I love these folks. They are doing great things.

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...it is too inspiring.

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In the past it has been quite a challenge, but I now have some help thanks to the Redeemer Church Planting Center. They have compiled a directory of churches around the world affiliated with the Redeemer network in one way or another. Most of them are located in major urban centers and are founded with the same mission as Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, to be gospel-centered churches committed to the renewal of the city. Check it out to see if there is a church in your area.

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Earlier I was working on the post on redemption I have been mentioning, but I need to edit it before it is ready to post. I hope to have it up tomorrow. In the meantime, here is something else to think about.

When I have a few minutes now and then I like to explore places around the world via satellite view with Google Maps and its now radically-improved competitor, Microsoft Live Maps. You can zoom in very close with remarkably clear pictures, and as I was doing so I noticed this in the image to your left the other day in a northern suburb of Helsinki, Finland. Though I am not entirely sure what it is (an actual building, or maybe just a parking garage?) the concept suddenly hit me—parking on the roof. Why don't we see more of this?

After that I pulled up an image of my local Walmart, which you see to your right here. You will notice (if you click on the photo to enlarge it) a nice, flat expansive area of roof with nothing on it but a few air-conditioning units, and then a huge sea of parking in front of the store. Perhaps, though, you also notice that the parking area is not all that much bigger than the building itself. So if all those cars were to park in a lot that was on top of the store (with a small lot beside or behind the store for overflow), Walmart would take up half the space it does now.

I see a few benefits here. First, all that area wasted by the massive parking lot could be turned into greenspace or used for other stores or restaurants. Also, you could conceivably place the Walmart up alongside the sidewalk, thereby making it far more accessible for pedestrians and actually encouraging people to walk there. Think about your Walmart during a holiday season for example. That parking lot is a safety nightmare for pedestrians. I'm not sure if it would have any climatic impact, but if you've walked through something as large as a Walmart parking lot in the heat of summer, you know that it can easily feel 10-15° warmer than the actual temperature.

Now, there are drawbacks too. I don't really know anything about structural engineering, but I think I would be safe to assume that a standard Walmart is not prepared to take the weight of all those cars, so the buildings would need to be designed differently. Also, there is the issue of shopping carts and how people are going to get their goods from the store to their cars. Elevators are one option, although that has severely limited capabilities. You could construct a pedestrian ramp along the backside of the store for the passage of shopping carts; which, with the size of the store, would not need to have a very significant incline. However, I realize that this too presents a safety hazard as people might lose their hold on their cart and send it downhill unmanned, or perhaps some boisterous child decides he wants to use a cart to test Newton's second law of motion.

Again, I don't know how viable of an idea all this actually is. I am just brainstorming. Often I try to think of practical ways we can transform suburbia and try to leverage our existing structures into something more useful and in a way that will work towards rebuilding community (or even just building community in the first place). Naturally, it is absurd to suggest we bulldoze all of our suburban areas and start over, so we need to work with what we have. By consolidating things into smaller spaces, we open the way for new businesses and other such things to make a home in a certain community. Having Walmarts all over the place that eat up huge land areas only serve to isolate communities as they are forced to spread out farther. I just thought that this might be a way to try and rein that in.

What do you think? What kinds of things could we be doing to transform suburbia?

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I posted this over at GoingtoSeminary.com yesterday, and feel it is worth posting here as well. Check out this website, an absolutely incredible journey into the sights and sounds of four of the world's major urban slums. I saw this site mentioned on the Culture Making blog yesterday. Here’s how they describe the site:

Norwegian photojournalist Jonas Bendiksen has spent a good deal of time in Indian, Kenyan, Indonesian, and Venezuelan slums, and his website, The Places We Live, features dazzling 360-degree photos of homes and shanties, navigable and altogether immersive, along with audio recordings made by the inhabitants. Prepare yourself to gape, gasp, laugh, cry, and experience every emotion in between.

If you’re not able to travel to a developing country and witness the urban slums firsthand, you can’t do much better than this. The tug on your heart is powerful, and it gives renewed meaning both to the call of Jesus to serve those who are sick, in need of food and clothing (Matt. 25:31-46), and to James’ definition of religion (James 1:27). 1,000,000,000 (yes, that’s billion) of your neighbors on this earth live in urban slums. Use this opportunity to become more familiar with the places they live.

