At his inauguration John Street, the mayor of Philadelphia, expressed a desire to see that city transformed. What did he mean? How would he do it?
To many, the word transform suggests a beautiful butterfly emerging from its cocoon. The metamorphosis from ugly and lifeless to colorful and alive is so stark it can only be attributed to the Creator and, although proportionally small, is no less miraculous than a huge city changed by the gospel.
To others, the image our mind projects might be of the popular action figure Transformer, a toy created by Mattel. Whoosh! With a few tugs and pulls it is instantly changed from a powerful 18-wheeler into a fearsome-looking, mighty action-
Ken Hall, Youth Pastor, Salvation Army, Boston, Massachusetts
Hearts for Boston not only has a chance to impact Boston proper but all of New England because of their wide understanding and attentiveness to the physical and spiritual needs of the people in the area. They are able to do this by sending volunteers to work with the various programs we offer at the Salvation Army.
Margaret Ohanian, Hellenic Gospel Church, Newton, Massachusetts
I am grateful to Hearts for Boston for all of their prayers. Without their prayers I couldnt do what I need to do in ministry. When I need them they are always there. When I ask for volunteers they are always sending people my way.
The Transformer toy is aptly named. It can change in external form, outward appearance or internal nature. Did Mayor Street hope Philadelphia would change? Of course. He wants the city to become a clean, modern, well-groomed, respect-able center of urban pride.
Transform. The North American Mission Board (NAMB) often uses this same word to describe what we want to do in major cities selected to be part of a concept called Strategic Focus Cities (SFC). The goal of SFC is to see cities transformed. This priority initiative is aimed at developing and implementing ways of sharing the love of Christ in North Americas great cities by presenting the gospel to people who have not heard about Christ.
Imagine presenting Christ to every household in a city. That would bring radical transformation, the spiritual kind. Local Southern Baptist churches, associations, state conventions and NAMB are partnering to develop and implement strategies that will transform cities for Christ.
The first two cities were Chicago and Phoenix. Those cities implemented their strategic plans last year. Four others are in varying stages of strategy development: Las Vegas and Boston this year; Seattle and Philadelphia in 2002.
SFCs five main goals for spiritual transformation of a city are to bathe the city in prayer, to evangelize, to conduct Christian ministries, to conduct student ministries and to plant churches. City transformation by means of this five-wave front is spiritual in nature; that is, true change only comes through the gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit. Through spreading the gospel, all Christians who encounter and then reflect on Gods glory are transformed into His image by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:18).
A city that comes to know Christ one soul at a time is similar to an individual who comes to Christ. It undergoes a metamorphosis. Its people are changed. They are made like Christ. They are transformed inwardly by the renewing of their minds (Romans 12:2). A citys darkness is changed into light when the gospel of Jesus Christ is spread through effective prayer, evangelism, ministry and church planting, the basic elements of transformation.
Transformation happened in Phoenix where a summer-long Strategic Focus Cities emphasis on Vacation Bible Schools and block parties led to a dramatic 21 percent increase in city-wide church attendance and a 350 percent increase in baptisms. It happened in Chicago, where during a two-month period last year the transformation was even more phenomenal. More than 100,000 presentations of the gospel to city dwellers led to nearly 5,000 professions of faith.
These activities prove the light of the gospel is making a difference, but real transformation is a continuing process. It unfolds over time, not in a few successful events. Just like it takes time for a butterfly to emerge from its cocoon, so a city does not transform overnight. Strategic Focus Cities aim is simply to enhance and shorten the transformation process.
Glenn Rogers, Volunteer Coordinator, Las Vegas, Nevada
Loving Las Vegas is more than a theme to us here in southern Nevada. As this partnership between NAMB and the Southern Nevada Baptist Association begins to implement our Strategic Focus Cities ministry, we are loving the people of Las Vegas with the gospel of Jesus Christ. God is at work here in so many ways. Our missionaries are reaching out to the pastors and the people in the Valley planning for a great harvest this year. The opportunity for volunteers to come and be on mission it tremendous. The need is great, but so is the opportunity. We have an urgent need for bilingual teams to work with the Hispanic churches here. (Call 877-356-8464 to volunteer in Las Vegas.)
Satan understands this kind of transformation, too. He masquerades as an angel of light and hides out in the darkness of cities. His apostolic phonies fake transforming themselves into apostles of Christ, deliberately changing their appearance to deceive many and fool us into thinking his counterfeit ministries are really righteous (2 Corinthians 11:13-15). We see them as unscrupulous televangelists who rob and mislead. We see them as cultists who prey on the vulnerable and unsuspecting or religious extremists who subtly or blatantly distort the truth. We see them in every form of evil imaginable in our cities. Thats why cities need real spiritual transformation. Cities need the gospel, because the gospel brings spiritual change. The more lives change through Christ, the greater the transformation.
