Taking the Gospel to the City

Reprinted with permission from Paraklesis Winter 2011. Paraklesis is a publication of Baptist Bible College & Seminary.

The cities of our world are exploding. Globally, over 500 cities now have a million or more residents. The fastest-growing cities today are in the Global South—in Africa, Asia and Latin America. In the U.S., the majority of our citizens live in our 40 largest cities.

Yet for decades Bible-believing Christians have vacated our cities. Evangelicals fled to the comfort and safety of the suburbs and small towns.

It’s time to return!

Cities are a kaleidoscope of colors and cultures. A sovereign God is internationalizing our cities. He’s brought the nations (people groups) of the world to our urban doorstep. In New York City, about 40 percent of the metro residents are foreign-born. Recent growth has been fueled by a tide of immigration from Latin, Asian and African nations. Over 400 ethnic and language groups are now represented.

The traditional distinction between “home missions” and foreign is made obsolete in big cities. The city is the key to both. Flushing, just one of the dozens of communities in Queens, has 133 nations represented. Ray Bakke, the leading evangelical urbanologist of our day, says “The migrant streams flowing in and out of cities are the new frontiers of missions.”

Inside New York City

New York City is the most ethnically and religiously diverse city in North America. The metro is the second largest city in the world for Jewish people, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and Haitians. In a city of 8 million, over 2 million speak primarily Spanish at home. There are about 800,000 Muslims in metro New York—and only three churches seeking to reach them. Hundreds of thousands follow Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and other Eastern religions, yet there are very few Christian workers among them.

With 22 million people in the metro area, New York City is North America’s largest and neediest mission field. Millions are spiritually indifferent to the gospel and far from God. Many communities in all five boroughs are under-churched. Recent research reveals the proportion of evangelical Christians, while growing, numbers but 5 percent of the population. Roman Catholics number about 49 percent. A growing number of the city’s young professionals are secular post-modernists, agnostics or atheists.

Research indicates new churches are the best at reaching newcomers, new generations and non-churchgoers. Although there are some existing Bible-believing churches effectively reaching their communities, there are simply not enough. Thousands of new church plants are needed.

Jesus calls us to make disciples. The early church lived out this call by planting churches. Jesus challenges us to be wiser than the people of this world. The apostle Paul modeled this by planting churches in major cities.

About Project Antioch

Those who study the expansion of the church following Christ’s resurrection note that the city was central to the early church’s focus. First-century leaders such as Paul started churches in cities of influence across the Mediterranean world, knowing cities shape society and even impact entire nations.

In our day, we need a return to the city-centric model of missions practiced by the Apostle Paul.

God has given Baptist Bible Seminary a vision, passion, and strategy to plant several new multiethnic churches in the boroughs of New York City over the next decade. We’re calling it Project Antioch.

In an increasingly multiethnic and multicultural urban world, New York City holds great promise for training seminarians in intercultural and urban church planting. We are currently seeking to identify qualified men to lead church planting teams. City communities without sufficient gospel testimony are being sought out. The plan is to train seminary men in church planting under a veteran urban pastor/church planter.

Going to the Big Apple will take a different, more contextualized approach than we have followed with our seven church plants in Northeastern Pennsylvania through Project Jerusalem. It will not work to have our planters living out in the distant suburbs. They need to live in their target community.

The challenge we face is formidable, but we are convinced Christ is still building His church in our generation. Come join us as we seek to equip skilled church planters to impact our urban world for Christ!

Note: download the attached pdf files for more information about Project Antioch.