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Loughborough University in England has been credited with coining the term "global city." The Wikipedia article on the subject defines a global city as "a city deemed to be an important node point in the global economic system...the linkages binding a city have a direct and tangible effect on global affairs through more than socio-economic means, with influence in terms of culture, or politics." More specifically, a global city will usually have the following characteristics (which I've paraphrased from the Wikipedia article):

• International, first-name familiarity; whereby a city is recognized without the need for a political subdivision---for example, "Paris" instead of "Paris, France."
• Active influence on and participation in international events and world affairs, such as New York City and being home to the United Nations.
• A fairly large population (the center of a metropolitan area with a population of at least one million, typically several million).
• A major international airport that serves as an established hub for several international airlines.
• An advanced transportation system that includes several freeways and/or a large mass transit network offering multiple modes of transportation (rapid transit, light rail, regional rail, ferry, or bus).
• In the West, several international cultures and communities. In other parts of the world, cities which attract large foreign businesses and related expatriate communities.
• International financial institutions, law firms, corporate headquarters, international conglomerates, and stock exchanges that have influence over the world economy.
• An advanced communications infrastructure on which modern trans-national corporations rely, such as fiberoptics, Wi-Fi networks, cellular phone services, and other high-speed lines of communications.
• World-renowned cultural institutions, such as museums and universities.
• A lively cultural scene (film, music, theater, orchestra, and so on).
• Several powerful and influential media outlets with an international reach.
• A strong sporting community, including major sports facilities, home teams in major league sports, and the ability and historical experience to host international sporting events.

The Wikipedia article lists a large number of cities which fit (or almost fit) these criterion, including cities one would expect in a list such as this---London, New York, Paris, Chicago, Tokyo, Toronto, Zürich, Frankfurt, Moscow, and many more.

The reason that I am thinking and writing about this idea of a global city is because I think it is very important to the Church. Despite the resistance of the idea that religious faith is the foundation of culture here in the West, the fact remains that it is. What is true is that the faith at the heart of our Western culture is not Christianity, but it is still a faith. Call it secularism, or whatever you want to, but it is still religious at the core. This theory has been supported by the English historian, Arnold J. Toynbee, who engaged in a study of twenty-three of the great civilizations of the past, and discovered that at the heart of each and every culture were religious impulses and teachings. To assume that the West now is the first society not founded with a religious root is unrealistic and naïve. As a result, and maybe I am just slow in realizing this, it is essential that the Church targets these cities and engages in extensive efforts to make the gospel present in these strategic communities.

Sometimes discussions that focus on the strategy of the Church's mission can make it seem more like a business than a calling, but I think these discussions are still important, especially as the West faces the potential of a decline. I have been taking a class dealing with the cultural issues in the West through the perception of Pitirim Sorokin, who argues that the West has moved away from being a contractual society, where society agrees (or covenants) together to live according to various norms, ethics, and laws; to a much more individualistic and dictatorial society. Therein, Sorokin argues, lies the breakdown of the West.

Sorokin maintains that the survival of the West entails a reclamation of this religious root, particularly of Christianity. I am not arguing for a revival of Christendom or a theocracy. What I think we do need, however, is to renew the contractual society based on the foundation of Christianity. With the increasing degree of global connectedness, targeting the global cities with the mission Christ has entrusted to us continues to become more and more important. Influential as these cities are, it would seem that if the faith were to take root there again, it would spread into other cities as well.

I have been speaking largely about the West, even though the idea of global cities is not restricted to the West. So what about other cultures? I am not particularly well-versed in the cultures of the East, but one thing I do know is that Christianity is cross-cultural. It is not limited to a specific culture or context. This is evident in the rapid growth of Christianity in Africa and Asia (countries such as China and South Korea). Given the subsequent rapid increase of global significance and influence of countries such as China, the increasing presence of Christianity there will likely (and hopefully) play a major role and make a distinctive mark on this world.

