Listening to the Cry of the Cities:

Leadership for the Cities

AD 2000 Cities Network Vision

I. Vision Within Each City

Mobilize city leadership teams to bring healing and renewal to the city through reconciliation, evangelism, transformation.

II. Inter-City and Regional Vision

Network the global church to mobilize God's resources to the least evangelized cities.

Listen to the Cry of the Cities

The growth of the city is the phenomenon of the century. Urban peoples are in quest. Hence, they are nomadic and mostly, responsive. There is great innovativeness in the many forms of ministries exercised within the city.

These are five models from the Bible:

• The intention of God for the city: God Himself intercedes with man not to give up on the city (Genesis 18:23-33). Within the counsel of the Bible God still needs and looks for a person to stand in the gap (Ezekiel 22:30) -- in personal engagement which will begin with intercession that has a personal stake in the city.
• A feel for the heart of God (Jonah 1:1 and 4:9-11). Mere ideology may have neither the energy for perseverance nor the resourcing for the response. A feel for the heart for the heart of God in creative/redemptive compassion must "be felt."
• The mode of approach to the city (Luke 19:29-40, Luke 13:37). It is a brokenness at he rejection of expressed love. It is persistence in spite of the rejection. It is identification with the powerless. It is the rejection of prestige, manipulatory power, parochialism and possessions as non-values within the Kingdom of God. The reality of the poor and the structure that perpetuate injustice that demand this approach.
• The reversal of the value system of investment (Revelation 18:11ff). God predicts that the economic system that places gold on top and man (human soul) at the bottom of values will fall. In its place God will pave the streets of the city with gold or gold-like material and let human beings from all people groups walk on it. God's answer to the city is the city.
• The style of listening to the cry of the city is contained within Luke, the 11th and 12th chapters.

Jesus sets the pattern for evangelism and holistic engagement through compassion. Then He speaks about the necessity of learning to sit at His feet and listen. He teaches about the capacity of the midnight mediator to listen to the knock of the door. He stresses this two-way listening before provision for transformation in the persona and ministry of the Holy Spirit can be effectively received.

The Idea of the AD 2000 Cities Network

• Global Urbanization: 7200 cities, 3400 over 100,000, 400 over 1 million.
• Global Church: currently there is a church in almost every city. But there is insufficient movements of churches in 1736 cities to evangelize those cities.
• Primary Focus: Least evangelized cities
• Three levels of evangelization in cities:
  • Less than 0.5% Christian: Penetration and Beachhead,
  • 0.5%-3%: Church Planting Movements,
  • 3% -20%: Renewal Movements and Transformation of the City.

  ---

  Processes in Evangelizing Cities

  • Identify indigenous leadership
  • Cultivate unity through prayer initiatives, brokenness and reconciliation.
  • Catalyze indigenous leadership teams and/or mission partnerships
  • Explore critical needs and resources in the city.
  • Build from catalytic events.
  • Develop a city networking/training center
  • Facilitate networks, partnerships, coalitions, and strategies to bring the gospel to every person and establish the church in every sector of the city.

  ---

  AD 2000 Cities Network Inter-City Goals

• Build Regional/National networks of city leaders.
• Initiate inter-city story-telling consultations with leaders of cities
• From these enable indigenous strategies and link to global resources.
• Synchronize efforts with other AD 2000 tracks where they intersect the least evangelized cities. E.g., build from Praying Through the Window: 100 Gateway Cities initiative to a comprehensive Adopt-A-City process for all least evangelized cities.

A Story: From Love of the Poor to the Leaders of the City

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor." (Luke 4:18)

• The Hong Kong experience
• From drug addicts to city leaders
• From Jesus-style on the streets to Jesus impact on citywide churches

A Partnering Project & The Adopt-A-City Process

Praying Through the Window project (video)

• 100 Gateway Cities focus within the least evangelized cities.
• 10,000 Intercessors in teams during the month of October.
• Prayer focus to prepare for penetration or new movements.
• Partnering of resources between evangelized and least evangelized cities.
• Start with gateway cities, "Cities of the peoples," and move to "Peoples of the cities."

Helpful Resources:

City Strategy Manual

AD 2000 Cities Network, Urban Leadership, P.O. Box 48-089. Blockhouse Bay, Auckland, New Zealand or 127 N. Madison Ave, Pasadena, CA 91101, USA. (US $25 incl. postage).

Praying Through the 100 Gateway Cities

C.I.N., 11025 State Highway 83, Colorado Springs, CO 80921, USA. Phone [1] (719) 522-1040, Fax [1] (719) 548-9000

Brigada Cities Forum

An E-mail forum linking cities researchers via the Internet. Contact Owner-Brigada-Cities@XC.Org

Discipling the City

2nd ed. Roger Greenway ed., Baker Book House: Grand Rapids. A comprehensive collection of issues in reaching cities.

Companion to the Poor and Cry of the Urban Poor

By Viv Grigg, MARC, Monrovia, CA. On establishing churches in the urban slums of Asia and Latin America.