Archives
Cities Need The Gospel: Why Renewing Your City Matters
Cities are on the rise. Today over half the world’s population lives in cities. There are over 400 cities with a population of over a million. 100 of those cities account for 30 percent of the world’s economy. As cities multiply across the globe, they are also becoming increasingly dense. Foreign Policy magazine points out that the future will be shaped by megacities, cities measured not by millions but by tens of millions.
Cities are so powerful they can change the economies, policies, values, and beliefs of people around the world. The present and future of our world is profoundly urban-shaped.
Cities Are Socially Dense and Diverse
The first reason we should engage the city is because it is socially dense. Cities are filled with people. The city of Austin has consistently been in the top 10 fastest growing cities in America. The city proper is approaching 1 million. The greater Austin metro area will be 3 million by 2025, and compared to other cities, Austin is small. Like many others, Austin is also experiencing redevelopment. Mixed-use retail/condo/office high rises promote a live/work/play ethos.
More and more people are moving into cities. Cities are increasingly dense collections of people. They are also diverse. Contrary to an outdated metaphor, cities are not a melting pot, in which all the ethnicities blend into one. Rather, they are tossed salads, filled with a heterogeneous mass of people.
Cities attract a wide array of people, creating an ethnically, religiously, and vocationally diverse society. This diverse density represents great opportunity for the gospel. With all its diversity, the city needs the reconciling power of the gospel. As cities grow, so do their influence. Influence a city and you can influence the world.
Cities Are Filled With Eternal Souls
The second reason we should engage the city is because it’s filled with souls. Some speak of cities as having a soul, a distinct life and character. With rapid growth and urbanization, many believe that cites are losing their souls. I don’t share that concern. Not that I want to minimize the homogenizing and gentrifying effect New Urbanism can have on a city, but it isn’t the city that gives itself life. It’s the people.
The city has no soul without people. Remove the people and you just have infrastructure. Include the people and you have a true city teeming with life, values, ideas, relationships, and longings. People have souls; people give life, vitality, and meaning to a city. We are the ones who give life to a city.
Evaluate Your Giving
We either give life to cities or we take life from cities. What kind of life are you giving to the city? Are you giving or taking, consuming or renewing, using or strengthening the city? To love a city we have to love more than its stuff, its entertainment, its dining, and its landscape. We have to love its people. To renew a city we must love its souls. We should renew the city because it is a growing, socially dense, and diverse community of people—eternal souls.
To be continued.