I love cities. It’s easy to get discouraged and rehearse all the struggles (bad schools, crime, and traffic). But I still have hope. Don’t sleep on the places that never sleep.
Of course, I’m not in love with cities because of regional pride or avant garde restaurants or professional sports. I love them because that’s where the people are. It’s estimated that by 2050, 70% of the world will be urban. Yet just because we are moving toward cities doesn’t mean life in a city is easy. There are three challenges that the urban people of God need to be prepared for.
We Face Philosophical and Religious Challenges. Cities have always been diverse, and that won’t change anytime soon. Brooklyn’s Jewish population outnumbers Nashville’s total population. The Hindus of Los Angeles could easily fill the Rose Bowl. Allah has 300,000 in Jerusalem; but he also has over 200,000 in Houston.
This invites multicultural questions like “What does it mean to take care of your family?” and “Who is honorable?” and “Who is my neighbor?” Every group has different answers, and each pair of feet on the sidewalk decreases the usefulness of “common sense.” Religious conviction is great; dogmatic certainty is not.
This has been true for thousands of years. In Acts 14, Paul comes to Lystra and is mistaken for the god Hermes. The locals assume his miracle-working friend Barnabas is actually Zeus (Acts 14:11-13). Later in Athens, Paul argues with Jews, non-Jews who feared God, Epicureans, and Stoics (17:16-18). And you think your Thanksgiving dinner can get a bit contentious. But Paul meets them in their spaces and on their terms by noting their religiosity and citing their poets (17:22, 28).
Every concession is not a compromise. Curiosity must always accompany conviction; humility will go farther than certainty. We must always bow our knees to God; but while we bow, we will inevitably rub shoulders with someone bowing to someone/something else. Make room.
We Feel Socially Vulnerable. Independence is wonderful and is central to the American imagination. Imagination is the right word, since independence is imaginary. We all depend on each other. Our homes are lit because of shared power grids and we drink from public water supplies. We can protest our music and movies moving to the cloud all we want, but our banking and medical records arrived there first.
While people everywhere are dependent on each other, this is even more true in cities. If a bus driver in rural Vermont is late to work, fifteen kids are late for school. If a bus driver in New York City is late, it can affect 100,000. When a rural town in Minnesota gets a blizzard they have places to move the snow. Seattle, not so much. The larger the city, the higher the dependence, which brings higher vulnerability.
Paul tells the church at Corinth (one of the largest Greek cities of his time) that their lives are connected. He calls them a body. The unity of the body (1 Corinthians 12) assumes and requires dependency: “if the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be?” (12:17). Legal decisions (6:7), sexual behavior (6:19-20), racial attitudes (12:13), speech (13), and use/misuse of spiritual gifts (12-14) all affect the body. Life is better together. But being together requires vulnerability and care.
We Experience Contested Politics. City folks understand that political differences are right next door. People who are “My Way or the Highway” tend to live farther away from the highway. Consider the 2024 presidential election. New York was 68% liberal and 30% conservative. Los Angeles was 70% liberal and 26% conservative. Cook County (Chicago) was 69% liberal and 28% conservative. There was a lot of red in the blue. But rural areas tend to be politically homogenous. At least five counties in the nation saw one candidate receive 95% of their vote, such as Grant County, Nebraska. It has 611 people. I’ve seen more in the Trader Joe’s parking lot.
One city street will have kids going to schools that are public, charter, secular private, religious private, single-gender, homeschool co-op, and more. On their way to school, kids will pass yard signs for every conceivable political interest. Non-negotiable opinions about how to educate a child or vote in an election are dead end streets. Life in the city is a constant negotiation. Louder noise requires deeper listening.
We aren’t alone. New Testament communities constantly negotiated with their larger culture. In Acts it’s Jewish and Hellenistic widows. First Corinthians has rich and poor at the Lord’s Supper. First Timothy is Jewish Christians being influenced by Gentile myths, whereas Titus has Gentiles struggling with Jewish myths. Peter calls believers to live as strangers and aliens in a foreign place. Life in the city is more about following a Ruler than making the rules.
Life in the city can be hard, but it can be the most rewarding life imaginable. One day God will make all things new (Revelation 21:5). The grief and pain of the world will disappear (21:4). We won’t have to worry anymore about gunshots, violence, corruption, abuse, or loss. The world will be new, but it won’t be unfamiliar. It will be the home that we have always longed for.
A city.
