This morning started with Ray giving a lecture about God's description of a healthy city in Isaiah 65. Heaven will be an urban environment, and the cities will be characterized by happiness, healthiness, good housing, plenty of food, strong extended families, integrity of work, and the absence of conflict. Christians leaders in today's cities should all be striving to work toward the heavenly standards that God described in Isaiah 65. Modern urban churches face many challenges, however. The challenges are sociological because cities contain so much pluralism. For instance, one zip code in Flushing that we visited today has 130 different languages and New York City in general has people who speak over 800 different languages. There are over 2 million Jews, 1 million Chinese, 800,000 Muslims, 400,000 Hindus, 100,000 West Africans, and 100,000 Sikhs in New York City. All of the Chinese people who live outside of China, nearly 140 million people, represent the tenth largest country in the world. Church leaders must adapt in order to reach people in a pluralistic society. We need to figure out how to connect with many different kinds of people, not become afraid to talk to people who are different than us. The early church set an example of diversity in church leadership in Acts 13, where we see that the church leadership in Antioch contained two African, two Asian, and one European pastor. The pastors were selected intentionally to reflect the diversity in Antioch and the greater region. Churches also face structural, denominational, financial, and personal challenges in modern cities. Chris Clayman, a missionary in NYC, then lectured about his ministry to the large diapora of 100,000 West African immigrants living in New York City. He does spend some time in the West African nation of Mali, but most of his mission lies in reaching the Muslim population from Mali that lives in New York. Many American Christians rush to take short term mission trips to exotic jungles oversees, but they won't reach out to the people from many different nationalities living in their own cities and back yards. Early Christianity spread rapidly through the Jewish Diaspora, so why can't God work through us today to reach diaspora people groups in modern cities? Clayman suggested that churches need to build mission into their systems and structures so that we can be equipped to reach people in our own neighborhoods and cities. We took the subway to Queens to visit an Indonesian church called Seh Moon Baptist Church, where we took in a lecture by Tony Carnes who is a senior writer with Christianity Today and the founder of a web magazine with 1.4 millions viewers that covers religion in New York. Ray Bakke also lectured at that church, and he pointed out that each person in our churches has biological, geographical, vocational, and recreational spheres of influence. If we can intentionally influence people in those spheres of influence, then a congregation of 100 people suddenly is multiplied by four in order to reach 400 people. That means pastors and ministry leaders in cities should visit people where they live, work, and play in order to advance the Kingdom of God. After that we went to a big church in one of the three Chinatowns in New York in the Flushing neighborhood. We spent time with a Chinese pastor who has built new seminaries in New York, Taiwan, Canada, Brazil, Paris, Italy, China, and Hong Kong, he planted 15 churches in New York, Taiwan, and Brazil, his church has sent mission teams to many different countries in the world, and he has led a community care movement in New York that impacts many people every day. He showed us pictures of a cave that was dug in China to train church leaders. One of the great things about BGU is that I have to opportunity to learn from leaders in many different urban environments in many different countries in the world, and I get an amazing glimpse into the diversity of the body of Christ. This century that we are currently living in will be China's century of influence, so it is important for Christian leaders to understand what is going on culturally around the globe in order to be more effective at reaching people. The church we visited operates seven different church services in different languages to different people groups. I have a lot to learn from them!
I took in a lot of information today! I was greatly encouraged about the possibilities of building a cross-cultural worship experience in Pittsburgh. New York is a great place to learn about how Christians can be effective in pluralistic urban environments, and I heard about and witnessed several successful examples today. I am very intrigued about the possibilities of reaching diasporic people groups in cities in American, including in my urban context in Pittsburgh. I have often wondered why people in Pittsburgh often go to such great lengths to go on mission trips to Mexico and countries in Central America, but they completely ignore and sometimes even despise the Hispanic people living in Pittsburgh. We can all live missionally every day of our lives. Short term mission trips to other countries can be fine, but they should lead us to live missionally to reach people in our own neighborhoods and cities. I was amazed at how the Chinese church we visited today reached people in many different parts of their city and in other countries. It is possible to be locally and globally connected, and that skill set is effective in our modern global society.
I can't wait to get back to Pittsburgh to continue to work cross-culturally with LAMP and in the North Way East End community. I'm being very intentional about God's pluralistic heart, and I hope our church can continue to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and live out that kind of diversity. Pittsburgh has many different neighborhoods that are often separated from one another, but I really feel that my role as a pastor in Pittsburgh is one of a bridge builder and reconciler across cultures. That includes reconciliation across races and socioeconomic status. I am so thankful for the many models of ministry that I am experiencing this week in one of the most amazing cities on the planet... New York. Also, with regard to application, I am hoping to visit many of the people who are planning to be on the East End launch team at their places of work and recreation over the months to come. That should really help me to get to know people, because people in cities often emphasize their vocation and recreational activities. I am really looking forward to what tomorrow will bring.
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