In efforts to reach our urban centers and neighborhoods, what does it look like for the church to experience transformation of its surrounding communities for the gospel? There have been new ventures to plant new churches that will break ground in unreached communities. Yet when we plant churches, most of the time what we’re really doing in essence is planting a “service.” Spice it up, revolutionize the time of the meeting; make it relevant, add media, dance and a tattooed pastor—you still have to call it what it is: a service that says, “Come to us!” “The church is not a building” is common lingo used among church leaders. We believe in the Body, not a “building” of Christ. We create strategies to reach the lost around us, pray, yet tend to revert back to doing what we know how to do—to run a service. We fool ourselves into thinking if we can turn our services into Circ de Soleil quality then people will flock. Pastors often commute to the community they serve in, along with congregation members. There is a tension that lies with pastors wanting to impact their community and knowing “how.”
What if a committed group of people or individuals planted themselves in a community to live, grocery shop, walk and commune with the people they are seeking to reach? What if the focus wasn’t to make our neighbors become the missionaries, making them do the leg work of finding our church buildings, bringing a pocket translator to learn our church-lingo, and then eventually becoming one of us? The good news is there are people out there who are planting themselves in communities of people who would never step foot inside a church. These “Urban Missionaries” or “Urban Workers” are a strange breed, breaking the mold of traditional ministry. Their mandate is to live among, just as Christ lived among.
The challenge of planting people instead of church buildings is what once measured successful ministry in the past becomes obsolete. If you can’t count how many people come to the service on Sunday, then how do you know you’re having impact? The beginning stages of “success” becomes more about how many relationships are being built—trust, friendship and inroads with the community become the reports at district conferences. This creates a tension for the urban worker and those supporting them. Those supporting the urban missionary often want to hear about success through the traditional lens of numbers. “What do you mean you had a block party with your neighbors? Where’s the ‘fruit’?” The urban worker can easily become discouraged as they battle through their own traditional mindsets of what success looks like. At this point, it takes so much courage to keep going and not quit, as this is the road less taken; a road that can take years. There’s no quick-fruit on this ride.
Those with whom the urban missionary dwell among are those who would never fit into a traditional church. They are the ones who freak the church out: the outcast, the narcissist, the LGBTQ, thrill seekers, mockers. We engage in arts and culture, a world the church has lost touch with. Seventy to 80 percent of society isn’t flocking to the church. So now more than ever, it’s time to create a movement of missionaries who will flock to them. Those of us who are doing this are finding the harvest is truly plentiful. People are spiritually hungry, but want nothing to do with church. What do you say is our answer to that, then? To plant another “service,” or perhaps salty people?
