Monday 16 August 2010

Urban Ministry - Business as usual?

I am afraid that ministry in most traditional city churches in South Africa is just a busyness of "rearranging the deck chairs" in the final hours of the Titanic's voyage. Granted - we all are very busy ... but ... with what? In an ingrown-survivalist-suburban mode we are not seeing the wonderful kingdom opportunities of the traditional mission field, arriving in the city. One of the reasons must be our theological blind spot for the kingdom. Urbanization is the process with which God is changing the demographics of the whole world in preparation of the second coming of His Son. We are living in the transitional phase where the second church (Western church) is being replaced by the third church (the Southern church) as the center of Christianity. We in Africa are privileged to be at the epicenter of this development. Everything is changing and nothing will eventually stay the same. Except perhaps the way some churches are clinging desperately to the past while the realities of losing their grip on the present is shaking them fundamentally. Are we moving where God is moving? Are we focused on the "bigger picture" of His Missio Dei as it is unfolding in our globalising world? How can we ask Him to bless what we are doing if we are perhaps not doing what He wants to bless in our world ... today!? It is not business as usual. We need to rethink Urban Ministry in our African context... URGENTLY!!!