This is Part 2 in a two-part series from CFWLA Executive Director Steve Lindsey reflecting on his takeaways from Stephen Um and Justin Buzzard’s book Why Cities Matter: To God, the Culture, and the Church. You can read Part 1 in the series on the CFWLA blog HERE.
In Part 1 of this series we looked at the nature of cities: this included the aim of God’s redemptive scope—starting in a garden in Genesis and ending in a city in Revelation, the ways our work both serves the city and the ways cities serve as a refuge, and the notion of cities as centers of worship.
As is noted in Part 1, in Why Cities Matter, Stephen Um and Justin Buzzard do a wonderful job of stating in plainly biblical terms that cities are “place full of neighbors.”
Um and Buzzard note that “by 2050 the world will be 68.7 percent urban. In more developed regions, the number is likely to reach 86.2 percent.” Um and Buzzard aptly cite urban economics expert Edward Glaesers, who simply said, “cities are people.”
So what can we do to best love God and our neighbor through our cities? Um and Buzzard offer some very helpful guidance.
Know Your City’s Story
As getting to know someone’s story helps develop relational capital and trust to care for them well and share the gospel in a sensitive and holistic manner, so does getting to know your city.
Every city has its history, values, dreams, fears, and ethos.
Being a casual student of these and taking opportunities to show interest in your city’s background and culture provides a foundation for helpful engagement with others since all residents are constantly affected and shaped by these.
My wife and I have started to explore parts of LA and ask a lot of questions. Lunch at Grand Central Market, a tour of Union Rescue Mission, periodic visits to the Arts District, and lunch meetings with friends that work on Bunker Hill in the finance district have all been eye-opening to what LA is like today and that it has a fascinating and complex history.
Challenge Your City’s Story
At the heart of every city exists some forms of idolatry which have displaced God at the center of its worship. We must respectfully expose how this fuels the destructive forces in our cities.
Quoting Glaeser again, “Our cities’ gleaming spires point to the greatness that mankind can achieve, but also to our hubris… Urban innovation can destroy value as well as create it.”
The ongoing lack of happiness and satisfaction among the most successful, as well as widespread impoverishment among the poor in our cities remind us that identity and fulfillment can never find their source in our city’s promise of work, power, fame, or pleasure.
Los Angeles has one of the most diverse set of economic, geographic, and ethnic makeups in the world.
So the longings and idols of the overly image-conscious, influence-driven, empire-seeking, and comfort-absorbed are all found here in LA. Each story needs to be heard district by district and person by person, and then unraveled in terms that ultimately expose the hurt and destruction caused by these unfulfilled desires.
Retell Your City’s Story
There is a better story and happy ending to our city than is being currently told. God plans through his city, to renew all things. He will someday become the center and object of worship and end the unrest, decay, and injustice.
We must re-envision our city as a place for thousands of caring and thoughtful Christians to worship God by working towards institutional health, real community, flourishing businesses, just administration and governance, and abundant charity and compassion.
We do this not to triumphalistically announce Christendom or the church’s superiority over others. Rather we humbly desire to serve as grateful recipients of God’s grace who are ready to sacrifice our often broken lives, our modest resources, and our life’s work to reflect Christ’s great love working in and through us.
We see glimpses of this all over Los Angeles, such as in historic building restorations and useful repurposing, expanding inner-city ministry work to care for the homeless, and thoughtful reflection of believers engaged in renewal of their work and experiencing God’s presence in their places of employment.
Take time to prayerfully reflect on your city’s story, it's idols, and God’s better vision of hope and renewal in Christ. I pray you will join me on my journey from a love-hate relationship with the city towards an “all-in” gospel-centered love.
Steve Lindsey is the Executive Director of the Center for Faith & Work Los Angeles. As an engineer at Boeing for nearly 40 years, he often labored to see how his work served God’s greater purpose for the world. He and his wife Margaret established the CFWLA in 2017 to help people reframe vocation and understand how all work, no matter the industry, has meaning and purpose.