Urban Christians and Poverty

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Slightly over half of the world's 6.8 billion people live in urban areas. In 1900, only 1 in 7 people lived in cities. The enclosed map shows cities with over 5 million inhabitants. Wow! There are over 4,800 cities in the world that have populations of 100,000 or more. Compare this to the year 1900 when only 300 cities were that large. The world's cities are growing like crazy!

What about the church? Are Christians poised to reach out to new urban dwellers? According to David Barrett's annual data on Global Christianity (the overview of his study is published in the International Bulletin of Missionary Research), the trend toward urbanization is expected to continue in coming decades. He and his research team estimate that there are 151,000 new non-Christian urban dwellers every single day. That's 151,000 new city-dwellers per day who don't know Jesus!

To complicate things further, over half of the world's urban dwellers live in poverty. Nearly one billion live in urban slums. I don't have any concept of what it's like to live in a slum. Can you imagine?

When you consider that many North American churches prefer middle-class members who live in the suburbs, it makes me wonder if most of our congregations are not worthy models for urban churches. I'm not saying that middle-class churches are bad or that churches should shun suburbs. I'm merely indicating that most North American churches have no idea how to connect with (a) non-Christian urbanites, or (b) the urban poor. We might have resources to share with those who do have those skills. And some of us might consider selling our suburban homes and relocating within the world's mega-cities. But I believe it's naive to think that our middle-class, suburban churches can reach the world's growing cities.

Thankfully, many third-world churches are answering the challenge. Through sacrificial and neo-monastic living, these Christian brothers and sisters are sacrificing themselves for the sake of the gospel. They are working to bring not just Jesus but peace and dignity where none seems to exist.

I seriously wonder what we can do to help. Pray? Partner? What else?

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