Reaching the Cities

This week I had an interesting teleconference interview about reaching the hard to reach cities of America. This coincides with the North America Mission Board emphasis of taking the gospel of Jesus Christ to our nation and the North American continent and with the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering to reach America.

The North American Mission Board has designated 32 cities as Send Cities, cities they are targeting with the good news of Christ.

These are all hard cities to reach but not all for the same reason.

Part of the reason I was asked to give this interview has to do with my life long (as an adult) association with the city of New Orleans.

In the early 1900s, Southern Baptists targeted New Orleans with the gospel. Part of the reason for establishing the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary was to reach the city. We are now 100 years beyond that emphasis and New Orleans is still difficult to reach.

How do we reach the city? How do we reach difficult and resistant cities?

The Great Revival of 1857 may be a templet for us to follow. America had an economic boom in the early 1850s. Many wealthy people in the cities were replaced with poorer people who moved from the country to the city. These were people who had gone through upheaval in their lives (this almost always affects church attendance and churches).

A church in New York City decided to do something about this situation. They could not have known what would take place.

One of the men of the church, Jeremiah Lanphier, started a weekly prayer time for businessmen during the noon hour. After several weeks of invitations, he began the meeting with six men. Almost immediately, the group grew. Men gathered to pray. They prayed for people by name to be saved. They invited others to attend.

Within six months, the group grew to over 10,000 attending. The movement extended to other cities.

Because of this prayer, in 1858-59 a million people were saved in America out of a total population of 30 million! It has been called the greatest revival in American history and one of the events that changed the culture.

I can’t do everything to change America and to reach the cities, but I can do this.

I can pray big (meaning, I can pray for something bigger than I can do). I can pray for God to touch our cities.

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4 Responses

  1. Pray, Give, and Go!
    Grateful for FBC Cov family standing with us in the difficult places we are living and investing in. SDG!

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