The story of human civilization is essentially a story of cities. Throughout the world and down through history, humanity has gravitated towards urban centers. In the 21st century, humanity has become primarily urban, and cities have reached unprecedented proportions, heights, and populations. The urban population has doubled since 1950 and continues to rise. As Christians, it is important to understand cities from at least two angles: biblically and missionally. It is crucial for us to be clear about how we think about cities as well as how we engage our cities. Ultimately, the Bible urges us to steward our cities as gifts from God, to sow the message of hope found in Jesus Christ, and to strategically engage the world through its global hubs.
The Bible is full of references to the city. The first reference appears in Genesis 4, and the closing chapters of Revelation describe the great city of God’s making. With more than a thousand references to cities in the Bible, one could easily build an overly negative theological view of the city, but one could just as easily build an overly positive view of the city.
Since the beginning, people have continuously been drawn to cities, showcasing the best and worst of humanity. Sodom and Gomorrah stand out as examples of the worst of humanity, leading to God’s judgment (Gen 18:18-33; Ezek 16:49-50). Babylon appears at multiple points in the Bible as a city in opposition to God. More alarming is the fact that Jerusalem, the city intended to demonstrate justice and righteousness in the way of the Holy One of Israel, is as bad as the other cities (Ezek 16:51-52). This biblical data can easily lead someone to conclude that cities are beyond hope.
Other passages in the Bible offer a different perspective. In the great passage of Deuteronomy 6, after God declares that he is the one true God and that his people should remind themselves of this outstanding truth, God declares his gift of land contains “great and good cities that you did not build” (Deut 6:10). Cities are considered by God to be a good gift to his people: a place of human flourishing. Even Nineveh, which had done terrible violence to other nations, was of concern to God because there were 120,000 people there (Jon 4:11). The call to Nineveh was also the call to Jerusalem: repent and draw near to the Holy One of Israel.
The difference between a city deserving of judgment and a city of hope is God himself. A city without God is a city without hope. Sin without restraint reaches a point like Sodom and Gomorrah, whose outcry reached God (Gen 18:21). The biblical narrative continually moves towards a great new city “whose designer and builder are God” (Heb 11:10). This new city is extraordinary in more ways than can be enumerated here. Of note for us, the new city is an ingathering of God’s people from every language and tribe. Most critically, it is everything a city should be because God is both builder and present with his glorious presence. We are to “seek the city that is to come” (Heb 13:14).
What does this have to do with our cities now? What is our Christian responsibility? Why can’t we simply hunker down in our churches and wait for the new city? The Bible makes it clear: the cities of today are gifts from God for our flourishing and for our mission as we seek to extend hope to the nations. It is by no accident that we find ourselves in the city.
Stewarding our Cities as Gifts from God
Cities have great potential to add to human flourishing. Good cities allow people to prosper, innovate, collaborate, find safety, and build community. As Christians, we are to contribute towards the good of our cities. It is instructive that God’s people were taken to the brutal pagan city of Babylon and were instructed to seek the full flourishing of Babylon (Jer. 29:7). We know very well that Babylon would be judged for its opposition to God (Rev 18), yet God’s people were called to make it the best place possible. The cities given to God’s people in Deuteronomy 6 were a gift because they had infrastructure designed and built by people: cisterns, housing, and vineyards (vv. 10-11). Our concern must go beyond caring for ourselves or even the good of our own and should extend to caring for the good of all who bear the image of God. We are to pursue the flourishing of the city in a manner that is honoring to God and relies on his strength.
This effort to do good in our cities is not merely an effort at making cities better, but God uses our presence in cities with two overarching purposes. First, he uses our work in cities to increase our holiness. We are called to live differently in the cities. As we draw near to God, we are to be holy as God is holy (Exod. 15:11; I Pet. 1:16). Growing in godliness is part of our salvation process. Second, he uses our gathering and scattering to establish a counter-cultural community centered on godly love. We are to be a people characterized by love (John 13:35). City life can be loveless for so many, and the church is to be the place where godly love takes place (Matt 5:44; Rom 12:9-21; Eph 2:12-13). This will run counter to the sinful predilection to self-interest, exclusion, and greed.
