God of this City

One of the newer songs that Hillcrest's worship team has been teaching us is the song "God of this City" (and they do an excellent job with it!). It's also being played some on Christian radio as well. It's a great song whose lyrics really challenge those who follow Christ to follow the God of this city into seeking good and blessing for the city.

The fact that the song is getting airplay and now being used as a worship anthem across many churches is interesting to me because the song's implications are somewhat controversial. To follow the God of this city is to seek good for the city, to engage it, to believe that God wants to use his followers to impact it. And yet there seems to be an ongoing tension within Christendom between those who seek the good of a city and those who are still fearful of the negative outcomes of what they call the 'culture war'.

In Understanding Leadership, the author Tom Marshall cites John Greenleaf who says that the problem with our society today is that nobody loves the institutions. Marshall continues his argument by saying "(that Greenleaf) is right, and this I fear, is particularly true of Christians. We fear and dislike the structural powers; we are both overawed and repelled by them. We submit to them and sometimes realize we are being seduced by them and bought by them. We rail against their evil and we criticize and condemn their failings, but we do not care for them, and care is nothing than love in action" (209).

I resonate with this passage because of its truth that as a Christ-follower I an be pretty quick to judge and condemn- such an oxymoron (judgmental Christ-follower) but unfortunately an image that is all too common today. And when I do this, when I judge the system, the structure, the culture, the city, I in essence overlook the responsibilities I have in serving the city, and more importantly, loving the people of the city. I think this is further proof of the truth that issues such as advocacy, education, and community organization are much more difficult than those of referral or direct service.

Organizations and institutions are not perfect. Following the God of this city does not mean that we always ought to go along with what they advocate or say; far from it. But if we hope to have some level of influence or change on a school, on a neighborhood, on a city, that change will generate not from a fear or a disdain of the city, but rather a care and a love for it, and more specifically, for its people.