Posted September 14, 2017 Vision

By Any Means Necessary: An Urban Ministry Interview with Pastor E. Douglas Venn

by Jeffrey O. Brown

Are we reaching the cities? How do we know? Should we be focusing on cities or rural areas? Is it too dangerous for workers to live in cities? These questions and more are taken up in this 2018 interview with E. Douglas Venn, director of Global Mission's Urban Center at the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

I Can't Breathe: Can the Church Help Our Cities Breathe Again? It Must!

by Robert Davis, DMin, pastor at Denver Park Hill Seventh-day Adventist Church, courtesy Ministry Magazine

The desperate plea of Eric Garner, while dying in a chokehold in 2014, mirrors the anguish of the Hebrews, as described in Exodus 6:9. How can a person desperate for air, or sinking under life's burdens, focus attention on the deep questions of life? What can Adventists do to help relieve the pressures that keep urban residents from being able to hear? 2018.

This World Is not My Home--or Is It? Urban Ministry and the Crisis of City Housing

by Christopher C. Thompson, DMin, courtesy Ministry Magazine

The most urgent cry of many in the city is not for a home in heaven—but for a house on earth. This 2018 article looks at challenges related to urban housing, biblical commands and warnings, discriminatory policies, and potential solutions that believers may offer.

Understanding and Compassion: A Recipe for Urban Mission

by Gary Krause

Krause's 2018 article argues that "Any authentic new Christian mission in a city cannot be conceived at a distance, planned in some remote denominational board-room, or voted by some isolated church committee." He encourages us to "take time in our cities to look, listen and learn," and he urges that "The cities should be seen not as mission projects but as places full of people we should view with compassion, as Jesus did."

Jonah: A Preacher God Wanted to Save--a City God Wanted to Reach

by Ranko Stefanovic, PhD, courtesy Ministry Magazine

The Bible book of Jonah portrays God's desire to reach the city of Nineveh, Jonah's decision to decline the call, and God's actions to save both the city and his prophet. This 2018 article challenges the church today to consider how our response to the cities around us compares to that of Jonah, of ancient Israel, and of the early church.

Ted Wilson: "Work the Cities without Delay"

Annual Council, 2017

Six years on from his 2011 Mission to the Cities Annual Council address, Elder Ted Wilson again challenges world church leaders to reach the "massive secular fortresses" by focusing on Christ and His righteousness, and using Christ's method, as found in the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy. He examines the Mission to the Cities portion of Jonah's story, and focuses on the following quote from Medical Ministry, p. 304: "There is no change in the messages that God has sent in the past. The work in the cities is the essential work for this time. When the cities are worked as God would have them, the result will be the setting in operation of a mighty movement such as we have not yet witnessed."

Access sermon transcript here.