By Michael Strong, Church Planter in Minnesota

Souls matter to God. Scripture is clear on this. I don’t think anyone in our association of churches would argue otherwise. What I want to argue today is that since souls matter, cities matter. Let me explain why. 

Census.gov says, per the 2020 census, that 80% of Americans live in urban areas despite raising the minimum requirement of population to twice its previous number. They also found that urban areas are becoming more densely populated. And housing – if we zoom out to look at the world as of 2023 – approximately 4.6 billion people (57% of the world’s total population) live in urban areas. That is a lot of souls. 

Also, the diversity in urban areas presents us with unique opportunities to fulfill our mission and  overcome to do so. If it is true that God has tasked us with the responsibility of making disciples of all peoples everywhere, which He has, then we will have to be very intentional about the way we address urban missions throughout the world. 

The best way to do that is by planting churches in urban areas. 

At the beginning of the story of scripture we see “paradise lost.” God has completed His work of creation and crowned it with mankind. Once man sins, we see God come and begin a new plan, a new mission, to seek and save the lost. He is dead set on re-establishing His kingdom and conquering His enemies. As the story unfolds, we learn God is going to come Himself to do what we cannot do. He is going to seek and save the lost. But we also learn He has a place for us in that plan. 

We aren’t supposed to just sit on the sidelines and watch. Instead, He has decided to live within His people and to work through them to accomplish His marvelous, mysterious plan to overcome the sin and brokenness mankind brought to His good world. As Christ followers, we are sent (commissioned) by God to embark on a massive rescue mission. Our charge is to seek out and gather all of His people, His lost sheep, who are caught in the middle of a spiritual war that spans the globe. There is no place that can be left in the dark or untouched. 

We have to go to all the peoples of the world and share the good news of Jesus Christ. That is our mission. That is our privilege. In light of the fact that so many people live in urban areas, cities have to be a part of that mission. That means churches should have a place in their missions strategy that involves actively engaging in major urban areas. 

I feel an especially strong conviction about this because God moved me to Minneapolis in 2012 and opened my eyes to the reality I hadn’t seen back home in Little Rock, Arkansas. Though Little Rock is an urban area, Minneapolis and the Twin Cities metro was something much larger. I want to use my current city to help share what God exposed me to before we broaden our view and look at much larger cities. 

Currently there are over 262 racial or ethnic groups and 778 native tribes that reside here. The religious background is just as diverse with a large number of Wiccans, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, New Age spiritualists, and Scientologists, among other pagan groups who call the Twin Cities home. Not only that, but these ethnic and religious groups have different languages. My Ethiopian neighbor speaks Amharic, but many of the Ethiopians here do not. Ethiopians speak somewhere between 89 to 109 different languages in their home country. We have a large number of Ethiopians here as well as a large population of Somalians. Many times they work in the same places with the same jobs like the taxi station by the airport. Just like in Ethiopia and Somalia, these peoples have issues with each other. They are at war and unreconciled. 

Somalians are also known for speaking one or two major languages, but as Somali populations move here, we are faced with the reality that many of them speak a tribal or minority people group’s language. That means you could meet a Somalian that speaks Bajuni Swahili and an Ethiopian that speaks Oromo on the same block or at lunch in the same taxi station playing chess. But it would be hard to reach both sides of those populations for a number of reasons beyond language and cultural barriers. 

In spite of that, Jesus has made it our task to reach people of every nation, tribe, and tongue. And when He said it, He declared it would be accomplished. It is guaranteed because He will do it through the Church. That is exciting to me. It’s worth embracing the challenge and diligently seeking to work with God to fulfill His commission. 

Strategically speaking, the diversity of a metro area like the Twin Cities will require many different missionaries committed to reach these varied groups. Fortunately, we can raise up missionaries right here as we plant biblically faithful churches who make disciples the way Jesus commanded. We can raise up and fund missionaries to all the people groups here. But the work has to start with someone. 

The work has to plant a missionary minded church. If we do that, we can make a global impact. That’s a significant opportunity for a metro area that ranks 16^th in the United States population-wise at roughly 3.7 million people. Arguably, the potential for similar sized urban areas around the world should be just as profitable to invest in sending and raising up missionaries focused on planting biblically faithful churches. There are then 15 more larger and denser populated metro areas right here in the United States. Let’s broaden that scope a bit. 

The Twin Cities are often cited as the 100th largest metro area worldwide, so consider this with me: That means there are areas in our country and around the world that missionaries could target strategically to put soldiers on the ground where even higher opportunities and challenges exist. And it’s worth doing to see souls rescued and added to the Kingdom from all kinds of ethnic and religious backgrounds, souls that will turn rebels into worshippers and servants of the living God. Please join me in praying for God to raise up and commission urban missionaries who will dedicate their lives to loving the people of these cities enough to plant biblically faithful churches around the world.