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Home Page > Resources > A Christian's Call
to the City A Christian’s Call to the City In Isaiah 61:1,2 – the scripture Jesus used as his personal mission statement in Luke 4:18 – is an essential piece of scripture that lays out a vision that prioritizes who the gospel should primarily go to and what the result of our ministry should be. Often times in Charismatic circles we treat scripture in a superficial manner interpreting scripture solely on our own experiences and not reading the context. For example, we would usually interpret Isaiah 61:1 ,2 and Luke 4:18 as just seeing physical healings and signs and wonders through the anointing of the Holy Spirit. We use the expression “full gospel,” which usually means we speak in tongues and lay hands on the sick. If we are to interpret Isaiah 61:1,2 using the entire Old Testament as a frame of reference, and if we remember that when Jesus preached he was talking about experiencing the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, we would have to say that this portion of scripture was not only talking about bodily healing, but also bringing about biblical justice, peace, and righteousness! In other word, full gospel really means the whole gospel ministry to the whole man. This is further played out in verses 3 and 4. Verse 4 shows one result of the anointing of God on the saints is that they will build the old wastes” and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolation of many generations.” (Refer also to Isaiah 58:12) We are called not only to minister to individuals’ spirit, soul, and body, but we are called to restore whole communities and cities. The collective covenant people of light bringing truth to whole communities of darkness – especially the cities. Furthermore, using the book of Acts as a manual and looking at church history, we repeatedly see how Christianity took uncivilized people and brought them under God’s order and civility. In Acts for example the Church started in the capital city of Judah – Jerusalem. It spread then to another principle city of Samaria. (Acts 8:5) Finally, the main place the Gospel used as a spring board to reach the ends of the earth was the city of Antioch. From this city we see the model church form because of its racially mixed leadership and missionary vision as well as other important elements that we will not at this time get into. However, it doesn’t end there, every time Paul went to minister, he always started in a city – Acts 14:1 Iconium, 14:8 Lystra, 16:12 Philippi, 17:1 Thessalonica, 17:16 Athens, 18:1 Corinth, 19:1 Ephesus, and so on. Paul, the wise master builder knew that for the Gospel to have its greatest impact, it had to first penetrate the places with the greatest concentrations of people – the cities. Evidently, this was the general strategy God employed throughout the first few centuries, so much so that the name Pagan, which means country dweller, became synonymous with the term heathen. Why? Because in the early church, the overwhelming majority of Christians lived in the city, and it took many years before it fully penetrated the rural areas. Hence, a Pagan (country dweller) usually didn’t know Christ. I believe any ministry that is going to reflect biblical strategy, maximize their potential, and change a nation, will have to emphasize reaching cities, especially cities in their own region and nation. Statistics today show that 95% of the Gospel is going to 5% of the people. Most of the bible schools, churches, and outreaches in America are located outside cities and are targeting people outside the cities. Even without laying a brief theological and historical base for reaching Urban centers, common sense tells us to place a major priority on reaching places that have the most people. Many churches have big missionary vision, but neglect their own back yards. Acts 1:8 tells us to reach Jerusalem and Judea even before we reach the ends of the earth. I believe the next move of God in this country, if we are going to save our nation, is back to the inner cities – even as the Evangelical church in this country did prior to the Civil War. Otherwise much of the church in America is going to continue to build upon the faulty foundation based on the sins of earlier generations who fled the cities and left them f or the modernists. We are called to build up the waste places, not flee them. That’s the full Gospel, that’s the proof of the anointing taking cities for God and expanding the Kingdom! Even if in our heads our thinking is right, we can, by our actions continue to perpetuate the false concept that ruralism is close to Christianity and the concept of the city is secular (or worse, -- demonic.) That means our eternal state must be demonic because Revelation 21 tells me we will all be living in the “New Jerusalem” the city that comes down from heaven. Many of us preach against the prosperity gospel but we ourselves live out an “I,” “me,” “my” gospel because as soon as we prosper, we flee our communities. How can we effect lasting change in a community if we flee from it the moment we can afford a better place to live? You have to model the power of the gospel in