When we share the love of Christ in a city, we also have a responsibility to attempt social change. When we experience and share the love of Christ, we are compelled to reach out to others in need.
People in the inner city have many needs. Multitudes are hurting, without hope, and struggling just to survive. Jesus met peoples needs as He led them to faith.
Many today shy away from promoting social change because of the past stigma of the social gospel, a popular late-1800s concept among some liberal theologians. They devoted their efforts to changing the misery in which urban masses lived by wrongly putting social change ahead of the gospel itself. Today, Christians share the love of Jesus in a practical way by engaging in servant evangelism through acts of kindness in Jesus name.
For example, in Greater Chicago, Strategic Focus Cities mobilized more than 7,000 volunteers to share Christ through door-to-door evangelism in every part of the city in an effort called SearchLight 2000. The Chicago city-reaching strategy also involved doing deeds of kindness to encourage social change. And Phoenix organized a weekly food bank ministry to share the love of Jesus through a warm hug and a hot bowl of soup. Demonstrated lovethrough these acts of kindness and many otherscan bring significant social changes and leads to true spiritual transformation.
Philip may have been one of the first to attempt to transform a city for Christ. When he went to Samaria and preached, there was great joy in that city (Acts 8:4,8).
The apostle Paul, led by the Holy Spirit, took city-reaching to the next level. His ancient strategic focus was on the big cities of his day.
As he traveled, he proclaimed the gospel and planted churches in places like Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Thessalonica, Colossi and Corinth. Scripture tells us the Word changed these cities significantly.
When Scott Newton and his team from First Baptist Church, Claremore, Oklahoma, came to Chicago for their mission trip they could not have imagined what an impact they would have on their host church. Pastor Ernest Younger of the Pilgrim Valley Missionary Baptist Church in Robbins, Illinois, is still pumped up from the groups ministry in his community: Having a mission group benefited us a lot. It was really wonderful, not only for our church but for our community as well.
The mission team helped the church with VBS and door-to-door evangelism as part of the SearchLight 2000 outreach. We hadnt had a VBS in five years, noted Younger. This was the best one we ever had ... more than 300 people came, and nine made decisions for Christ. It was awesome!
Although the evangelistic events were successful, the church learned a lot just from fellowship with and working alongside the team. It helped us put our focus on the importance of witnessing, said Younger. We learned some things from the team such as the process of witnessing and how to get out into the community and talk to people. It woke us up altogether.
We also learned to fellowship with a different race of people. We had been leery of witnessing to people of a different colorthis got us over that fear.
Pilgrim Valley hosted a total of three mission groups this summer, and it was a life-changing experience for this Chicago church. If your church has the opportunity to host a mission team, by all means do it, says Younger. You will learn something, and no matter how large or small your congregation, it will still be great!
In many large cities Paul encountered stiff opposition from local city officials and death threats from unbelieving town thugs (Acts 17:7-9). Undeterred by persecution or hardships, Paul and his followers were accused of turning cities of their time upside down for the Lord (Acts 17:6). Today, we face similar circumstances in winning a city to Christ. One has only to look at the media furor over Baptists proposing SearchLight 2000 in Chicago to see opposition like Paul saw it.
So what does it really mean to transform a city? It means do everything you can to introduce and spread the gospel, and watch for the spiritual change it brings to the city. The effect of transformation, according to Acts 17:6, will be to turn the world upside down.
Acts 8:4-8 points to the evidence of transformationpeople heeded the Word. The Word was confirmed by the miracles which accompanied it. If a city is spiritually transformed we will see signs of its transformation today too. People will accept Christ. Lives will be changed. Churches will start and flourish; others will be strengthened. Intercessory prayer will abound. There will be a newfound respect for the church in the city. Christian leaders will be heard. Unbelievers will be converted. Thats transformation at its best. It happened in Pauls day, it can happen today. Thats why the overriding goal of Strategic Focus Cities is to transform the city.
Now that you know what transformation is, what will you do? Anyone can join the effort. You can help in transforming a city by praying for it or by giving your time directly, going to a city and being on mission there. Who knows? It may just transform you too.
For information on how to be involved, contact NAMBs Adult Volunteer Mobilization Action Center at 800-462-8657 or visit one of the Strategic Focus City web sites.
John Reale is a strategic cities planning coordinator for the Strategic Cities Strategies Group at NAMB.