If the Christian church does not learn new modes of urban ministry, we will find ourselves on the outside looking in. The Gospel of Jesus Christ must call a new generation of committed Christians into these teeming cities. As these new numbers make clear, there really is no choice.
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The history of humanity traces the flow of the earth's inhabitants into cities. For thousands of years, that flow was slow, but still traceable. In 1800, only 3 percent of the human population lived in cities. By 1900, cities held 14 percent of the population. By 2000, fully half of all human beings lived in urban areas. We are fast becoming an urban species.
As Stewart Brand argues, we are becoming a "city planet." Vast populations are moving into huge international cities, drawn by the hope of a better life. As Brand notes, cities have always been wealth creators, and the exploding populations of the largest cities draw even more inhabitants with the hope of securing an economic future. "At the current rate," Brand writes, "humanity may well be 80 percent urban by mid-century. Every week there are 1.3 million new people in cities. That's 70 million a year, decade after decade."
This represents a truly incalculable transformation of human life. The Financial Times recently published a massive survey of "The Future of Cities." Its report includes a remarkable analysis of the emergence of the new "metacities."
As the report indicates, in 1950 there were only two cities classified as "megacities," and these were London and New York, each of which claimed populations of more than 8 million. Roughly a decade later, Tokyo became the third megacity. "The wealth of the world passed through these cities-even if only on paper-and they expanded rapidly as people crowded in for a share of the opportunity," the paper reports.
Source: AlbertMohler.com
