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Vineyard USA

March 2008

We Followers of Christ Must Love Our Cities

It is not to be taken for granted that we Christians necessarily love the cities that God has placed us in. As a Christian leader, I know that many of us Christian leaders love our ministries. We may love to preach, to counsel, or to lead. We Christian leaders love our churches. We (should) love the people in our churches. Christian leaders often love what God has done in our churches' lives. And we may even love the movement that we are a part of.

But I don't see that many followers of Christ, or Christian leaders, who love the communities to which God has called us. I personally had to go through a conversion regarding our community. I've always loved Vineyard Columbus, but to be perfectly honest, for the first 10-15 years of my ministry, my goal was to build a great church. It was not to help to create a great city. In fact, I must sadly confess that I was not in love with this city. I found myself in Columbus as a result of attending law school at Ohio State (and then teaching at OSU). But there were a number of features of this city that I really didn't like.

I didn't like the absence of ethnic diversity. I missed ethnic foods. I didn't like the absence of the arts. I didn't like the fact that we aren't near any beaches. I missed professional baseball.

But over the past decade God has spoken to me over and over again that followers of Christ have to go beyond our own preferences, our own ministries, and our own churches and pray God's love for our city into our hearts. One of my favorite verses in this regard is Jeremiah 29.7, Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.

We followers of Jesus, who have grown in God's love for our community, see that the prosperity and future health of our own church is tied to the prosperity and future health of the city to which we've been called. If our city is drowning in immorality, then the people in our church will drown in immorality. If our city is having a hard time financially, then the people in our church will have a hard time financially. If the city is having a hard time with crime or education, then our church, including our children, will also suffer.

My prayer is that the Mayor of Columbus (as well as the mayors of our suburban communities), our school boards, our city councils, our school superintendents, and everyone else, who is in a position of significant influence and power would turn to Vineyard Columbus when they wanted to find a real friend in our city. My prayer is that if anyone in a position of influence in business, in government, in media, in the arts or education felt that they needed prayer, or spiritual counsel, they would be able to turn to Vineyard Columbus for the help they needed.

What is God's program for Central Ohio? 2700 years ago, Isaiah the prophet provided us with a picture of what a city would be like, if it experienced the influence of God's Kingdom. Here are seven things that we should pray for for our community as we seek its peace and prosperity:

According to Isaiah, if Central Ohio began to experience God's shalom (peace):

There would be public celebrations and happiness across our city. Isaiah states in Is 65:17-18, See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy.
There would be public health for children and the aged. Is 65:20, Never again will there be in it infants who live but a few days, or older people who do not live out their years; those who die at a hundred will be thought mere youths; those who fail to reach a hundred will be considered accursed.
There would be housing for all. Is 65:21, They will build houses and dwell in them;
There would food for all. Is 65.21, ... they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
There would be meaningful work for all who wished to work. Is 65:22-23, No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people; my chosen ones will long enjoy the work of their hands. They will not labor in vain...
There would be support for families so that families would not disintegrate. Is 65:23, They will not labor in vain, nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune; for they will be a people blessed by the Lord, they and their descendants with them.

There would be an absence of violence in our community. Is 65:25, "The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but dust will be the serpent's food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain," says the Lord.

Will you dream with me about the day when the thousands of people, who call Vineyard Columbus their church home, fall in love with our city? Would you pray with me that God's desires for our city would be fulfilled? Again, as the Lord spoke to Jeremiah more than two millennia ago in Jeremiah 29:7, Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper - This is a promise that God is making to us here in Vineyard Columbus. Let's claim this promise for our city and for ourselves!

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