In the Lord’s providence I was made aware of two articles today. The first, Parish Evangelism, is a brief summary of the ministerial approach of Thomas Chalmers in Scotland in the 1800s. Take a couple of minutes to read it, and I think you will be impressed with Chalmers’ vision for ministry, if you are not already familiar with it. The second article, Living Faithfully in the Hypercity is written by Jamison Galt, a pastor ministering in New York City. It is a fascinating read, especially in light of the Chalmers’ article, because of the fact that the approach Thomas Chalmers employed is very similar to the model that Pastor Galt is encouraging. (I would not be surprised to find out that Mr. Galt has some knowledge of Mr. Chalmers’ ministerial model.) Chalmers was about the parish, establishing and ministering to a local flock. Pastor Galt poses a challenging question, and then answers it in turn:
What will distinguish the work of urban Christians from the generational mass that is recently rediscovering the city and reversing post-war white-flight?
My answer: the local. Christians do not yet give sufficient attention to the importance of place— the hundreds of discrete neighbourhoods that compose a vast behemoth like New York City— nor to the shaping power their daily liturgies have upon particular communities. Considered in redemptive local impact, the creative and professional class is largely the invisible class. They’re not often found on the stoop, at block parties, volunteering for neighbourhood organizations. Too often they engage the city like medium-term tourists, even as their activity transforms it into a stay-cation destination hospitable only to the super-wealthy, hip, and educated, and that as a launching pad for somewhere else. They often overlook the means found in Jeremiah 29 for seeking the welfare of the city: build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat their produce, get married and raise children there, do not decrease. Such activity requires local and long-term focus.
As St. Mark Reformed Church is endeavoring to be discerning and faithful to her calling in the city of Nashville, the importance of place is very real. There is an intentionality that must go into answering the question of “Where?” May the Lord grant us wisdom to answer that question.