For the Good of the City and the Glory of God

The biblical account starts in a garden, but it ends in a city. When the gospel first began rolling out it began rolling out in the cities, the big cities of the Ancient world. The gospel began to tear down all the walls that separate man from each other and create a new humanity.

Whether it was age, race, gender, socio-economic status, religious background, political persuasion...whatever it was that separated men and women from each the gospel tore it down, just blew it all the way up.

In what world do people from all over the map (on virtually every level one can possibly mean that) come to sit down together at the same table? In what world does a Fortune 500 business executive dine with a homeless city dweller? Where does the mother of four from Nebraska sit with the redeemed prostitute from Long Island? In the new humanity that is God's kingdom.

It all starts in the city. The gospel must blow up the city because culture flows out from the city today into the heartland. It is in the city where so many cultures, religions, and peoples collide on a daily basis and it is there where the gospel must be planted and unpacked for the people.

This looks different in every city, from Dallas to Seattle, Athens to Birmingham, London to Cape Town, but we all serve the same God, who calls us to love the city where He has us and serve the city for the good of the city and for the glory which is all God's.

-R.D.