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Where would Jesus live? WWJL? While we may not have the rubber bracelet to prove it, many of us are asking ourselves whether or not we should relocate in order to strategically pursue ministry. Living where you serve has proven to be an effective missions model, particularly for ministry among the poor. By sharing similar circumstances with your neighbors, you gain credibility and better relate to their concerns and needs.

But in recent years, stalwarts of urban ministry have created a stir over their urgent calls for Christians to move to city centers, sometimes seeming to critique suburbanites and rural folk. While some have flocked to the city, others have held their ground in affirming the value of ministry outside of the urban context. This contentious issue of “place” has led Stephen Um, senior minister of Citylife Presbyterian Church in Boston and co-author of Why Cities Matter, to plead for a truce and urge evangelicals to come together for the sake of advancing the gospel.

While we as Christians argue over which places need Jesus most, material poverty endures in all our communities and countless souls remain hungry for the Good News. The fields are white for harvest while we debate over which field will bear the most fruit. Meanwhile the Lord of the harvest seeks more laborers.

True Poverty in America

In our rapidly changing 21st century society, the city/suburbs dichotomy does not explain our nation’s complex social and cultural milieu. Stereotypes of the inner city as poor, blighted, fast-paced, multi-ethnic, unsafe, crowded, and lacking basic resources has often been contrasted with an image of the suburbs as wealthy, new, slower-paced, ethnically homogenous, safe, spacious, and filled with resources and opportunity. While poverty remains more concentrated in urban centers where socioeconomic status can differ dramatically from one block to the next (literally the “other side of the tracks”), this scene no longer tells the whole story.

Today, sociologists explain that lower-income groups are leaving the city for the suburbs in a steady trickle to find more affordable neighborhoods, resulting in large pockets of suburban poverty. In their book Confronting Suburban Poverty in America authors Elizabeth Kneebone and Alan Berube of The Brookings Institution found that the rate of household poverty in the suburbs grew by 53 percent, compared to 23 percent in the cities, from 2000 to 2010. And this trend began before the recent recession hit.

Furthermore, since the 1960s poverty has been more prevalent in rural areas than in the city. Professors Curtis and Tigges at the University of Wisconsin-Madison point out that people mistakenly perceive the inner city as poorer because poverty is more concentrated in urban neighborhoods with the visible evidence of graffiti, abandoned buildings, and littered sidewalks. Rural poverty, more evenly dispersed and sparsely settled, is therefore concealed.

So how should this tangled web of sociological data inform our response as Christians to our nation’s poor and how we fulfill the Great Commission?

Am I Called?

Obviously, the Bible does not mandate that every Christian live among the poor. But God’s Word calls us to follow Jesus in caring for the needs of others wherever he might lead us. For those led to minister to a specific people group in a specific place, it may be necessary to relocate. Most of the time, however, God is calling you to further his kingdom in your own backyard, even in your own household. For some, the more demanding call is to stay or go back home. Although it may be trendy to move to the big city, you may be most effective as an ambassador for Christ right where you are or in some place as unlikely and un-hip as Nazareth was for Jesus. John Perkins, father of the Christian Community Development Association, whose model includes a strong emphasis on relocation, began his ministry not in Chicago where CCDA is now headquartered but in the small rural town of Mendenhall, Mississippi. The missional mandate is not primarily relocation but bringing a holistic gospel message of mercy and truth to the spiritually lost and vulnerable among us, though it will cost you everything. Jesus said, “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundred fold and will inherit eternal life” (Matthew 19:29).

As my family approaches the end of our first year living and working in inner-city Chicago, I still wrestle with whether or not we are “called” to the city when faced with the trials of raising a family in a neighborhood notorious for crime, gangs, failing schools, and many more social problems. It is difficult and can be extremely isolating, particularly as a family in the racial and socioeconomic minority. Although some days I am filled with doubts and worries over whether our decision will be long-term, I know that God is concerned with the attitude of my heart and my obedience to him, not my vain attempts to justify where I live in order to gain the approval of other Christians.

