I recently read an article written by an author with a burden for reaching cities. He shares about a week of violence in his city which included a high school student being gunned down at a barbeque, a hopeless mother throwing two of her small children off a bridge, and a distraught father in the process of divorce tragically taking his life and the lives of his three young children. Sharing about the urgency of reaching our cities with the hope that can only be found in Jesus Christ, the author then makes this statement:  “Jesus calls us to go to our cities as home missionaries to reach the homeless, the hungry, and the addicted…”

My question is very simply this: How does reaching the homeless, hungry and addicted help the very ones in crisis mentioned in the article, of whom none were homeless, hungry or addicted? Yet, this is the philosophy that occupies the majority of our discussions about ministry in the city.

What about:

• Dysfunctional families

• Generational cycles of abuse and neglect

• Illiteracy

• Joblessness (In some inner city communities, unemployment is 35-45 percent. The unemployment rate in Detroit is now 23.4 percent.)

• Disease (In our community in the South Bronx, 25 percent of expectant mothers are HIV+. Asthma is rampant and tuberculosis is on the rise.)

• Inadequacies in educational institutions  (On the average, a 75 percent high school drop-out rate is present in the inner city communities of our nation.)

• And the greatest ill in the city, fatherlessness.

Yes, we must reach the homeless, hungry and addicted. But for change to come to suffering inner city communities, we must reach those who are not homeless, hungry and addicted, such as abused and neglected children, disenfranchised youth, broken families, single-mothers trying to raise their children in a hostile environment, the illiterate, the unemployed, and the many unreached immigrants God has brought our cities. The condition of our cities is worsening, and in the process, more young lives are being lost and forgotten.  We must think more holistically and not focus the majority of our energies and resources on one small percentage of the hurting populations in our cities.

We must listen to and serve those who are in the city. At a recent seminar, a suburban pastor shared about how his church was preparing to randomly bring sandwiches and used clothing to homeless in the inner city. They were taking initiative with a very popular and visible method of urban outreach, but the focus was not on serving a resident ministry established in the inner city for the long haul. Two pastors and one church leader who had worked in the inner city for decades stood and pleaded, “Please don’t. You’re not helping us.” Initiative is wonderful, but we must focus on serving those who have the wisdom and experience of years in the trenches of the inner city, honoring those whom God has called to affect change in the urban environment.

Compassionate outreach is an imperative in reaching the poor. True compassion empowers and propels urban citizens toward the fulfillment of their divinely-ordained destinies. Our 19 years in some of the worst communities in our nation have formed a theology of urban ministry that is devoted to community transformation. It is our desire to bring change one person and one family at a time, to penetrate the gates of hell with hope, and to send out a cry for others to live lives that refuse to maintain a distance from the reality of human pain wherever people are lost and hurting.

We must hear the hearts of those devoting their lives reach the hurting in our cities. We must be better stewards and not expend our resources and energies placing band aids on the cancerous wounds of the inner city. We must seek to employ strategic principles and methods that will work toward long-term change and serve those in the city whom God called and placed there as the “strong and graceful oaks for His own glory” that through them “the ruined cities will be restored” (Isaiah 61:4-5).