I want to take a moment to turn our attentions to the urban world in which we presently live. While just under half of the world’s population lives in rural areas, just over half live in urban contexts. We live in an urban world. The global trends project that we are becoming more and more of an urban world everyday. The most rapid urban growth will continue to come from the Majority World.
Today, I want to provide you with a few visuals to get you thinking missiologically about our new urban reality.
Here is a graph noting the world’s urban and rural trajectories:
According to the United Nations, mega-cities (population of 10 million or more) are expected to reach 22 in number by 2015. Seventeen of these cities are located in developing countries. To help put things in perspective, there were 2 mega-cities in 1950. The number reached 20 in 2005.
Here is a table composed from the UN data to provide a glimpse of the world’s mega-cites and their future population projections.
Below is a map (source here) to provide an overview of the urban percentages in different regions of the world:
In light of these present and (Lord willing) future realities, how should we live according to the way of Jesus? As a leader, how will you lead your people to be on mission in this urban world? How will you now lead your mission agency, network, denomination, or church to be on mission in this age? If you are an educator, are you preparing your students for life and ministry in this kind of world? What are the challenges and opportunities for the advancement of the gospel in our urban world?
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The fact that virtually all of Austraila and New Zealand are considered Urban, to say nothing of the United States and Canada makes me wonder why the criteria is for being “urban.”
Why only two categories of living? Is that even possible given the diverse nature of cultures, economies and government structures around the globe?