Professing Christ in the City

by George D. McKinney

"Christ the Wounded Healer is present in the concrete jungles, in the overcrowded, rat- and roach-infested projects, in the halls of justice and in the jails. As our eternal contemporary, he is wherever there is human hurt and suffering. Since God in Christ has never forsaken the city, neither must the church."

A careful perusal of holy history reveals that God has an unending love affair with the city. From the biblical record of the building of the first organized population center by Cain, which he named after his son Enoch (Gen 4:17), to the building of planned cities in our own day, God's concern and love for the city is evident. In spite of the historical evidence that cities have been the scene of man's greatest sin of arrogance, pride and rebellion against God, both the New and Old Testaments affirm that God unhesitatingly seeks to redeem the city and its inhabitants.

Abraham's plea for God's mercy on wicked Sodom would have been granted if only ten righteous persons could have been found. The great city of Nineveh was spared when Jonah delivered God's message to its king who led that city-state in repentance. Nehemiah, under God's anointing, left the high position of cup bearer to King Artaxerxes in Persia to lead a discouraged, defeated and disunified Jewish remnant in Jerusalem to rebuild the walls and to restore the city from ruins.

In the Gospels Jesus made the public announcement of the beginning of his ministry in the synagogue in the city of Nazareth. His first recorded miracle was in the city of Cana of Galilee. While much of the work was done among the rural folk who heard him gladly, he nevertheless was a familiar figure in the temple in Jerusalem and the synagogue and streets of the cities of Caesarea, Jericho, Bethany, Capernaum and Bethesda. It was in the city that Jesus met his greatest opposition. He wept openly because of the injustice, oppression and sins of the city of Jerusalem. After his arrest, he was taken to the city hall and tried before Pilate. His vicarious and redemptive death occurred just outside the city walls. After his resurrection, he returned to the city and appeared to five hundred astounded citizens. Jesus directed the disciples to return to the city of Jerusalem and to wait there for the promised infilling of the Holy Ghost, and instructed them to begin their ministry in the city. And from the city, they were to reach the world.

Cities Today

The reported death of God in the cities of America and the world is a false report. Those of us involved in ministry in the city are here to testify that in the city, as everywhere else, where sin doth abound, there doth grace much more abound: Christ the Wounded Healer is present in the concrete jungles, in the overcrowded, rat- and roach-infested projects, in the halls of justice and in the jails. As our eternal contemporary, he is wherever there is human hurt and suffering. Since God in Christ has never forsaken the city, neither must the church.

A careful examination of the urban scene reveals that the church and all social institutions are both challenged and threatened by conditions which are widespread in twentieth-century America. These conditions, though observable because of physical manifestations, are primarily spiritual and theological. They are basically problems arising because of man's rebellion and alienation from God, and man's pride, selfishness and contempt for others.

In recent years the church too often has been in captivity to the society for economic and social reasons and has not been free to fulfill its prophetic role of pronouncing judgment as well as proclaiming the way of healing and salvation. Rather, the church has too often simply reflected the prevailing social or political attitudes and values and has said by its silence and complicity that the majority and might make right. Consequently, the church in many cities of the United States has lost its effective witness.

In spite of the dismal failures of the past, the Christian church in America must apply to itself its teachings regarding forgiveness, healing and redemption before it can respond constructively to the desperate cry of the larger society for direction and meaning.

The city was the first laboratory for the testing of the power of the gospel to create a fellowship of love and forgiveness that cut across racial, language and socioeconomic barriers. The success of the experiment is well documented in the book of Acts. The Jerusalem church was multiracial, multicultural. Christians from Africa, Asia and Europe sat at the communion table together and had "all things in common." It may be that much of the distress in our cities is due to the abandonment of the cities by the many representatives of Christ, leaving only a remnant of his followers to do what Christ has commissioned all of us to do together.

Social diagnosticians, demographers and prophets of doom have researched the city and its problems, and they have all concluded that the major cities are in a serious state of decay. The diagnosis generally includes information that:

Great population shifts have resulted in loss of tax bases and the concentration of poor and ethnic minorities in the city.
Modern technology has rendered many old skills and jobs obsolete and created need for new skills and professions.
Automation and robots are replacing people, without concern for their future livelihood. Thus many people are rendered obsolete.
Environmental pollution is worsening (air itself is poison and hazardous).
The criminal justice system has broken down in face of increased crime, violence and lawlessness.
The delivery of necessary social services to the poor and the defenseless has broken down.
The educational system is breaking down, resulting in schools that do not teach.
There are other demographic changes: (a) Growing percentage of older people in the total population, and (b) growing youth population without skills.

