Being a Christian in the City

Tim Keller has an excellent article in Christianity Today about what it means to be a Christian living in the city.  Here is a part of it.  Head on over the the site to read the rest.

It will not be enough for Christians to form a culture that runs counter to the values of the broader culture. Christians should be a community radically committed to the good of the city as a whole. We must move out to sacrificially serve the good of the whole human community, especially the poor. Revelation 21-22 makes it clear that the ultimate purpose of redemption is not to escape the material world, but to renew it. God's purpose is not only saving individuals, but also inaugurating a new world based on justice, peace, and love, not power, strife, and selfishness.

So Christians work for the peace, security, justice, and prosperity of their city and their neighbors, loving them in word and in deed, whether they believe what we do or not. In Jeremiah 29:7, Israel's exiles were called not just to live in the city, but also to love it and work for its shalom—its economic, social, and spiritual flourishing. The citizens of God's city are the best possible citizens of their earthly cities.

This is the only kind of cultural engagement that will not corrupt us and conform us to the world's pattern of life. If Christians go to urban centers simply to acquire power, they will never achieve cultural influence and change that is deep, lasting, and embraced by the broader society. We must live in the city to serve all the peoples in it, not just our own tribe. We must lose our power to find our (true) power. Christianity will not be attractive enough to win influence except through sacrificial service to all people, regardless of their beliefs.

This strategy (if we must call it that) will work. In every culture, some Christian conduct will be offensive and attacked, but some will be moving and attractive to outsiders. "Though they accuse you … they may see your good deeds and glorify God" (1 Peter 2:12, see also Matt. 5:16). In the Middle East, a Christian sexual ethic makes sense, but not "turn the other cheek." In secular New York City, the Christian teaching on forgiveness and reconciliation is welcome, but our sexual ethics seem horribly regressive. Every non-Christian culture has enough common grace to recognize some of the work of God in the world and to be attracted to it, even while Christianity in other ways will offend the prevailing culture.

So we must neither just denounce the culture nor adopt it. We must sacrificially serve the common good, expecting to be constantly misunderstood and sometimes attacked. We must walk in the steps of the one who laid down his life for his opponents.

Technorati Tags : Tim+Keller, praxis, theology, urban, city, Christianity

Thinker Labs

Thinker Labs is an open source experiment in resource sharing for the church.  There is a bunch of media online and you are more then welcome in submitting your own.  It's all free.  You heard me right, free.

 

Technorati Tags : Thinker+Labs, free, open+source, media

Cultivate: A Learning Party

Cultivate is a learning party happening on Saturday, August 19, 2006 in Hamilton, ON. It's presented by Resonate (with a lot of work done by Nathan Colquhoun and Pernell Goodyear and the rest of the FRWY.ca community) and is intended to inspire church planting and new forms of church all across Canada. If you are in the north east part of the United States you are more than welcome to join us as well.A learning party? What does that mean? Well, basically it's designed to be everything good about a conference without all the rigamarole... and much more fun and interactive.

• Instead of charging in the hundreds of dollars for one ticket, it's only $25 and that includes a terrific lunch.
• Instead of maxing out our capacity we are limiting our numbers to give everyone there the best possible environment for networking.
• Instead of bringing in a mainline, American speaker to tell us what they already wrote in their latest book we are looking to local church planters and leaders to tell their stories. (nothing against Americans but we do grow tired of hearing from American speakers tell us Canadians how to do church when our contexts are very different)
• Instead of you listening to message after message and being filled with information we want you to be part of a dialogue with people in similar shoes and learn and grow within that relationship.
• Instead of some fancy shmancy hotel, convention centre or big church building, Cultivate is taking place at a local coffee house: www.frwy.ca

Cultivate is happening because of numerous conversations between different people, organizations, networks and churches in Canada that long to see new forms of church thrive and relational networking happen. We are tired of the same old, same old conferences and just simply want to be friends, inspire each other, and swap stories, ideas, and encouragement.For more details or to register (there are a limited number of spots left): www.cultivategathering.comIf you can't attend but are feeling sympathetic to our cause, we would love a link to www.cultivategathering.com to help spread the word. Thanks!

Technorati Tags : Resonate, Cultivate+Gathering, Hamilton, FRWY.ca, emerging+church