Highland Church of Jamaica, New York

New York is a strategic place, and together with London, Paris etc. is considered one of the greatest metropolises of the world. Cities like New York are places of influence that sets the trend across the world. What happens in such cities determines what happens in the rest of the world. Is it any wonder why Osama Bin Laden and his likes chose New York, Washington and London to make a global statement? They fully realize that their action impacts and reverberates around the entire globe. The world of fashion, film, politics, and commerce gathers in cities like New York to celebrate and project their greatest events. Unfortunately, when it comes to Christians, we like to make a statement in some far away deserts and then wonder why the rest of the world has not noticed or cared to report the events. Christians have, for most parts given up on the greatest metropolis of the world. And to think that in the past, the circles of influence in our Christian history have been the Church, Church Leaders, Cannons and yes the cities.

Now the great cities of the past “Christendom” are the bastions of anything but the Christian ideals or message. Why? Christians have abandoned their cities. They are shouting all the way from Still Waters or Silent Arrows in some remote place and no one seems to notice. Historians point out that by 300 A.D., the urban populations of the Roman Empire were largely Christian, while the countryside was pagan. (Indeed, the word pagan originally meant someone from the countryside—its use as a synonym for a non-Christian dates from this era.) The same was true during the first millennium A.D. in Europe— the cities were Christian, but the broad population across the countryside was pagan. The lesson from both eras is that when cities are Christian, even if the majority of the population is pagan, society is headed in a Christian direction. However, because the cities were centers of influence, they shaped society and increasingly the countryside became Christian. Just think where we as Christians in America are going – running out of the cities of influence into “safe” faraway deserts. To be sure, the Bible begins in a garden, then into the deserts and then into a city and ultimately to that Eternal city.

The great leaders of the Bible were people of influence in a city of influence (Joseph, Moses, Nehemiah, Esther, Daniel, Ezekiel, Paul etc.). David was from the suburbs and then his life was a trajectory into the city of Jerusalem. To a large extent, the history of the Hebrews was centered on Jerusalem and their ability or inability to keep that city for God. What about the New Testament saints? They followed the commandments of our Lord “Witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the world. The missionary journey of Paul was centered on the cities of the then known Roman world. How did the church of the past with meager resources and influence impact the nations of the world? To a great extent, it is because the early Christians resided in cities, while today studies indicate that the percentage of Christians living in urban communities is lower than the percentage of Christians living in all other types of communities. Remember, as the city goes, so goes the nation and the culture.

I am afraid we are losing in our metropolis. Changes in such great cities like New York will set precedent for other smaller cities and towns. The perverse and unchristian messages and styles that come out of our metropolitan cities determine the standard way out in the deep outlets of Asia and Africa, let alone the small towns in the USA. Do not blame the devil. The Christians have moved out of the strategic places of influence for “safer” environments. New York once boasted the great Christian institutions and Para churches of the past that touched the nations of the world. No more. They have for the most part moved out into the mountains.

As Christians, we are not only the light and the salt but we are a “city.” We are a “city on a hill” which “cannot be hidden”. The Lord redeems places and calls us to be a “city” within the city of New York, London, Mumbai, Paris etc. To be a “city” we must reflect the kinescope of diversity that is reflected in our city. We must encourage Christians of all cultures, races, languages, styles, differences and giftings to reside and work in our cities of influence and not be hidden. We must encourage every expression or vehicle of communication and exposure that will influence and impact our city and our nation in a positive and Christian way. Others must see, hear and feel the salt and the light. They must see a “City on the Hill” and be impacted by the love, power, color, unity, race and grace of our Lord in our city that will draw them to God and His kingdom.

Saints, “seek the peace and prosperity (shalom) of the city.. pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper” (Jeremiah 29:7-8).