In addition to this socioeconomic diagnosis of the urban problems, we must add a spiritual analysis. The city is the scene of spiritual confusion. Cults and nonbiblical religions have proliferated, often led by opportunists and spiritual pimps who capitalize on the ignorance, spiritual hunger and vulnerability of many city dwellers who have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. Moreover, there are those in the city, like their counterparts in suburbia, who heard the gospel but rejected its claims on their lives. Consequently, God's wrath is revealed against those who renounced his grace. Paul gives a clear statement of the spiritual conditions in the major cities of America today:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
(Romans 1:18-32 KJV)

The biblical diagnosis of the spiritual climate in the city is also the correct diagnosis of the spiritual climate of suburbia. God is no respecter of persons. When the person with power, wealth and prestige rejects the lordship of Christ and the authority of God's Word, the personal, social and spiritual results are the same as when a person without power, wealth and prestige rejects Christ. The Bible says God sends strong delusions on both the rich and the poor, the minority and the majority. The powerful and the powerless believe lies and are damned.

Please note that the wealthy who reject Christ and the poor who reject Christ believe the same lie - that gain (wealth) is godliness. Greed and covetousness motivate both. When the godless, poor and greedy become godless, middle class and greedy, their behavior is hardly distinguishable from the old-line godless, rich and greedy. Thus, we conclude that the mere shifting of wealth from one segment or group in the society to another is not the solution to the problem of poverty in the city. There must be a spiritual change in the heart and consciousness - a new birth wrought by God that brings a new philosophy of wealth ("The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof") and a new understanding of stewardship ("To whom much is given, from him much is required"). Those who have wealth and power are stewards, accountable to God for its responsible use and distribution. Believing this, we issue a Macedonian call to our brothers and sisters who fled the city, "Come back and help us."

A second lie that many urbanites and suburbanites believe is that God has forsaken or abandoned the city. The poor, powerless and disinherited demonstrate that they believe God is gone from the city through their criminal behavior, hopelessness, ruthlessness, murder, suicide, drug and alcohol addiction, abandonment of families, trafficking in human flesh, and the loss of reverence for all life and truth.

While the powerless unbelieving urbanite tends to turn in upon himself and resort to self-destructive behavior, the powerful unbelieving suburbanite tends to deify himself and give greater value and worth to his property and power than to the life of the poor. Thus, he fails to use political and economic power to deal compassionately and creatively with the problems of the inner city.

The profit motive dictates major political decisions, and financial interest overrules human interest. The poor and powerless in the inner city are often manipulated by various welfare programs designed to perpetuate dependency and hopelessness. Also, there are so-called urban renewal schemes which some astute observers have rightly called "poor people removal programs." Among the latest manipulation scheme by the powerful suburbanites is the regentrification movement.

Notice the arrogance of the term regentrification - the re-population of the city. The use of the term suggests that those who never left the city - the poor, the minorities, the powerless are nonpersons. Are not the present inhabitants of the city people? Are only those of Anglo-Saxon or European ethnicity considered people? It is ironic that many who were responsible for dissecting the city with freeways to facilitate their escape to suburbia are now returning. The victorious escape from ethnic minorities and the poor was a pyrrhic victory. In simple terms, the two to three hours per day in bumper-to-bumper traffic, burning gas that costs $1.50 per gallon, made the city seem attractive again.

Having discussed the sins of the powerless in the city as self-destruction and the sins of the powerful as self-deification and oppression, I ask, "Is there a word from the Lord for the city?" Yes, in the Sacred Book there is a word for the church in the city.

A word of judgment: In Galatians 6:7 we read, "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."

A word of instruction: In 1 Timothy 2:1-4 we read, "I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth."

A word of hope: In John 12:32 we read, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me."

Ministry in the City

Since God has not forsaken the city, the church must maintain a dynamic, compassionate servant ministry there. While the church holds to eternal and unchanging principles and truths, the application of the principles and methods of interpreting truth must have existential meaning. The church must maintain and preserve all that it can of its past liturgy, its worship, its teaching and healing ministry. Yet it must not be afraid of using new forms, methods and categories to proclaim the good news that God was in Christ, that the kingdom of God is come in Jesus of Nazareth, that Christ is Lord and he is Emmanuel - God with us - to show us all a better way.

Now the call to ministry in the city, like every call of God to ministry, is initially a call to prepare for service. The suffering servant must be "thoroughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Tim 3:17). The equipping of the servant must follow a baptism of love which will enable the servant to represent Christ in a multicultural, multiethnic, multireligious environment. This baptism of love will prepare the servant to remain faithful in the face of violence, hostility and other Satanic forces. The inner city provides an excellent opportunity for the Christian soldier to gain wounds for the cause of Christ. Here is an opportunity to get to know Christ in the fellowship of his suffering and to imitate Christ as a wounded healer.

In recent years God has raised up strategic training camps for preparing workers for urban ministries. These training facilities are already making a significant contribution in the spiritual, theoretical, practical preparation of workers. Special note is made of the Rev. John Perkins and the Voice of Calvary in Mendenhall and Jackson, Mississippi; Rev. Tom Skinner and Associates in New York; the late Bishop Jessie Winly of God's Soul Saving Station in Harlem; the Rev. Reuben Conners of Black Evangelism Enterprises in Dallas, Texas; the Rev. Lloyd Lindo in Chicago; the Rev. Don Green of the San Francisco Christian Center. Simpson College in San Francisco under the direction of Dr. Craig Ellison has initiated an academically bold and innovative program that is theologically sound and evangelical and at the same time sensitive to the multicultural, socio-economic condition in the inner city. And there are others.

