Reaching our Cities for Christ

The Urban Conference in Bulawayo brought together pastors and church leaders from 15 churches in 5 major city centers in Zimbabwe and from 2 different Baptist Conventions. While we seem to have a handle on rural evangelism in this country, we are not reaching the lost in our cities. The realization of our failure, the desire to succeed, yet questions as to how to accomplish this all worked together to make this a perfect time to have a conference to address these issues. Bulawayo was chosen as a site for the first urban conference as it is the second largest city in Zimbabwe.

While it moves at a slower pace than the hectic capital of Harare, it is full of people who need the Lord.

Bulawayo Baptist Church graciously allowed us to meet in their facilities. Gregg Fort, began each session with vision casting for what needs to be accomplished in our cities.

He shared with the participants what a healthy church should look like and that we need to look at new ways of “doing church” so we can include people who don’t or can’t come to our already established churches. One example he gave was of how to reach the taxi and small bus drivers in our cities. Most of them work from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week. He challenged the group to think of ways to start a church that could include these men.

Kurt Holiday, Urban Strategist from Johannesburg, was our guest speaker for the conference.

He shared some interesting facts with us to get us thinking about the future of our urban centers. One statistic that astounded us all was that by 2050 about 75% of the world’s population will live in major cities. While many city dwellers “take” what they can from the cities, Holiday challenged us to “give” to our cities. As Christians, we need to aim to purposefully influence all aspects of city life. Only in this way can we be assured that our children can grow up in a “Christian” city.

We need also to be constantly starting new churches to reach more people. A few big churches will not reach the many different pockets of lostness in our cities. Not everyone will feel at home in a large church. We need to meet them in their neighborhoods and at times when they are available. We may need churches which cater to different languages or cultures. Participants were asked to consider the problems and challenges their city faces as well as ways in which God is evidently at work at present.

During a latter session, participants were divided into groups, given instructions in mapping a city, and then went out to explore parts of downtown Bulawayo to see what they could discover. Hearing the discovery reports was interesting for us all.

Holiday encouraged us to explore our cities more than once as each time we walked we would discover something new. He also challenged us that as we explored our city and God opened our eyes to spend time in prayer. Being open to opportunities to witness to people along the way is also important. Our final challenge came from 2 Peter 3:9. Because God is not willing for any in my city to perish. . . I will . . .