While the Holy Spirit has given me the desire to serve, the places and people he has led me to have drastically changed over the years depending on my circumstances and life season. As a single woman I became involved in ministry at a multi-ethnic church in a low-income neighborhood in Birmingham, Alabama. I had opportunities to counsel people in crisis, advocate for parolees in court, direct a tutoring program for students attending under-performing public schools, and navigate people through social services. But as a 20-something I was only caring for my own needs. Even though my husband and I made an intentional move to the city, now that I have two young children and a husband in full-time ministry (which includes raising financial support) my responsibilities and interactions look quite different than when I was single—more dirty diapers and baby dolls than dirty-South rap and drug dealers. Does this mean that my work as a Christian is less valuable now than it was back then?

We all tend to deny or minimize the grace of the cross in favor of ranking our good works. Those called to the mission field or ministry as the church narrowly defines it are seen as spiritual giants while the rest of us are relegated to the sidelines of Christian service. But ministry is life, and life is ministry. As A. W. Tozer said, “Let every man abide in the calling wherein he is called and his work will be as sacred as the work of the ministry. It is not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or secular, it is why he does it.” Rather than getting caught up in where you should live or what you should be doing, simply ask the Lord to examine and weigh the thoughts and intentions of your heart; then pray for the courage to follow him.

Just Tell Me What to Do, Lord

Like the lawyer of the Pharisees who asked, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” we are guilty of wanting to know just what we must do to earn our salvation. Jesus responds by putting the question back to the lawyer by asking what the Scriptures teach. The man replies, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Unless we’re willing to follow Christ wherever he leads, asking “Where should I live?” resembles the next question the lawyer asks Jesus: “Who is my neighbor?” In response, Jesus tells a scandalous story about radical love that crossed all social and religious boundaries: the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37).

Rather than completely submitting his life to Jesus, the man foolishly thought he could sidestep the real cost of discipleship by trying to follow the letter of the law. His response revealed the hardened heart of a legalist trying to justify himself on the basis of good works, not evidence of a sinner who has accepted the righteousness of Christ as his only means of justification. Instead of praising his moral effort, Jesus uses the parable to reveal that the living Word compels the man to love not only his fellow Jew but also the Samaritan he passes by on the road: the one for whom he likely held deep-seated contempt and religiously cloaked prejudice.

The truth is, we are all like the lawyer trying desperately to win Jesus over with our so-called righteousness while he offers his greatest gift—his eternal mercy. If we attempt to fulfill the greatest commandment based on our prideful moralism and social activism rather than in humble response to Jesus’ perfect atonement for our sins, we “deceive ourselves and his truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). The Christian who moves to the city believing that his own efforts will “make a difference” may find that it has the opposite effect. Living among the poor may instead harden his heart toward them if he isn’t willing to have his heart continually broken by Christ mercifully reminding him of his own spiritual depravity.

On the other hand, Lord forbid that we should cling to a veneer of safety and security in the suburbs while our brothers and sisters suffer on the other side of town. Are those of us who live among the relatively privileged doing so because it is comfortable or because it provides the best opportunity to evangelize our neighbors and influence secular culture? To be sure, those who have achieved worldly success are some of the most spiritually needy among us; they just wear more convincing social masks than the homeless man on the street corner.

Breaking Down Barriers

If we ask, “Where would Jesus live?” the answer is “Everywhere he is welcomed!” (see Matthew 25:35-46). He demonstrated remarkable love and service for the poor, the orphan, and the widow, but also for the religious elite, the intellectual, the wealthy, and corrupt tax collectors and politicians. Beware: If you harbor bitterness or contempt for the poor, Jesus may just call you to live among them, whether by conviction or by circumstances beyond your control. And to the proud who loathe the rich man, don’t be surprised if Jesus causes you to befriend the wealthy attorney in the ivory tower.

God has a way of exposing our prejudice and breaking down social barriers to show us how much we need his forgiveness and grace. Rather than judging the lifestyle choices of other Christians, we should ask God to expose our hearts to see whether we are truly loving our neighbors as we love ourselves. Only then can we bury the city versus suburbs debate and reach our world with the gospel of mercy.

Is there enough evidence for us to believe the Gospels?

In an age of faith deconstruction and skepticism about the Bible’s authority, it’s common to hear claims that the Gospels are unreliable propaganda. And if the Gospels are shown to be historically unreliable, the whole foundation of Christianity begins to crumble.
But the Gospels are historically reliable. And the evidence for this is vast.
To learn about the evidence for the historical reliability of the four Gospels, click below to access a FREE eBook of Can We Trust the Gospels? written by New Testament scholar Peter J. Williams.

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