These “absentee churches�?are disturbingly reminiscent of the absentee landlords I observed while growing up in New York City. The landlord lived in a suburban community—far enough from the old beginnings to be “safe,�?yet close enough to collect a profit. He had a comfortable life, and we were stuck with poor services and deteriorating facilities. Absentee landlords were insensitive to the needs of the tenants and often exploited them.

Absentee churches may not be exploiting the communities around them, but neither are they taking advantage of a tremendous opportunity for significant ministry. God is at work in the city, and the city plays an integral part in His agenda for winning the world.

The world is becoming urban, and this process is irreversible. Harvie Conn reports in A Clarified Vision for Urban Mission that by the year 2000 more than 55 percent of the world’s population will be living in cities. We are talking about more than 3.2 billion people. God is calling us to reach the cities and the multitudes of immigrants and multi-ethnic occupants who will never leave it. How can we reach the people of the city?

God’s Agents in the City

Take a look at the area surrounding your church. What do you see? Empty streets, businesses that close on Sunday, trash blowing across the pavement, a sense of emptiness? If you look more closely, you may find loneliness: people searching desperately for friendship and compassion. You will probably see homeless families who yearn to sleep in a warm building rather than over a subway grating. You may be confronted by people struggling to survive on minimum wage, or no wage at all, while their neighbors who sell drugs seem to flourish.

If you keep your eyes open, you may even find “yuppies�?searching for meaning in their vocations and possessions. They may be only vaguely aware of the void in their lives as they stay on the move, trying to emulate the lavish lifestyle in the latest television commercial. Yet they are empty, and their only fulfillment will come in the filling of the Holy Spirit.

The Church holds out the only hope to the people of the city. It is God’s catalyst for change and regeneration. God gave us a commission in Mt. 28:19-20 , a commitment in Lk. 4:18-19 , a prophetic calling in the book of Amos, and examples in Jesus and Paul. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is filled with urban realities and God’s intervention.

The Lord of the harvest altered the direction of a king-sized city such as Nineveh with one prophet, as unwilling as he was, and one message. The gospel is greater than the city, and more powerful than its complex and overwhelming structures. It is this gospel, preached by Paul in Philippi, that altered the life of Lydia, transformed a young girl exploited by the system, and as a result created an uproar in the city and transformed a jailer—the faithful servant of the city—into a compassionate soldier of the cross (Acts 16:11-34 ).

This is what the Church in the city is to be, speaking and displaying the love of Christ to all who need His unfailing salvation. It is this gospel, which we have been entrusted with as stewards of God, that will alter the history of humanity. The Church is God’s agent in the city for healing and wholeness. It is not self-centered but cross-centered. Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me�?(Mt. 16:24 ). Let us get involved in the city. Why? Because God is.

Know Your Neighbors

To become part of God’s agenda for the city, we must first know our city, especially that section in which the Lord has placed us. As we learn about our communities we will discover where people are being denied the basic necessities of life. We will also begin to build personal relationships with our new friends—mutual relationships in which we have something to offer each other. Learning about the community will also help us develop an appropriate strategy of ministry that will deal with the present and future needs of the people, one that recognizes both the needs and the causes of the needs.

To gather information, begin with the people of the community. Develop three or four questions that will provide data as well as detect feelings, for example, “What do you enjoy about your community?�?or “What are the areas of your community you would like changed?�?Feelings often speak louder than facts. Poor education is one problem, but what it does internally to families is yet another issue. In the process of gathering information, try to make distinctions among responses from different groups—for example, men and women, and people of different generations. This will be helpful when computing the information.

After forming initial impressions, supplement your research with statistical data. I often leave this approach until last because it has a tendency to produce biases.

Move to the City

If we are really serious about becoming efficient servants in the city, we will consider moving into the community we want to serve. Jesus did not shout from a distance, He dwelt among us. We must make a visible commitment to the community, and one way is to relocate. As John Perkins explains in And Justice for All, “Their needs become our needs. Our shared needs then become the starting point of our ministry.�?This removes the stigma of “absentee church�?and moves us into an incarnational ministry. Moving into the city will not be easy. But we need to remember that we are voluntarily displacing ourselves for the cause of Christ.

Relocating enables us to embrace the community God has given us to serve. Embracing requires participating in the life of the community. Our neighbors will become aware of our presence and our desire to know them if we let our children play in the community playground �?shop at the community grocery store �?deliberately spend time in the community in order to meet others and allow them to know us. Too often we are in the community but not of it. We must offer more than an address and a phone number where we can be reached; we must be the hands, eyes, smile, and love of Christ to others.

Open the Church to the Community

After studying the community and developing a strategy of ministry, focus on bringing the community and the church together. One effective method is to establish several small groups for the primary purpose of outreach. Have each group take ownership of one block, focusing on meeting the people who live there and praying for each one. Build relationships from a basis of mutual concerns and sharing. Remember: in genuine relationships, both sides give and take. We must learn to value what the community has to offer us as well as seek to serve.

The church building can be another point of entry. Wherever possible, open the church to community activities. After-school programs for elementary students can often be a great help to the neighborhood. Crafts and discussion groups for mothers during the day, with nursery care provided, will help to build relationships that provide opportunities for sharing the gospel.

As we go out into the community, we need to help the people we meet become part of the life of the church. Encourage members to be sensitive to the new people who attend. Those we reach may not be of the same culture as the majority of the congregation, and we may need to alter our music, preaching, and Sunday school.

Some members, and even church staff, may resist these changes. We may need to remind them that diversity has a divine purpose: “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body �?and we were all given the one Spirit to drink�?(1 Cor. 12:12-13 ). As we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, our differing backgrounds and viewpoints can become an advantage rather than a hindrance.

Part of the Plan?

An urban church can find many ways to reach out to the community that surrounds it. Many city congregations already strive to reflect the pluralism of their communities. In Philadelphia, for example, several churches have either returned to the city or taken a strong stand to stay there. Fleischman Memorial Baptist Church and Living Word both display this kind of steadfastness. Their ministers and many of their leaders live in the city. These multi-ethnic churches have grown over the years and are still very viable and exciting ministries.

As we follow their lead, we can bring hope and salvation to a mission field often mired in emptiness and despair. Reaching out to the city will make a significant difference in our neighbors�?lives, and in our own. Will we continue to be absentee landlords, or will we take an active part in God’s plan for the city?

Manuel Ortiz, Ph.D., a Puerto Rican, ministered in Chicago for fourteen years, planting four churches with indigenous Hispanic pastors and a theological extension school. He is an associate professor of practical theology at Westminister Seminary and a consultant in urban and Hispanic ministries.