Church vs. City Perspective
Sometimes one small shift in perspective can change everything about the way you think and behave. It's like those 3D optical illusions created by clever artists; if you look at them from one angle, they look like flat, 2D images, but if you look at them from a slightly different angle, you can see that they are in fact complex three-dimensional sculptures arranged to look a certain way.
One such shift that changes the way churches and pastors operate is to switch from a "church perspective" to a "city perspective." A church perspective is one in which you see and consider things with your own, local church body as the epicenter. The whole universe revolves around your church. A city perspective is when you see and consider things with the city as the epicenter. This shift represents a potentially Copernican-sized revolution in the way your church operates and in how the city is reached for the gospel. This one shift can make the difference between a dying church and a thriving church, or a perishing city and a spiritually-flourishing city.
“This shift represents a potentially Copernican-sized revolution in the way your church operates and in how the city is reached for the gospel.”
At first, it may seem like there is nothing wrong with having a church perspective. After all, shouldn't pastors care for and be focused on their own congregations? Yes, they should, but not at the exclusion of all else. One way to look at the issue is that the city perspective is broader than the church perspective because it includes the church perspective. It's not an either-or issue, but a both-and issue. In the city perspective, pastors care for their churches as they should, and they lead their churches to care for the city. This outward focus, in turn, benefits the church in multiple ways. And the benefits are not limited to individual churches but to the entire city, if enough churches within the city adopt the city perspective.
The Biblical Basis for the City Perspective
The city perspective is not pulled out of thin air but actually has its basis in Scripture. From the very beginning, God had concern for cities as whole units. Jonah 4:11 reads, "And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?"
In Psalm 107:6-7, the psalmist writes, " Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He led them by a straight way till they reached a city to dwell in."
In the Gospels, Jesus demonstrates the Father's heart for cities through His own words. Matthew 23:37 and Luke 19:41-42 record Jesus weeping over Jerusalem as He approached it one last time before His crucifixion, even expressing how He wished to cradle it as a hen gathers her chicks.
“In the Gospels, Jesus demonstrates the Father's heart for cities through His own words.”
When the Apostle Paul wrote his epistles, he wrote them to cities. He could have written to individual churches that met in individual's homes, such as the church that met at Prisca's and Aquila's house (Rom. 16:3-5), or the church that met in Nympha's house (Col. 4:15). But he wrote to cities because even in the mind of the apostle, cities formed whole units. This is not to say that the Bible does not support the concept of individual local churches (because it surely does), but it is also important to recognize the significance that cities have in Scripture.
And the last two chapters of the Bible, Revelation 21 and 22, paint for us a picture of our final destination, the place where we will dwell for all eternity. And the picture is of a city, a great and glorious holy city where God reigns with all the saints. Clearly, God loves cities and has great concern for them.
God's Heart and Plan for Cities
According to a 2016 study conducted by the UN, nearly 55% of all humanity lived in or near urban centers, and by 2030, that number is projected to rise to 60%. Furthermore, by that time, one in every three persons on earth will live in cities of half a million people or more.
It is imperative that cities are reached with the gospel. If cities are lost, over half of all humanity is lost. The Bible does say that the gateway to life is narrow (Matt. 7:13-14), but this does not justify allowing cities to perish. That would be a cynical and fatalistic approach to evangelism. Rather, God desires that none should perish but that all should reach repentance (2 Pet. 3:9), and Christ commands us to make disciples everywhere we go, to all the corners of the earth (Matt. 24:14; 28:19-20; Acts 1:8).
“It is imperative that cities are reached with the gospel. If cities are lost, over half of all humanity is lost.”
If God cares so much for saving entire cities, then He must have a plan to make that happen. So what is God's plan? This is where the church vs. city perspective comes in. Many churches assume that if they focus on themselves, that their members will become healthy and strong and be naturally led into evangelism because of their overflowing love for God. There is truth to this, but is it enough? Is this God's plan for reaching entire cities?
Within this paradigm, growth happens incrementally, by addition, one saved soul at a time. But the sad truth is that, in most medium to large cities, even if every church grows by 100 to 1,000 new believers every year, they would still not reach every resident with the gospel. In Ohio, which is demographically representative of the entire nation, the vast majority of people are not at church on Sundays, and even if every church in the state holds two services at full capacity, there would not be enough room in all the churches to house the entire population.
Vance Pitman, lead pastor of Hope Church in Las Vegas (a city of over 2 million people), says that even if the largest churches in the city grew at twice the rate they are growing today, they would still reach only a fraction of the population. That cannot be God's plan, according to Pitman.