Of course, it should be clear that the mission of the Church is not restricted to these global cities. Nor should it be assumed that the mission of the Church is more important now than it was in times past with the prospective decline of the West. One thing that is clear, however, is that a great opportunity awaits us as our culture searches in vain for something to fill the void which it constantly struggles with. The ever-increasing importance and influence of the global cities makes the need more apparent. The onus is on us to be the light of the world (Matt. 5:14-16). This is our task, our calling, our mission. This is why we are here.

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Berlinprojekt is a church planting effort in the city of Berlin. It is led by two young German men, Christian Nowatzky and Konstantin von Abendroth. I have met both of them, and Kosta did an apprenticeship of sorts at my church last year. Both are graduates of the Freie Theologische Akademie in Gießen, Germany.

The Berlinprojekt aims to reach young people in Berlin, the postmodern, urban generation. I receive their newsletter every month, and each time I read it I get completely filled with excitement. The work they are doing in Berlin is incredible, and God is blessing their efforts so richly. I read what is going on there, and I hope and pray that God will be able to us me like that some day. Here is a copy of their latest newsletter. I was unable to find it online.

Dear Supporters and Friends,

The first two months of 2006 have been a good start for us into this year. The most exciting thing of the last months has been to see two of our friends, Simone and Ariane, become Christians a couple of weeks ago. Both would tell you that the Berlinprojekt – people in the community and the worship services – awoke their spiritual interest and encouraged them to search for God. Recently they shared about their brand-new faith in our worship service, which was an authentic and touching moment for all of us. Especially for Simone this service was a special one because she took the Lord’s Supper for the first time that Sunday… For us it is an amazing experience to witness their development and to be so closely involved in it. We have been realizing again: for a person that had no background with Christianity – like Simone – to suddenly be fully involved with it means a dramatic change that will create strong internal reactions: a realization of God’s holiness and of God’s love and especially a concern for their non-Christian friends have been very real and very intense experiences for both of them. It motivates many of us here to grasp again how personal and meaningful the gospel really is.

We are very happy to see our still very new worship service stabilizing, both in numbers as well as in terms of the community and content. Over the last few weeks more than 70 people attended, which has been very encouraging. With this size we turn an important corner since the feel of the community really changes with that amount of people in the room. Now the community starts to develops its own dynamic and things are getting out of our (Kosta’s and my) hands, in a good sense… In connection to this we introduced a new organizational structure last week that takes away responsibility and work from Kosta’s and my shoulders and creates concrete, meaningful opportunities for others to help out. To see so many people being excited about the church and many people being motivated to help out we are constantly motivates us to go ahead and try new ideas and initiatives.

For this year we want to continue to dream and trust big, so to speak. At the beginning of last year, with only 9 people besides Kosta and me, we had the big vision of starting a new church within only one year… And God actually put it together in spite of our limited abilities. The question is: when God already did that, starting out with so little, how much bigger should we dream and plan for this year – now that we have 60 people every week?!

My wish for our community remains to move ahead with the same enthusiasm and trust as we did last year. After all we barely made our first baby steps with the first regular service only 4 months ago. For this year specifically we plan to start special evangelistic home fellowship groups, install a home fellowship group system with ongoing training and continue to stabilize and grow our service. We would love to continue to be connected with you in this work to see where God is leading us from the first start he made…

Please pray with us:
- For a stable and suitable venue to have our services in as our current one will soon not be available anymore
- Please pray for a continuing desire to be relevant for and close to our friends and neighbors, instead of becoming content with what God has give us
- Please pray for strength and power for Kosta and me as we are often challenged by the workload and responsibility
- For continuing financial support as Kosta and I are back in the U.S. in March to meet with supporters and friends
- And for a solid core of stable people, who have been believers for a while and are able to lead others, who have stable job situations and a long-term perspective in the city…

Thank you very much! Many greetings,

Christian and Konstantin

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I was in New York City this past weekend, and though I was only there for a short time, there's so many interesting and strange things that make up that city. Here's some that I noticed:

