- I've been doing a lot of reviewing and reflecting on one of my Southeastern classes in preparation for a midterm today. God has opened my eyes to His love for the city. In this class called Urban Evangelization we have walked through an overview of scripture taking notes where the city is mentioned. It's everywhere! Historically many Christians have ignored or neglected the city because it is many times seen as a place of sin, violence and corruption. And there are certainly cases where it is! But, God uses cities! There are lots of reasons why it's important to reach the cities for Christ (maybe a future post?). But here are just a few:
1- Cities are where people are! Urban living is becoming the norm, rather than the exception. In 2008 the mark was hit, and fifty percent of the world was living in an urban area, and that was five years ago! Statistics say that by 2015 there will be over 480 cities of one million or more in the world. Tim Keller puts it this way in his book Center Church, "Cities have more of the image of God per square mile than any other place on earth".
2- People go to cities for freedom and see it as a chance to recreate themselves. Although this can many times lead to sin, it can also lead to a person being more open to leave behind traditional views and hear out new ideas like the gospel. The city is also the “engine of culture”. Culture is created and developed in cities. It is where people of influence live. If they can be reached, the world can.
***all information learned from Dr. Chuck Lawless, Tim Keller's book Center Church, and Gary Fujino, Timothy Sisk, and Tereso Casino's book Reaching the City.***
These are just two of the MANY reasons to reach the city for Christ. But it's pretty convincing right? This is one of the reasons why I love Bangladesh. It's busy, it's crazy, but it belongs to God! My responsibility and my response to the greatness of Christ is to point everyone I come in contact with to Christ so that they may one day worship Him for eternity!
Alright, alright enough preaching :) Just wanted to share with you all something God's been teaching me lately. I won't completely leave ya hanging about Bangladesh. I'll end this post with some photos from the retreat we did for the workers there. *All photos taken by the awesome Ben Cornatzer*
This photo is of the retreat center we used. It was a beautiful and relaxing place (minus the mosquitoes :)
Here is a group photo. Not everyone is pictured here because they went home a day earlier. But I love this pic!
