(bright subtle music) - As we think about the missionary task of church planters to engage the city with the Gospel, to make disciples and to plant healthy churches, there's one step of engaging the city we cannot overlook, and that is this stage of entry, right? So, let's talk about that for just a moment. How a planter views this city, loves the people of the city, wants to be a blessing to the city, and how he brings the Gospel to the city is obviously critical.
It's why we're doing what we're doing. So, why do planters need to have a heart that burns for their city, and how can that be cultivated? - Yeah, first I'd say that there's a major difference between just loving your city and having a heart that burns for your city.
- [Tony] Yeah. - And I think that burning for your city is absolutely necessary. So, planting in the urban core of one of our US cities, St.
Louis namely, this is what I learned, that when people say they love a city, what they often mean is what the city provides for them. - [Tony] Hmm. - Goods and services, free and otherwise.
Entertainment, sports, resources, those kinds of things. In St. Louis, it's the free zoo, it's St.
Louis Cardinals baseball, it's Blues hockey, it's soccer, it's all these things. But if you talk to someone who would say all those things are true very long, what you'll also find out is that there are many things about the city they don't love. Namely, living in the city.
- [Tony] Hmm. - Drving there after dark. The crime that comes along with it.
And so having a heart that burns for your city really comes down to loving the city. This is the way I like to say it. Loving your city even when your city doesn't love you back.
How can you develop a heart that says, "I love this city because God loves this city. " And how do you cultivate it? I think there's at least four parts that are necessary.
I think there's proximity, consistency, service and prayer. - [Tony] Hmm. - Proximity meaning that you have to spend time there.
Like, actually in the city, in the streets, in their neighborhoods, not only with people in the city, but the people of the city. Learning the city and its rhythms. Consistency, it means it takes time.
That this is not going to be developed overnight. - [Tony] Right. - It's gonna take opportunity after opportunity, and so even before we planted in our city, our core team would spend as much time as possible in the city together, many driving hours at a time to be there to develop that proximity and consistency.
And then I think one of the greatest ways to cultivate this burning heart for a city is through service. I like to say that the Gospel is not only an noun, it's also a verb. Loving, serving and telling, and serving is about making that city a better place for everybody to live.
It's about seeing those needs and meeting those needs because God meets our needs. These issues that if sin weren't the root issue, they would be fixed, and one day, we'll be fixed. And so, beautification projects, so on and so forth, those kinds of things.
But then finally, I think it takes prayer to cultivate a heart that burns for the city, and that's why I have a huge emphasis on prayer walking or prayer driving. - Yeah. - You get into the city, you connect with the Lord with your eyes wide open and say, "God, what's your heart for the city?
" 'Cause ultimately, I think God has to download that into us. - That's good. Yeah, I think what you've touched on there in a couple of different ways is the time you spend in the city, you know, it can be a roadblock to maybe loving the city because of all the frustrations, but it can also work in a positive sense of actually giving you a deeper compassion when you know neighborhoods, when you know names.
- Yeah. - When you're actually invested in real people and real projects. - That's right.
- And you're not just wearing the cap of the favorite sports team. - That's right. - You're actually involved, right?
- Yeah. - I was thinking about in, it was Matthew 9, where Jesus is looking over the multitudes and he has compassion over them. They're sheep without a shepherd.
He had already been there, you know? He'd been ministering there. And then we have that statement about his being moved with compassion over it.
And then as you were talking, I was also thinking about the Apostle Paul in Athens when it says that he saw the city that was full of idols and it provoked him. - [Noah] Yeah. - Right, that you can appreciate the beauty of the city and all that a city gives you, but you should also be aware of the brokenness of the city, the idolatry of the city.
And so, this is obviously important. Like, our affection precedes our effectiveness in a mission, and we have to always come back to addressing our hearts. Let's think about as planters enter a city, how can they learn some of the obstacles and some of the opportunities that they will have for Gospel engagement?
- Yeah, I think one of the greatest ways is to connect with both the official and the unofficial gatekeepers of their city. - [Tony] Hmm. - These people that have a deep knowledge of this city that wanna give it to you for free.
- [Tony] Yeah. - In mission and classes and seminary and bible college, we call these people or persons of peace, and I think there's a number of them that every church planter and his team can connect with. Here's just a few of them that God threw into our path.