Sowing the Gospel Message in Cities
Christians are called to give witness to the hope of Christ to the ends of the earth; to those who have not heard. With a few exceptions, the ends of the earth have come to cities. Already more than half of the world lives in urban centers, and the influence of cities goes far beyond their geographical limits. The Church cannot ignore the city, but must prioritize it as it sows gospel seeds. To do this, we have to think beyond finding a busy street corner and preaching with a megaphone. We need to proclaim the truths of the gospel in the languages, worldview categories, and sectors of the city.
Cities inundate people with constant and varied messaging. Billboards, advertising, and impressive storefronts do everything they can to draw hearts to consumerism. Those who are disenfranchised grab onto ideologies that promise an alternative to the status quo. Popular culture pushes fun in a way that seems light-hearted, but is nothing more than full hedonism. Other religious worldviews proclaim their own paths to enlightenment or salvation.
We must have a gospel message that offers hope to each of these worldviews. We know how to communicate these truths in ways that make sense to people deeply embedded in these various systems of thought. Furthermore, we need to increase our awareness of whole populations who have no meaningful engagement with Christians proclaiming the gospel. The church will need to care less about its own needs and grow in concern for those who need to hear that the gospel is truly the answer to their deepest longings.
Strategically Engage the World Through Our Cities
Cities have a culture-shaping force. This means the church in the city is inadvertently being shaped by the city. Yet the church is called to be distinct as God’s people, not swayed by the empty and destructive narratives that grip the public. It is vital for the church to understand these cultural narratives and proactively disciple in a way that engages and counters them with the gospel of grace.
Paul demonstrates a strategy of engaging the city as a plan to reach the world. From Jerusalem all the way to Illyricum, Paul and his coworkers went to key cities in provinces, proclaiming the gospel and establishing Christ-centered communities who proactively gave witness to Christ and lived according to this new way of life (Acts 9:2; 19:9-10). These churches, rooted deeply in Christ, became the people who would change their cities. Roman society had grown self-absorbed even while the living conditions for most were in squalor and oppression. Urban historian Lewis Mumford describes Roman fixation on entertainment through chariot races, expensive reenactments of naval battles, and theatrical pantomimes that became increasingly sexually lurid. Mumford says this pursuit of sensations momentarily covered “the emptiness and meaninglessness of their parasitic existence.”
Things were so bad that he describes the Roman city as having become a necropolis (city of the dead). Christians, rather, injected something new, something life-giving into society. Sociologist Rodney Stark describes the ways Christians lived differently:
Christianity revitalized life in Greco-Roman cities by providing new norms and new kinds of social relationships able to cope with many urgent urban problems. To cities filled with the homeless and impoverished, Christianity offered charity as well as hope. To cities filled with newcomers and strangers, Christianity offered an immediate basis for attachments. To cities filled with orphans and widows, Christianity provided a new and expanded sense of family. To cities torn by violent ethnic strife, Christianity offered a new basis for social solidarity…. And to cities faced with epidemics, fires, and earthquakes, Christianity offered effective nursing services.
These Christians were not captive to the prevailing despair or desperate quest for new sensations. Because of Jesus, they brought joy to life, and because of their eternal hope in Jesus as Savior, they would sacrifice their comfort and well-being for others, even strangers.
Even in the midst of the glimmering skyscrapers, beautiful waterfronts, shopping streets abuzz with activity, and a continuous parade of entertainment, there is an underlying emptiness…even despair. The earliest Christians show us a blueprint for bringing change into the cities. If the story of human civilization is essentially a story of cities, we long for churches to once again shape the city story with joyful solidarity and hope. The hope found in Christ transforms hearts, and the communities of people transformed by Christ can bring life to our cities. This compels us to be stewards of cities as a gift from God, knowing that cities need strategic engagement and a thorough sowing of the gospel into urban soil. And from our cities it will go to the ends of the earth.
1 Jaden Crane, Urbanization Report: 2026 (Radius Global Cities Network, 2026).
2 Linda Bergquist and Michael D. Crane, City Shaped Churches: Planting Churches in a Global Era (Urban Loft Publishers, 2018), 44.
3 Lewis Mumford, The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects. (Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1961), 267.
4 Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure, Marginal, Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force …. (HarperOne, 1997), 161.