Transforming Cities/Transforming Lives

The great cities of the world are the greater context for individual people who live, work, study, shop or play in that city. When I think of tranforming a city it is both about the context and the individuals. In the past I have thought that if there are a sufficient number of individuals who are transformed by the power, presence and purpose of God that they would somehow be able to transform the environment of the city and the city would reflect the power, presensce and purpose of God. But as I look back over more than thirty years of service to transform individuals, the environment of the city has not improved. The approach of missional leaders today must face the reality that our cities and the underlying problems in the cities are overwhelming individuals who many times feel powerless to change things.

As we continue to focus on transforming individuals we must also create collaborative missional leadership communities that will focus on transforming the city in which they live. As I have spent time in Atlanta that is what I see these 40 to 50 men and women from 15 different churches seeking to create. They have developed a 2020 vision for the city of Atlanta and the relationships that they are forming will be a basis for the ongoing deliberate actions to see transfromation. I hope that other missional leaders in the great cities of the world would begin to work in this way.