One of the most critical issues in missions today is that of reaching the cities of our globalized world. If you need a quick visual on the fact that we now live in an urban world, I will direct you to my post HERE. I was very thankful that a portion of Cape Town 2010 was devoted to this important topic.
In today’s post, I want to direct you to two of Tim Keller’s presentations.
If you have not had a chance to view Keller’s plenary session at Cape Town 2010, you need to watch this presentation. He addresses 1) Why We Must Reach the Cities; 2) How We Should Reach the Cities; and 3) Why We Can Reach the Cities.
He strikes a number of important issues related to mission in the 21st century. In fact, if you are looking for a quick apologetic for urban mission, it is here with his presentation.
While Keller was not able to unpack the second point of his plenary session, he did accomplish this in the multiplex session. In this second presentation, he argues that the “How” of city reaching involves: 1) Planting and Renewing Urban Churches; and 2) City-wide Gospel Movements.
Here is the plenary session:
Here is the multiplex session:
While the Majority World is rapidly urbanizing and its cities are growing at a much faster rate than those in North America, the United States and Canada have not escaped the missional challenges of their growing urban contexts. Let me encourage you to also check out my series of posts on missionaries to the city, for my discussion of what I believe is a major missing-link to city reaching. Also, if you are serving in the United States and Canada, or considering sending missionaries to these countries, let me direct you to my research on evangelical concentrations, particularly in the metro areas of these countries. You can find the report and PowerPoint presentation HERE.