Redeemer Central | The Collective | Single Entry

The city is a village

David Capener

07/09/09

Planting a church in a large city is a daunting prospect. Here are some thoughts on how it can only take a few to change a city.

A friend of mine is planting a church in a city with a population of over 12 million people. His question one night over a couple of pints of quality ale (apart from the mighty black stuff, something lacking here in Belfast) was: “where do I start?” Feeling particularly helpfully and full of wisdom I proclaimed that I had absolutely no idea, and suggested he read a particular church planting book that I had found helpful. There ended the conversation. But my brain being the way it is had obviously parked the question somewhere in the ‘to be considered at a later date’ section. It must have filed it next to some other points of recent ponder, ‘the presidential campaign of Barack Obama’ and Randall Collins formula for cultural change 3,12&120.

I know this because late last night while trying to to get to sleep avoiding listening to the local canine residents communicate at high volume in a most annoying way my thoughts started to come together. So here they are;

1. God is bigger than the city

Obvious but important – in an age where the vastness of our urban environments creates in some a feeling of cosmic homelessness, we must keep a true perspective. Skyscrapers are big but God is bigger. God can break open a city without any strategic forethought. God can reveal strategies to break open cities. Either way, our God reigns.

2. The city is a village

As a resident of London for over 10 years I have experienced the very real sense of overwhelming bigness that you can get from being in a large urban area. Setting out to take the whole city on at once may not be the best way. Consider the city as a collection of villages, hundreds of tiny villages all in one place, joined together to make up the city. What villages are in your city?

The commerce village
The retail village
The education village
The depravation village
The sport village
The music village
The art village

Now the question becomes not how can I take that city but how can I take the villages that make up the city. Start forming Christ centered cultures in the villages and you change the city.

3. 3TWELVE120

Think about the major things that have impacted, influenced, changed and created culture over the past 10 years. Consider Google, Facebook or Myspace. All have had a huge cultural impact on our daily lives, especially Google. Over 200 million people in the USA alone use Google as their internet search engine (and I got that stat from Google). Google catalogues over 6 billion web pages as well as offering Google Earth, one of many other products.

So what is so significant about Google? Head back to 1995 when a guy called Larry met Sergey coincidentally at a university open day. They along with Charlie Ayres went on to design and build a number of different search engines and eventually set up Google becoming some of the richest men in America. How did three fairly ordinary guys come to have so much cultural influence? They began with 3 (the cultural instigators). They grew to Twelve (the early funders and backers), then onto 120 (the support network).

What is the relevance to urban church planting? Cultural change can be affected by a very small number of people. At the moment in Belfast we are gathering about 21 adults and children; that is 0.0035% of the population of the city, not very much! But that is 21 people who have the opportunity within their own villages to affect the culture and create Christ centered culture. Change the culture of the village and you change the culture of the city.

4. From the ground up

David Plouffe was Barack Obama’s campaign manager for the 2008/2009 presidential elections in the USA. What marked his campaign out was the focus on what he called ‘the grass routes movement’. Obama’s presidential votes were not won at huge stadium meetings or on television debates (which of course played their part). The votes were won by mobilising supporters at ground level. Using facebook, e-mail and other communication methods supporters were encouraged to ‘evangelise’ on behalf of the Obama campaign. House parties were held, obamavangelists took to the streets drumming up support in their communities and neighborhoods. This was the social networking campaign, won through friendly faces, BBQ’s and village halls. Why did it succeed? Because they knew that if they could influence their street then the neighborhood could be changed. If the neighborhood could be changed then so could the surrounding area and eventually the city. Take the streets and you will get the city.

Tags: Belfast, Church