1. The Times Square area, with buildings towering so high around you and being so crowded with people that it almost feels like your inside.
2. That it takes almost 20 minutes to drive 1 mile!
3. A young black guy offering to me that he would beat up another guy who cut off my girlfriend, Robin, when we were walking.
4. The energy that you can feel in the air.
5. A guy standing on a street corner offering a look at his booklet of 452 different lovemaking positions for $1.
6. A feeling of almost reverance in the air around Ground Zero.
7. That there was likely as many or even more people in Times Square on Saturday night than there is in the capital city of Alaska (where I was two weeks ago).
8. A guy walking along the street with a cardboard sign that said, "Stressed out? Had a bad day? Pay me $1 and insult or make fun of me!"
9. The storeowner who said hello to everyone who walked by. And to anyone who was Asian, he greeted with "Kon-nichiwa!" even when they were very obviously not Japanese.
10. The noise! Horns, people talking and yelling, drivers racing of the line, music, you name it. Not a quiet moment anywhere.

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I lament often about how much I dislike the city. But I think maybe it's just Hamilton. Gideon Strauss has gotten the notion from earlier posts of mine that I want to be an city church planter. At first I vehemently denied this, but I must admit, the idea is growing on me. My recent increase in attendence and involvement at Grace West Church in Oakville has prompted me to begin thinking of this again.

Yesterday I had a conversation with a fellow from Germany, named Kosta. He's been in Ontario for a few months now, studying in an apprenticeship-type setting with the pastor of Grace West, Stephen Beck. Kosta comes from Hannover, and has studied at the Freie Theologische Akademie in Geissen. He came here to work with Dr. Beck, and to learn about pastoring and planting a church. He plans to go back to Germany in November and plant a church in Berlin, and I'm wondering if it's maybe this one..

Kosta's apparent love for this really inspired me. Repeatedly on this blog I've stated the need for the church in the cities, as it is the biggest challenge the church faces already now and in the future. Are my to be involved in this? I don't know. What God has in store for me will be revealed in time. The idea scares me, I'll admit that. It's so different from anything I'm used to. But I like challenges, and though I find it difficult when I'm out of my comfort zone, I'm beginning to get used to it. Grace West is a lot different from anything I'm used to.

But if I'm going to be challenged like this, I really want to be challenged. Thinking about this, I want to do this in Europe. I want to work in cities like Vienna, Stockholm, and Zurich. I've spent 21 years of my life in North America. It'd be exciting to go and work in a different culture and lifestyle. Not to say there's not work to be done here, there most definitely is. Maybe I'll come back here every few years for a hiatus. We'll see.

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This past semester I took a course at school on the Foundations of Mission. It was a very good course, from which I learned a lot and was thoroughly challenged. One of the areas I was challenged in is what characteristics a church should have, or what it should look like. Our professor, Mike Goheen, brought this to our attention after pointing out the rapid urbanization of this world. He gave us a list of nine factors marking effective urban churches:

1. The church thoroughly understands the culture and dynamics of the city.
2. The church is devoted to prayer (like the early church in Acts).
3. The church identifies with and is concerned for the poor.
4. The church places a high priority on fellowship by way of small cell groups.
5. The church places a strong emphasis on training good leaders.
6. The church understands and applies the principle of contextualization.
7. The church places a high demand on congregational involvement.
8. The church has strong discipleship programs for new Christians.
9. The entire church is mobilized for mission.

These are some pretty tall standards to live up to. My perception of what a church should be like was quite drastically revised. These principles have put me into deep thought, specifically on where I might end up later on. This is really quite different from anything I've ever known, and I'm not sure I've yet seen a church that embodies all these characteristics.

I guess Dr. Goheen wanted to emphasize the importance of the average layman getting involved. He gave us this quote: "A church is like a football stadium. There are 30 people on the field in desperate need of rest, and 60,000 in the stands in desperate need of excercise."

It's really a wonder the church hasn't picked up on the urban "crisis" (if you will) yet. Why are our churches moving out of the inner city into the suburbs? The failure of the church lies in relocation and abnegation. We have to go back into the cities. It's where the work is to be done. It has been said that in the cities is where the battle will be won or lost.

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