Book Review on ministry in the Urban Cities

Bakke, Raymond. The Urban Christian: Effective Ministry in Today’s Urban World.
Downers, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1987.

Is there a perfect mission method or strategy for city evangelization? What should we know the racial complexity of the urban city dwellers so that we can without racial discrimination reach or communicate the Gospel to people in the cities? How can we effectively do ministry in the urban cities? Why do we need to emphasize evangelization in the urban cities? Raymond Bakke has a Norwegian Lutheran background and who later become a Baptist pastor serving the Lord Jesus Christ in the urban city of Chicago. He has articulated profound ministry strategies and methods for effective Gospel communication in the urban cities based on his pastoral and academic experiences. He has narrated the complexity of the urban cities like Chicago and provided some excellent detailed information about the people (groups or races or classes or levels) who live in the sophisticated cities around the world. He has also written it by the biblical and theological understandings.
The thesis of this book, I hope, is:
that my urban pastor colleagues could best find meaning in their otherwise buffeting and discouraging circumstances if they understood the true significance of their roles. They needed to concentrate on their local congregations or neighborhoods, but they also needed to widen their visual lenses in order to see the whole world was coming to their cities. For the first time in nearly 2000 years of Christian history, we could speak realistically of the global mission of local churches. (9)
In another word, Raymond Bakke wanted pastors or ministers in the urban cities understand their significant ministries for diverse people from all over the country come to the cities to search for a better life. Thus, they are going to minister all races/groups of people in their local churches. It is really true that we can see all colors of people in the cities. Bakke also has struggled between “theory and practice” in the pastoral ministry. (10) However, he answered by saying “good theory is good practice and the best theory of all comes from honest and disciplined reflection on personal and public ministry action.” (10) One of the purposes of this book is “to show how a person extrapolates principles from practice.” (10)
As Bakke pointed out “the city is less of a place and more of a process” where people migrate or emigrate from various places so that cities around the world will be drastically increased in number. Urbanization can be seen around the world as technologies can be easily accessed, higher education can be received and jobs can be found in the urban cities. Moreover, the birth-rate of babies in the world will cause a dramatic growth of urban city population. Everybody one purpose or another desires to live in the urban cities. I was in Tokyo, Japan in 2005 for my field education and I saw how populated the city of Tokyo is. I also was Manila and I saw how crowded and polluted city is. For example, it is true that “the United States is a country of immigrants” where people from every continent have been coming together since it is found. (33) Refugees of war, persecution, economy, and others are still coming to the United States of America for a better life.
I agree with Bakke that pastors in “Two-Third World” where Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism are a state religion “stop evangelizing nonbelievers and find it much easier to proselytize others who name the name of Christ.”(48) A perfect example will be Myanmar pastors. Theravada Buddhism is the state religion and the military government does not allow Christian evangelization in the country. Thus, pastors who are planting churches plant by just gathering their own family members or relatives. There is rarely new believers add to the new church. There are church competition, denominational competition, and so forth. Most of the time, capital capability to help families will promote pastors and increases church members. Worst of all, those pastors who receive financial support from other parts of the world do not spend their mission money to evangelize or reach out the Gospel to the lost.
I also agree with Bakke that pastors should prioritize their ministerial tasks by one, two and three. As he arranged on page 120, pastors in the cities should their first priority “preaching and teaching the Scriptures so that people know who they are and what their mission is.” (120) Second, “pastoral care” should not be neglected because pastors are not only to feed their sheep with spiritual food but also physical care which the sheep needs in the church. Third, proper “administration” is necessary because pastors who cannot properly administrate their church ministry will end up in problems and conflicts in the ministry. Pastors with church committee or deacons should plan, organize, budget, delegate and make decisions so that the ministry of the church will run smooth. A pastor should not make decision without his church committees because the church committees are the back-bone of a church. He should delegate people in the church to various ministries, jobs and tasks so that there will be many participants in the ministry. Pastors must practice servant leadership model in their ministries because Christian ministry is different from secular organizations. Some pastors in Myanmar imitate military model of governing the country and so there is no really proper relationships between church members and pastors in the church. Fourth, as Christians who live in a community, pastors should encourage church members to build community up so that people will know the love of God through their lives and good works. These social works can be used as pre-evangelism and discipleship training. Fifth, as pastors in colorful and busy cities, they should allocate day(s) for family time to have outdoor recreation because pastors are also human beings who can feel stress, depress, and burn out by their busy ministries.