your community with your family or else you have no credibility with the people and your mission becomes irrelevant. Even if you commute, it then comes off as Paternalistic. The poor don’t need welfare, entitlements, and handouts, they need us to treat them as equals and come along side of them in a partnership. Poor kids don’t need gospel tracts, they need successful business men, family men, and pastors who live next-door to them who will love them and model the gospel. Your life is your tract. It is good to “march for Jesus,” but even better to “move in for Jesus?” For the church in America to get back on track, we have to recognize why we fled the inner cities to begin with and then repent of it. (The evangelical church in America, that helped abolish slavery, child labor and built, numerous universities, and hospitals and led the way in social reform.) To simplify things, there were some basic reasons why the evangelical church in America abandoned the poor and social reform in the latter part of the 19th century (the following is a summary from Donald Dayton’s book “Discovering an Evangelical Heritage”): 1. After people got saved, discipline, and a reordered life style enabled converts to prosper and rise in social class, a process culminating in a middle class church that became self-centered and forgot their roots and became what the church originally stood against. 2. The Civil War helped to puncture earlier utopian visions and in doing so, contributed to the dissolution of the reform impulse. 3. After slavery was abolished the “temperance crusade” (no smoking, no drinking, no gambling.) took the center stage which translated into more of a concern for personal purity and holiness and an introverted Christianity which resulted in a myopic emphasis. 4. Massive urbanization and industrialization brought problems too complex for the revivalist vision reform. 5. Waves of immigration brought not only German Lutherans who were not inclined to follow the temperance banner, but also Roman Catholics and Jews who had no place in this dream of a Protestant Christian America. 6. Increased attacks from without such as the rise of biblical criticism, and Darwinism with its critique of the traditional views of the origin of man, caused evangelicalism to turn more and more in on itself to nurse what remained of their dreams for a Christian America. 7. After the horror of the Civil War, there took place a shift in eschatology towards an extreme view of premillennialsm. Instead of the hope of the gospel causing societal change, a great emphasis on the power of Satan and sin became prevalent with the only hope for the church being the rapture. This of course, resulted in the vision of social reform being replaced with the church looking more for the second coming and being rescued from this evil world. 8. The emergence of extreme premillennialism resulted in a wave of excitement about prophecy. The evangelical church then spent much of her energy studying the Bible for the signs of the end times and in organizing countless “prophecy conferences.” 9. Pre-Civil War revivalists founded liberal arts colleges, Post-war, Bible institutes. (This Post War concept of not including the arts further perpetuated the dichotomy between the spiritual and living out our faith in a practical way in the natural world. 10. The rise of fundamentalism and dispensationalism produced an extreme emphasis in the sovereignty of God that circumvented Finney’s emphasis on human responsibility and redemption that provided the edge necessary for a theology that supported major social change. For example, in an extreme Calvinistic view, if someone is poor, or a slave, or unconverted, it is because it is God’s will and there is nothing the church can or should do about it. These people were extreme conservatives and opposed all aggressive efforts of reform. 11. The rewriting of church history – Modern Evangelical editors began to edit out references to social reform. Certain messages by Finney, Moody, and even the historical teachings of schools like Wheaton College and the movements like the Wesleyan Methodist (who split from mainline) Methodism over the issue of slavery were either totally omitted ore blatantly ignored. Dr. Joseph Mattera has been in full time ministry since 1980 and is currently the Senior Pastor of Resurrection Church in Brooklyn, New York. He also is the President of Children of the City Inc., a community based outreach that ministers to at-risk youth in Sunset Park. Known as “a Pastor’s Pastor,” Dr. Mattera earned his Doctorate of Divinity from the Christian Leadership Seminary and serves as a consultant and mentor to many leaders in the Body of Christ. Dr. Mattera also regularly contributes articles that are featured in a tri-state NY area newspaper. He also has a weekly cable television program called “The Ekklesia.” In November, 1999 he started City Covenant Coalition, an apostolic network of five-fold ministers. They have come together to holistically effect inner cities world wide. Dr. Mattera, his wife, Joyce and their five children live in Brooklyn, New York. He can be contacted at: CITY COVENANT COALITION
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