Here's a short 18 minute video on urban mission. Keller gives 10 characteristics of contextual churches.

You can also download his urban mission paper. Here's a quote from that paper.

"Biblically, an experience of saving grace through evangelism leads to radical sharing of wealth and helping the needy. And when the world sees this sharing, that there is “no needy among them,” (Acts 4:34) it leads to more powerful evangelistic witness (Acts 4:33). Thus doing justice and preaching grace go hand in hand, not only in the experience of the individual Christian but also in the ministry and effectiveness of the urban church."

I've been working my way through the audio now available from the recent DBTS conference on “Church, Kingdom, Mission: Understanding and Assessing the Missional Church Movement.” I was surprised to hear my name pop up on Dave Doran’s general session 3 on “The Gospel and Mission” (56:12) in which he references an article I wrote on SharperIron where I talked about homelessness. In the same session Dave critiques Tim Keller so I find myself in good company, company I find refreshing and challenging. Since Dave didn't quote me I can only guess that this may be what he refers to: “We confront homelessness, poverty, exploitation, injustice, crime-ridden streets, and gang violence as inimical to God’s already inaugurated, not-yet-consummated reign.” One of his arguments is that since Jesus didn't do anything about homelessness neither should we. Framed that way there's probably a lot we shouldn't do. I'm not overly concerned about telling others what their churches should do to gain a hearing for the gospel or what others think we should be doing.

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It is often pointed out that the Apostle Paul did not explicitly attack slavery in his day but regulated relationships between Christian masters and slaves. Closer to our times, Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), rightly acclaimed as one of the greatest theologians ever, was a slave owner. It appears that “though he defended the institution of slavery, Edwards nonetheless condemned the African slave trade” (The Great Theologians, 131). It is easier to see the inconsistencies of others rather than our own. Edwards didn’t always get it right and neither do we. However it ought to cause us to pause and reflect on social injustice in our time and see if we have blinders which need to be removed. Perhaps future generations will look back on our time and wonder why we didn’t get it with our false dichotomies, our enslavement to cultural forms of Christianity, our defense of the status quo, and the politicization of our faith where conservative politics and conservative Christianity often go hand in glove.

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Here in Philadelphia we have been blessed with several families and individuals who live in the suburbs and serve in the city. Ideally we would like to see some of them make the decision to move into the city in order to be fully incarnational in their witness. They are wonderful assets to the ministry and one of our elders leads a Grace Group (small group) in the suburbs to help keep them connected. We do encourage Christians to consider if God might have them make what for many would be a great sacrifice in relocating to the city. We find that single adults and younger couples are more open to this challenge and see their choice as response to a calling which involves sacrifice for the gospel of Christ rather than making career choices which lead to upward mobility. We realize Christians are at different points in their spiritual journey and in seasons of life which make change improbable.  It’s not our job to make that call for people and we are thrilled to have others serve alongside of us regardless of where they live.

The other night I ran into a pastor friend whom I hadn’t seen for some time. He asked about the church plant in Philly and I suggested he check out our web site. I knew his church has sensitivities which would preclude support and never sought support from the church. Later that day he sent an email telling me that his church could not cooperate with what we are doing since he holds to the doctrine of biblical music.  I did a double take. Doctrine of biblical music? I know the Bible says a great deal about music but wasn’t aware there was THE doctrine of biblical music. I don’t know if it was the guitars or djembe but after going on our web site and seeing some YouTube clips he determined that we don't hold to right doctrine of biblical music.  

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Missional churches often use "kingdom" language. We hear of "proclaiming the kingdom,” “extending the kingdom," or "kingdom values." This has morphed in the minds of some, critics and advocates alike, to "establishing the reign of God over society."  In my opinion this would be an inaccurate kingdom articulation. I prefer to say with N. T Wright that “we do not ‘build the kingdom’ all by ourselves, but we do build for the kingdom” (Surprised by Hope, 143). Jesus clearly inaugurated His reign at His first coming (Mark 1:1, 14-15) and no amount of exegetical gymnastics or other uses of the phrase "kingdom of God" can overturn that.  

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Churches which provide meals or other services for the poor and homeless are open to the criticism of being mercenary.  To be mercenary has the idea of doing something merely for gain, for self-interest. Imagine mercenary churches which make poor people listen to a message before they eat.  The underlying motive might be that the church hopes to gain converts from making people sit through preaching. By providing food you may be buying a hearing for the gospel. I have heard this objection to mercy ministries raised although I'm not sure the critics have ever served at a homeless outreach. Does that applies to youth groups who have a pizza event and make suburban teens listen to a message before eating? However one may feel about churches feeding or clothing the needy the charge of mercenary is outrageous.

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The Lord gave us a great day yesterday in allowing Grace Church to baptize three believers. One of those baptized was a young lady I mentioned in an earlier blog who had recently been saved. One of the men baptized we had met at a homeless outreach several months ago. He now serves alongside of us. How wonderful it is to see God at work in our city!

p.s. We took down the video for security purposes. One person was from a closed country.

For the last few years I‘ve had the opportunity to teach in Beirut, Lebanon. I was on my way there in July 2006 when the Israeli-Hezbollah War broke out. The runways at the Beirut Airport were bombed and I was stuck in Paris for a week. There could be worse places to be stuck! When I speak in American churches about ministry in Beirut I am asked if it is dangerous and if I ever feel afraid. My tongue-in-cheek response is that I'm not afraid in Beirut because I grew up in Philadelphia and usually am oblivious to danger around me until after the fact when I hear it on the news. In reality, apart from the occasional bomb that went off in Beirut during my visits, I usually felt quite safe (except once in Hezbollah territory on my way to Baalbek when I thought we were being followed). 

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Church planters must come to grips with the reality that there is no guarantee of success in church planting if by success they think of having a large, self-supporting church with its own facilities, etc. God measures success differently and considers faithfulness the measure of ministry success. I have witnessed the birth of churches which have folded after a year or two for various reasons – lack of finances, discouragement, and family problems to name a few. It is important to go into church planting with confidence in God and not depend on your own abilities, strategy, models, or marketing.  All of these may have a place but dependence on them may lead to reliance on what you are doing and thinking that you can plant a church because you have the training, finances, and previous ministry experience. Jesus said that He would build His church. We get to be co-laborers with Him!