This Tuesday marks my 25th wedding anniversary with my lovely and godly bride Michelle. I may write more about that on the day, but I am glad that on that day as we reflect on so many wonderful years of ministry together I am speaking in chapel at Southeastern. Michelle has always loved ministry, and we have always considered ministry something we do, not just something I do. And, we so love these students God has given to us!
I will preach on I Thessalonians 1. No, I will not give you my sermon here so don’t worry. But I do want to highlight one thing from my study. Paul in this passage is explaining, beginning in verse 5, how the gospel came to the Thessalonians. You can go back to Acts 17 to read about it. This was the place where they said, “these that have turned the world upside down have come here too.” I wish they said that about believers in the US.
In Acts 17:1 we read that Paul passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia to get to Thessalonica. Leon Morris said Paul apparently did not preach in the first two cities as Paul desired to get to Thessalonica, the chief city of Macedonia. We see a similar pattern in Acts 19 when he planted roots for a time in the important urban center of Ephesus. We also see Paul’s desire to get to Rome. Paul understood when one reaches the key city, one reaches the nation.
If only we understood that today. The cities of America influence the entire nation and the world. The entertainment centers of LA, NYC, and increasingly Nashville, have much influence. Other world cities like Chicago wield great influence as well.
But one does not reach a world city in our time in a year or a decade. One must look at a generation, or maybe two, to see real change.
Boston is the major city of New England. When the Great Awakening hit Boston and New England, the colonies and ultimately the young nation reaped the benefit. As secularism and its impact have spread in Boston, one can see its growing influence. San Francisco comes to mind when one thinks of the homosexual agenda, but we make a mistake if we underestimate the impact of Boston. Massachusetts, after all, has been in the headlines as much as any place on the issue of gay marriage. A student of mine who plans to go to Boston and has studied the city told me this week that from kindergarden on, public school children are taught the homosexual agenda. Just think about the impact of that one reality on a generation.
We are too like politicians looking for a quick fix to solve issues that may take a generation to change. Are we who call ourselves Southern Baptists willing to say, for example, that we will go after the five most influential cities in America for a GENERATION? Or maybe just NYC, Boston, and LA, for example.
I just read a report NAMB produced on the fifty largest cities. Published in 2002, it has a wealth of information that is telling. The executive summary says in part:
58% of the US lives in the largest 50 cities (162 million).
Probably 100 million of these do not know Christ.
One out of every 7.5 Americans live in NYC and LA. (Maybe we should approach those two cities as two unreached nations)
Las Vegas, Austin, and Phoenix are the fastest growing cities.
80% of the population lives in metro areas, but ONLY 50% of Southern Baptist churches are there. 80% of the population lives in metro areas, but ONLY 50% of Southern Baptist churches are there. Yes, I typed that twice so you wouldn’t miss it. I tell my students if God did not call you overseas please go to the great cities of America.
58% of the population is in these metros, but only 37% of SBC baptisms came from them.
In large, Southern metro areas there is a Southern Baptist church for 6700 people. In NYC there is one SBC church for 138,000 people.
Paul understood that as the cities go so goes the culture. This is not only because cultural elites are there. Much of the influence of cities comes from the street and sometimes originates among the urban poor before becoming embraced by the elites (heard of rap music?).
While the United States has experienced what some call urban sprawl, the church has exhibited an urban crawl. We have been slow to respond to the influence of the cities.
In 1906, San Francisco was hit by one of the most destructive earthquakes in history. In his book on the earthquake, Simon Winchester argues that San Francisco was the major city on the west coast, much more influential than LA, for example. But after the earthquake, the City of the Angels soon began to grow in influence. One hundred years later, the media capital of the world, which arguably exerts more influence in popular culture than any city on earth, is Los Angeles. If we took a century-long look into the future and seriously sought to reach the major cities of the US, it just might change the whole world. And we may not need an earthquake to see it happen.