Number one is realtors. Realtors have the pulse on everything. What has happened, what is happening, what will happen.
They know people and they love the place 'cause they're trying to sell houses. Connect with them and they'll give you a tour of the entire community and give you a history. Coffee shop and restaurant owners, they know people buy their first names.
All the locals. They are customer-first in their mentality, so they know what people want or people long for, so they're able to give you a pulse on the idols, the heart idols of the community. School administrators.
Even if public education isn't what your family chooses, schools are the hub of the majority of the community. So much happens there. We reached out to schools to find out what their greatest needs were and we had so many inroads to families and businesses in our community because that school was a hub.
Committees and council leaders. They're are people that have either been given or have taken responsibility for aspects of the community. They love the community and want it to be a better place, and so they lead councils and they lead committees.
And what we did in our core team, we encompassed four neighborhoods, and wherever we lived, we joined these councils and committees, so I joined the Arts Council of Lafayette Square and I was on the team that planned every single event in that park on a yearly basis. That was entertainment and concerts and shows that families would come to by the droves, and it positioned us to use our core team to serve, to volunteer free food and drinks, entertainment for the kids and games. And we got to have so many Gospel conversations about this new church that's coming and make disciples that eventually led to Bible studies and the launching of a church.
And then finally, I would say city officials. - Hmm. - Every city has these city officials that give their lives to make this a better place, and they are begging and sometimes even praying for other people to care at the level they do.
Some cities have a city manager you can connect with. Our city, the way it was divided in governed it, it had an alderman. And so we connected with our alderman and we said, "We wanna help you with whatever the problems are.
" And she said to us, "Hey, no one wants to take responsibility for the alleyways. . They're dirty and there's broken glass and they're dangerous.
" So, we as a team, went out and we began to clean up those alleyways and invite neighbors into it. And we had so many Gospel conversations and invitations, and then a couple months later, anything that we wanted, the alderman would fight tooth and nail to make sure we had, because she knew that we cared for the city the same way that she did. And so, these gatekeepers for us are the way in.
- And that's really good, practical advice. What I'm hearing you say is like, the need to be a listener, to be a learner in order to be an effective missionary, to exegete your city, to have these meetings with those in leadership so that you can learn, so that you can provide answers to people's deepest questions. - Absolutely.
- But to go in as a learner is the posture that we need, right? Lastly, how can church planters lead their team to engage the various domains God has them in? So, talk a minute about these domains.
- Yeah, I think one of the most practical ways that we do this is, you gotta get your team together and help them to see that God has chosen them to be a missionary too. They're not following you in as the missionary, they are missionaries. You as a team are the missionary to this city, and so I think you do this at the core team stage, and then continue to do this in stages as a church, is you get your whole team together and you read Act 17 and you show people how God has ordained their boundaries, their barriers.
There are allotted times to put them where he's put them and then to ask them either in small groups of three to five or individually. You can do these on tear sheets so people can walk around and see them to write down all the domains that you are connected to personally or your family's life. All the tributaries of life, education, sports, entertainment, relationships, whatever might be.
Write all of those down and then report back to each other as a team. Or if you're groups, give time for people to go and look at all these tear sheets on the wall and then come back and say, "Okay, now, based on what we've just learned, what are the ones you have a passion for, that not only you're involved in, but you say, I'm not giving this up? The Lord has given me a burden.
" And then you put a asterisk or a star next to those, or again, report back or walk around and see all the domains that exist. And then here's the third thing. The most important step is to then break everything down into three categories.
There's your thing, my thing or their thing, and then our thing. So, if somebody has a personal passion that maybe nobody else is excited about, but they are, they'll say, "This is deep in my heart and I'm not giving this up. " You wanna equip them to make a move towards that missionally.
If there's a couple things that maybe two or three people, they're passionate about, you team them up together and say, "God has equipped you guys to go and attack this thing with passion and energy. " But if there's something that stands out, that maybe half your team, or a number of people in your church are passionate about, that is probably something God is saying, "I have uniquely equipped you as a church to give attention to" and that becomes our thing. - Hmm.
- And when those are the things that you begin to identify, God has not only given us gifting, he's given us momentum to begin to address. - Excellent. Grateful for your leadership, brother.
Thanks for your time today, and some really good wisdom, really important things for us to apply as we think about how we enter cities that we may engage the city with the Gospel.
