In the World Today

Global Urban Missions

The cities of our world are growing at unprecedented rates. At the beginning of the 1900s, roughly 10% of the world's population were city dwellers. During 2001, this figure will swell to over half of the world's population.

Mega-cities, inundated with millions upon millions of people, are ill equipped to handle such population growth and thus face massive unemployment, poor sanitation, disease, and an alarming absence of humane housing. Oppressive labor practices, sex-trade crimes and violence aggravate the situation.

And yet, sadly, many of these cities have virtually no Christian witness and charity. Roger Greenway, an author and professor of world missiology, and Timothy Monsma, the director for Cities for Christ Worldwide, write that,

"Cities determine the destiny of nations, and their influence on the everyday affairs of individuals is incalculable. As cities grow in number, size and influence, it is incumbent on those responsible for leadership in world evangelization to focus attention on cities. Students and Christian colleges and seminaries will need to wrestle seriously with urban issues if they want to be ready for ministry in a largely urban world." (1)

We've designed this feature to inform you and to challenge you to consider the plight of the city. Read on and wrestle with the issues. Consider your own role in ministry. It may be that God's calling you to the city.

Why the Poor? Why the City?
Discover what God's Word has to say about the urban poor.

Global Urbanization
As the world becomes urbanized, we must consider the implications for church planting and evangelization.

Global Urban Issues
Pressing issues in the city vary as much as a city's inhabitants. Explore these articles to learn about Muslim cities, oppressed children, globalization, and African urban growth, among other issues.

Major Metros
In depth information on a variety of major world cities.

Ministry in the City
God calls his people to serve the urban poor. Find out what's being done and how you can get involved.

Urban at Urbana
Urbana has a rich heritage as a mission convention for students. The call to serve the city has been a recurring theme over the years.

Links for Learning
Browse websites, books, and more articles.

Acknowledgements
Thanks to those who lent creative criticism to this project:

Scott Bessenecker is Director of Global Projects at InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. He is also the Director of the Global Urban Trek, a missions venture challenging students to apply their professional gifts to liberate the urban poor around the world.

Keith Carey is the Managing Editor of Global Prayer Digest, a daily prayer guide full of missionary stories, biblical challenges, urgent reports, and descriptions of unreached peoples.

Viv Grigg has over 25 years of experience pioneering urban poor missions in Asia, Latin America and the US. He is the author of Companion to the Poor and Cry of the Urban Poor. Viv, with his wife, Ieda, presently leads the Urban Leadership Foundation, an organisational base for prophetic and revival ministries to cities and churches.

Manual Ortiz is the Professor of Ministry and Urban Mission and the Director of Urban Mission Program at Westminster Theological Seminary. He's the author of The Hispanic Challenge: Opportunities Confronting the Church and One New People: Models for Developing a Multiethnic Church. Dr. Ortiz has served as the Associate Editor of Urban Mission Journal.

Tom Pratt, after twelve years as InterVarsity Christian Fellowship staff, founded Servant Partners in 1993, a missions agency who's staff live among the world's urban poor as ministers of reconciliation. They seek to assist in the creation and development of new local churches and organizations which, through Christian discipleship and community transformation, seek to serve their urban poor neighborhoods.

Randy White, a former realtor, is national director of urban projects for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. He is the author of Journey to the Center of the City, Making A Difference in an Urban Neighborhood, an excellent text about his family's move from suburbia to join believers living in a disadvantaged area of Fresno, California.

Notes
1. Cities: Missions' New Frontier, Roger S. Greenway and Timothy Monsma, Baker Book House Co., 2000, p. 11.

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