So what is the plan? What would it take for an entire city of hundreds of thousands or even millions to be evangelized and reached with the gospel?
A Two-Fold Approach
God's plan to reach entire cities includes at least two major approaches. The first is to get all the churches within the city to stop looking inward at themselves and start looking outward at the city, and in particular, at the other churches in the city. The truth is that no one church can reach the whole city on its own. It takes the combined effort of all evangelical churches within a city to effectively minister to a significant portion of it. If you want to catch all the fish in a lake, you can't do it with a small, handheld net. You would need a giant, commercial-sized net pulled by several large ships to do the job.
In some Christian circles, the phenomenon of churches coming together to pray and strategize on how to evangelize the city is called a gospel movement. Tim Keller, former lead Pastor of Redeemer Church in New York City, is one of the leading figures of gospel movements in America today. The gospel movement he helped to start has contributed to a dramatic increase in church attendance in Manhattan over the past several years, from 1% to nearly 5%, a five-fold increase. At this rate, NYC may be a majority-Christian city by 2026.
Similar gospel movements are popping up all over the country, from Portland, OR to Columbus, OH. By the grace of God, churches throughout the nation are waking up to realize that they need to work together in order to accomplish the Great Commission. This realization seems obvious, but it has taken a long time for the church to come around to this way of thinking.
“By the grace of God, churches throughout the nation are waking up to realize that they need to work together in order to accomplish the Great Commission.”
The second major approach that we need to take is church planting. As stated earlier, there simply are not enough churches to house all the people in our cities. We need to at least double the number of churches in cities in order to make any headway. And while individuals and small teams have had great success in planting churches, recent studies and experience have shown that the best model is for churches to plant churches. New churches grow much faster than older, established churches, but older, established churches have the stability, resources, and experience to plant new churches successfully.
If every church in America planted one or two churches, we would be in a much stronger position to evangelize the whole country. And if all the established churches in a city committed to planting new churches for the purpose of reaching the city, that would be a veritable game-changer.
The Expected Fruit
What is the fruit that we can expect from switching from a church perspective to a city perspective? The kinds of fruit are many, but perhaps the greatest fruit of them all is the unity that comes from cooperation in fulfilling the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. When churches have a church-only perspective, they tend to view other churches as "the competition." This view leads to all sorts of bad fruit, such as rivalry, suspicion, and envy (Phil. 1:15; Gal. 5:19-21). When such a church hears of another church doing well, instead of rejoicing with them, they feel jealous of them and wish that the success was theirs instead. Pastors with church-only perspectives also suffer from a critical spirit toward other pastors and ministries.
But when a church or pastor has a city perspective, they rejoice when they hear of other churches being blessed. Why? Because they see other churches and pastors as members of the same team. In the city perspective, the ultimate goal is to see the total number of believers in a city increase. Whether that happens in one church or another is immaterial. What matters is that souls are coming into the kingdom of God.
“In the city perspective, the ultimate goal is to see the total number of believers in a city increase. Whether that happens in one church or another is immaterial.”
That is why with the city perspective, churches and pastors can applaud one another's blessings and accomplishments. One church may be doing great work on the north side of the city while another church is doing great work on the south side. But both are on the same team and both are winning souls for Christ. If they have a city perspective, they can rejoice in one another and support one another. There is no sense of competition but cooperation. There is no "us" vs. "them" but only the family of God.
I heard a wonderful story from a pastor friend that perfectly demonstrates the beauty of the city perspective. His church was blessed with three worship teams, while another church down the road had none. One day, he met with the pastor of the other church, and the pastor expressed his church's need for a worship team comprised of young people to help revitalize their aging church. My friend prayed about it and approached one of his three worship teams to ask if they would consider helping the church down the road.
After some more prayer, the worship leader and all the team members said they felt called by God to go. So they left my friend's church and transferred their membership to the older church. And they had such an impact there that the older church is now full of young people and flourishing once again. Praise God!
We rarely hear of churches even lending a microphone to another church, let alone give an entire worship team away! How was my friend able to offer one of his worship teams to the other church so freely? It was because he had a city perspective rather than a church perspective. He did not see the other church as his competition but as a team member that needed help. So that's what he did. He helped them, and the result was a win for the kingdom of God.
This is one example of what can happen if a church adopts a city perspective. Imagine what would result if every church within a city acted the same way! There are too many people in our cities that need Christ, and too few churches working together to coordinate efforts and strategize to maximize their effectiveness. May our churches live out this principle so that the words of Psalm 133:1 will be realized in our generation: "How good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!"