Characteristics of Global City-Center Culture
Can we speak of the marks of city-center culture, if there is not only such diversity of ethnicities but even diversities of worldviews? Yes. City-center culture is a "salad bowl" with two dominant ingredients—modern and postmodern worldviews—interacting and blending in different ways.
The city center is a culture of expertise. People who live in city centers are usually highly skilled and highly educated. Ministry implications: a) Artistic quality is very important. Amateurish art and music will not go over well, especially with the high percentage of center-city residents who are themselves artists. And the postmodern "turn" emphasizes the visual, graphics and embodiment. b) Communication needs to be very high in quality and be highly intelligent. There is a surprising amount of anti-intellectualism within the evangelical world. People have noticed for years that campus fellowships at Ivy League schools are very anti-intellectual and pietistic (A-I-P). In general, however, such A-I-P will not reach the people who tend to "make it" and stay put in city centers.
City-center people are living in their career. Many people work in order to come home and have a life. But city-center people essentially inhabit their careers. Also, it is so expensive to live in city centers that most have to work hard to make enough money to stay there. Ministry implications: You can't just disciple people on how to be Christians in their private lives (e.g. prayer, witnessing, Bible study.) Center-city people don't have much in the way of a private life. If you are in finance or art or acting or medicine, your vocation dominates your life and your time. Discipleship must include how to be distinctively Christian within one's job, including: a) how to handle the peculiar temptations and ethical quandaries, b) how to produce work in one's field from a distinctly Christian worldview, c) how to help other Christians in the industry do their work excellently as well.
City-center people are very sexually active and believe their sexuality is completely private—their business alone. Ministry implications: There must be a lack of prudishness about sex, yet strong teaching/emphasis on the Christian understanding of sex designed for life-time commitment and community-building, not personal gratification. Currently, the area of sex and gender is politically explosive; it is extremely important for teaching in this area to be smart, sensitive, irenic, and nuanced, carefully assimilating existing cultural narratives (about freedom, identity and community) yet upholding the Biblical view of things. Even strong Christians in city centers will be tempted to be sexually active in various ways that can undermine or destroy their spiritual effectiveness.
City-center people have consumer identities. Traditional culture had "thick" communities in which identity was realized through one's role in the family and society. Modern and postmodern culture thins out community (through mobility), and frees individuals to create their own identity and achieve their own significance. This leaves us vulnerable to consumerism, in that we get a sense of both status and distinctiveness by things we purchase. Consumer-identities turn everything (including church) into a commodity that meets our needs. Implications: This and #2 above pose an enormous challenge to the church. Center-city people will spend most of their time achieving identity in work, accruing wealth and "consuming" church programs that help them along the way, instead of identifying with the church community and changing lives of others through sharing their wealth. City-center churches need great teaching and a strong emphasis on the importance of commitment to community.
City-center people are the most rootless people—geographically, socially, historically—in the world. (See Pico Iyer's "Nowhereians.") Modern capitalism uproots people from geography in the quest for work and money. The modern worldview disdains the past and tends to make people feel historically rootless. Ministry implications: a) Historic roots: Both the traditional and postmodern are extremely interested in the historic roots of the church. Liturgical renewal and eclectic music/art (opera and Mozart and jazz and gospel) is better than the contemporary-worship style for providing those roots. b) Geographic roots: The city-center church recognizes the critical importance of 1) high quality and accessible small groups and 2) the infrastructure to support Christians living long term in center cities (e.g. schools, community centers, credit unions, etc.)
City-center people are pragmatic rather than rational or linear in their thinking. Modernity elevated action over contemplation, while postmodernism creates enormous skepticism about reasoning and truth. Together they create a culture in which people believe "it's true if it works for me" rather than "it works for me because it's true." Implications: a) We have to adapt to this. 1) We need to lift up the reality of changed lives. 2) We need to teach the Bible narratively, about the mission of God to redeem creation through Jesus, not just a set of information. 3) We need to create great community, because that is (according to Jesus in John 17) a crucial "apologetic." 4) We need to use varieties of art to embody our message, not just give talks containing long strings of logic. b) But we also must challenge pragmatism at every turn. If people believe in Christ because it "works" for them, they have fitted Christ to their individualistic worldview rather than fitting their worldview to Christ.
City-center people are ironic and suspicious of authority and institutions, especially religious ones. Overly slick, polished or glossy presentations are suspect. Sentimentality, earnestness, "niceness" seems phony and manipulative. There is disdain for the obvious in art and communication. Ministry implications: Leadership must take great pains to be open, not to hide information or be political. Worship leading and music can't be bathetic, syrupy or manipulative. Avoid "we-them" language. Don't be disrespectful to doubters. Communication tone must be free from evangelical tribal jargon. Humor is extremely important; but use gentle, humble irony, not broad or cutting humor. Most of all, admit how faith and religion can be used to oppress people and show that the gospel is the strongest critique of religion. But also challenge relentless cynicism. Deconstruct deconstructionism; show that doubts are in realty self-serving alternate beliefs.
City-center culture is very multi-ethnic and international, much more so than suburbs or even inner-city areas. Ministry implications: It is crucial for center-city churches to be as deliberately multiethnic as possible and to promote and celebrate diversity-unity in Christ as evidence of the gospel's power. Stress the gospel's resources for embracing "the Other." The more dominant cultural groups must humble themselves and stretch to make room for those not well-represented. Great care must be taken not to allow the church to be too beholden to one political party or political agenda—or cultural diversity will be hard to maintain. (And evangelism will be hard to do!) At the same time, each multiethnic church will be unavoidably different from the others, because the ethnic make up of each church will be different.
City-center people are deeply concerned for justice and the poor. At least in principle! Most center-city people, because of their international connection and education, are less parochial and have a theoretical commitment to helping the poor; but their jobs and consumer identities prevent them from much concrete action on behalf of others. Ministry implications: a) Show that the gospel is the faith of choice for the poor of the world. They don't embrace secularism, but Jesus! b) Show the resources of Christianity for having hope in the future. At the end of the Bible, we don't see individuals being taken out of the world into heaven, but rather heaven coming down to renew the world and cleanse it of evil, disease, injustice, death. c) Your church cannot simply do the typical charity and volunteer programs. The church has to ask how it is going to really make a difference in its city for the poor. Most important of all is to have an extremely positive view of your city. Tell people the purpose of your ministry is not simply to create a great church but a great city. The church is there for the common good of the whole city (Jer 29:4ff.)