At St. Stephen Church of God in Christ, where I have been the founding pastor since 1962, we have seen the good hand of God prosper a work in the inner city. The congregation was organized with seven people in southeast San Diego, an area in transition. White flight had resulted in a leadership vacuum. In an area with approximately ninety thousand citizens, there was an influx of minorities, primarily Afro-Americans and Mexican-Americans. These newcomers were generally poor, unemployed or underemployed with limited skills and education. As an eyewitness to the community transition that took place during the decade from 1959-69, I observed that not only did the established churches abandon the area, but so did major grocery chains, some doctors and health-care professionals. Even the Little League program was moved.

St. Stephen responded to the needs of the neighborhood in transition and began to develop a ministry to the whole person. This ministry to the whole person has three broad emphases: (1) preaching, the proclaiming of the Word of God; (2) teaching, the explaining and application of God's truth to the human situation; and (3) healing, the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer and community of faith. Hereby the Word becomes flesh and "dwells in the ghetto" for healing and reconciliation.

The Central focus of our ministry is to win the lost to Christ, nurture the faithful and make disciples. We have worship in the church on a daily basis and Holy Communion on Fridays. We also conduct worship services "on location" for shut-ins and sponsor small groups for nurture and Bible study.

We have educational programs including a traditional Sunday school plus a Christian school - kindergarten through twelfth grade with college courses added in cooperation with local colleges. Family life must be emphasized in ministry in the city, for there the family breakdown is devastating. So we have couples conferences, singles conferences and other meetings for those who are engaged and those who are married. And we have seminars and workshops and drama activities, family camps, vacation Bible schools and summer camps. All of these tend to strengthen the fabric of the family in the inner city.

Special ministries are necessary for army camps, prisons, high schools, elementary schools, colleges and universities.

There are, as well, street ministries to those who are completely down and out. Every Friday night when the action is going thirty or forty of our young people go out in teams of twos to the red-light district and the bars and places where flesh is being peddled. Just their presence is a significant witness to God's love because many of them have come from that situation and they are going back. It is not uncommon for gangsters to bring in their dope - heroin and the needles and the spoons - on a Sunday or during the week. One Sunday we were frightened to death when somebody brought his sawed-off shotgun to church, turning it in because he didn't need it anymore. The gospel is reaching those in the city.

We also provide emergency food and housing and counseling for families, drug abusers and alcoholics. We have job referral services and we train people for lay ministry in the city. We even have an outreach into Mexico and are helping to plant churches there.

Finally, we run a bookstore and a couple of halfway houses for rehabilitation. Then we also have the usual scouting program and family activities.

Indeed, God is not abandoning the city, In spite of moral and spiritual decay and socioeconomic deterioration, in spite of every prophet of doom's statement that the city's sickness is unto death, the church must believe that even if there is spiritual, moral and economic death in the city, our God is able to speak life into it and call for resurrection in the city.

A spiritually dead and doomed Nineveh received God's word through Jonah, repented and lived. A desolate, disunited, despairing remnant in Jerusalem heard God's word through Nehemiah, and the walls and the gates were restored, and the city of Jerusalem came alive again. The Sanballats, Tobiahs and Geshems couldn't stop the movement of God. In more recent times, England was thrown into a deep spiritual darkness. Sin was rampant and the church to a great extent had become God's frozen people. But God's word came through John and Charles Wesley until millions of hearts were strangely warmed and revival fires were ignited in the cities and hamlets throughout England. The course of history and the life of a nation were changed.

The destiny of our nation is inextricably bound to the destiny of our cities. God hears the cries and the hurting of the hopeless in the city. He sees the growing tensions between the powerful and the powerless, the haves and the have-nots. He knows the sin and the uncleanness that prevails there. The only power to save the city is God's redemptive power. And he uses human instruments.

God has asked a simple question. Who will go for us? Jesus gave a commission. In Acts 1:8 he has directed and commanded that we shall be his witnesses in the city of Jerusalem. We must go to Jerusalem, that great city that is explosive with religious bigotry and sectarianism, Jesus says go back to that city and preach the gospel of reconciliation, restoration, deliverance and healing, the gospel of power and hope. Go to Samaria with its riots and racial strife, with its slums and ghettos, with its immorality and sins, its poverty and filth. Go into the byways and the hedges and tell them that the good master has prepared a supper and has invited the poor and the disinherited and the halt and the blind to come to be blessed.

Finally, Christ has told us to go to the uttermost parts of the earth. Let neither sea nor mountain, language nor custom, color nor race, suffering nor sacrifice hinder you. Don't let "nobody" turn you around. Take the message of Christ everywhere.

[In 1981] George D. McKinney [was] pastor of St. Stephen's Church of God in Christ, a large urban church ministering wholistically to persons in San Diego, California. In addition to his pastoral duties, he carries on a wide counseling ministry for couples, families and children. He has written several books and pamphlets, including Christian Marriage.

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Professing Christ in the City

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December 27-31, 2009