The Multi-Ethnic Christ and Metropolitan Missions

Christ was born into a world of violence. All the male babies that looked like Him were to be murdered because of the revolutionary threat of His birth. Christ was also born in a setting of poverty; the Roman Empire was participating in its own version of industrialization and urban development. Christ was multi-ethnic; he walked this earth in human form as a Jewish and Hebrew man. Christ was multicultural; his family tree is rooted in modern day Israel, Palestine, The Sudan, Libya, Ethiopia, Egypt, and Iraq. Christ is God; ultimately Christ’s heritage is found in the beginning with God and as God according to John 1, but as the Son of Man, he came into this earthly realm as a multi-ethnic human being. With all of this being true, Christ is reflected in much of urban America.

Cities are collaborating with suburbs to become larger metropolitan areas. For instance, San Francisco is part of the larger Oakland, San Jose, and San Francisco Bay Area. This is why the San Francisco 49ers professional football team can play in a home stadium located in Santa Clara. You can live an hour away from Downtown San Francisco and still consider yourself part of the Bay Area. This is happening across the United States. As these metropolitan areas grow they become more multi-ethnic and multicultural. In the midst of this, suburbs become like cities and rural areas become suburban bedroom communities. The farmlands are shrinking. There is an economic and business development strategy connected to all of this. As businesses grow, the metropolitan mission field grows. Is the same true globally?

I have often written and preached about the mission field being an ever-increasing multi-ethnic, multicultural, and metropolitan one in the United States. To a degree, this is true around the world. Currently over half the world lives in an urban setting. There are missiologists who believe that global cities will grow to the degree that the vast majority of people will live in metropolitan areas. I realize that this isn’t the case for many people today. Many unreached poor populations live in villages and small towns, but will this always be the case? Shouldn’t we just assume that mission field is becoming more and more urban?

Ultimately time will tell if I’m really on to something here. But I’m preparing the Church to for the metropolitan mission field. The way in which we reach the unchurched, raise up indigenous leaders, plant churches, and make disciples should assume that we will do so in a global multi-ethnic, multicultural, and metropolitan mission field. The true Christ of Scripture is relevant for today’s multi-ethnic, multicultural, and metropolitan mission field. 

Efrem Smith is the President and CEO of World Impact.