming…and rightly so. Many may be asking: Do the problems caused by urbanization really have an “either-or” solution, or should it be more “both-and”? Can’t missions remain in rural areas while expanding ministry into the urban setting?

While that seems like a reasonable solution, many might argue that missionaries cannot transition from rural ministry to urban outreach, thinking that their same methodology will work in the city. As we’ve seen in posts from weeks past, the needs and even the culture often vary greatly.

In an online article, “Imagining Christ’s Church in the City,” from Missiology.org, the writer notes how an effective urban church might look, with an emphasis on including the following elements: spiritual formation; community; equipping members for ministry; caring for the weak; their missional, kingdom identity; and multicultural ministry.

Similarly, Servant Partners who works in urban poor areas, notes that “poverty is a complex issue that demands multifaceted long-term solutions—solutions that must come from the poor themselves. That is why we partner with national agencies and churches whenever we can and tailor our approach to fit the unique needs of each context in which we serve.”

So how can missionaries follow suit? Do we need to move some rural missionaries to urban areas, or do we need new missionaries to pioneer urban areas? How should existing missions organizations that have traditionally focused on rural areas make a transition to include urban ministry?

Can we offer a solution to this global missions concern? Share your thoughts! Be a part of the conversation.

http://fampra.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/20/4/457.pdf
http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange2/current/lectures/urban_gc/
http://www.cnn.com/US/9610/13/mormons/