Go Heart Your Own City

Posted by joejmac on August 7, 2010 · 2 Comments 

I have a small bone to pick. Forgive me…

I live in Seattle. Not the greater Seattle area, not the Puget Sound region. The city of Seattle, in the Fremont neighborhood. This is the place and people that I feel compelled to work among, calling them to faith in Jesus and working from within this place and culture to disciple people in the ways of Jesus here in Seattle. Now, I’m not a guy who believes that urban is superior to suburban, rural, etc. Every place has its’ unique pros and cons, challenges, unique sins, beauty, and opportunities and challenges for the Gospel.

Every place is unique. And every place needs Christ followers who are fully committed to the welfare of the people they live among and to engaging Jesus’ redemptive mission in the city, suburb, and neighborhood in which they find themselves.

As somebody who lives, works, and desires to see disciples made and churches formed in Seattle, it would be strange for me, and for anybody listening to me, to talk as though I were doing this work in Tacoma, or Bellevue, or Tukwila. Yet I see this happening over and over again as new churches form in cities such as Lynnwood, Tukwila, Mill Creek, Bothell, etc. When I visit the websites of new and forming churches in these cities, it actually takes some time and investigation to realize that they are not planting in Seattle at all, but rather in another city in the area. I have to say, this confuses me beyond belief! If you want to work for the Gospel in Seattle, great! Move into Seattle and begin to incarnate yourself in a neighborhood in this city. But if you want to plant a church in Redmond, than do everything possible to fully incarnate yourself and your team into the people and places of Redmond. For some reason, so many people feel a need to talk about their work and new church as though they are planting churches in Seattle. I think this does a great dis-service to your city, neighborhood, and church community.

I’ve been involved in new churches in cities outside of Seattle, and I talked about those churches within the context of the city we were planting in; not in the context of Seattle.

The uniqueness of your city, and the people who live there, when viewed in light of the Gospel, require you to fully engage that particular place and people. The best thing you can do as you begin to make disciples and form churches is to acknowledge your location, and learn everything you possibly can about it.

Some random questions that bother me:

Why would you put a picture of Pike Place market on your website when your city has a weekly farmers market you can highlight?

Why would you learn and cite statistics about the people of Seattle while you ignore the things you could learn about your city?

Why does your promotional video show you driving around the streets of downtown Seattle when you’re actually planting a church in Bellevue?

Does holding a cup of coffee with the space needle in the background really make you more relevant to the people in Woodinville? Wouldn’t a glass of wine in front of one of Woodinville’s wineries be so, so much better?

I don’t mean to rant. But it seems like you don’t love your city. It seems like you’re sneaking around behind her back, thinking there’s something more exciting someplace else. Jesus loves your city, and He’s placed you there to become an intimate part of that place and those people in order to demonstrate His love for Redmond, Woodinville, Tacoma, Bothell, Bellevue, Lynnwood…

Go ♥ your own city…please.

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Filed under I Love Seattle, Jesus in Seattle, Personal Reflections · Tagged with church planting, disc, Missional, missional communities, Seattle, suburban, urban