God's Four-Part Call to Reach the West
Editor’s Note: How to Reach the West Again is Timothy Keller and City to City’s book on starting a new missionary encounter with Western culture. We invited ministers from around the world to respond to, extend, and engage that vision.
I rejoice in (and am greatly helped by) the comprehensive awareness of our cultural situation that fills Tim Keller’s How to Reach the West Again. I have not encountered anything so immediately helpful for our present time and situation. I say a hearty “Amen!” to this prophetic word.
I read this message as a call from God in at least four areas. It is a call to pray for the church in the city; a call to actively evangelize the city; a call to arms; and a call to repent of our defensive hostility and our indifference to the lost.
1. God is calling us to pray for the church in the city
Prayer deserves to be front and center for any call to win the West. Tim has much he could say about his own prayer practices in reaching a city as vast as New York. As a keen observer of his ministry’s early years, I noticed how Redeemer Presbyterian Church—and later, City to City—was launched with earnest, united prayer.
The call to kingdom prayer is indispensable in any endeavor to retake lost territory. Prayer ignites our passion for God, our love for his church, and our compassion for our lost neighbor. In prayer, we immediately and profoundly engage the city—its powers, structures, poverty, rebelliousness, and supposed self-sufficiency. In prayer, we turn the soil of hearts in preparation for evangelism. Prayer leads to urban renewal through doing justice and mercy (Isaiah 58:9ff). As Martin Luther said, “Prayer enacts the gospel.”
2. God is calling us to preach Christ publicly
The book refers to evangelizing through proclamation in several places, but it would be helpful to expand on why and how to evangelize. Again, the early history of Redeemer provides helpful background, as it is replete with stories of effective evangelism. The original core group included a number of evangelists as well as new converts. As I recall, when the church was around 800 members during one of the early years, this included 200 new professions of faith!
Just because the West is post-Christian doesn’t mean that we have to hesitate before sharing the gospel or calling people to repentance and faith. Faithful presence and practicing justice and mercy provide fertile soil for effective evangelism, but we do not have to hold back our words. In the hostile, syncretistic context of the first century, Paul and the apostles preached Christ and the coming judgment publicly before any faithful presence was possible.
Indeed, because we live in the post-Christian West, there are actually increasing numbers of people that have not heard the message and are often surprised by the hope and power of the gospel. Recently at one of Prayer Current’s events, we took groups of 15-20 people for outings in downtown Vancouver to practice “prayer evangelism.” We engaged with more than 40 people in meaningful—sometimes tearful—conversations, and 35 people welcomed us to pray with them and gladly received a presentation of the gospel. Those immersed in the barren wasteland of secularism often intuit the empty despair of a life without God.
I have had hundreds of conversations with seekers, often cold-calling them or just getting to know people, with very positive results. Indeed, wherever the gospel is advancing around the globe, growth is led by a vast vanguard of personal evangelists empowered with prayer. We have seen remarkable growth, especially in Cuba and India, and have heard many examples of effective street-witnessing in China.
I believe this is Tim’s strongest gift. He is an evangelist. A piercing apologetic informs the content of evangelism, but we need to go beyond this to call people to repentant faith in Jesus Christ.
Even today, the profound impact of Tim’s sermons and writings on effective evangelism is clear. Almost all of his sermons and books are written with a view toward the seeker and unbeliever. I am never embarrassed to pass them on to seeking friends. An effective evangelist blends their biblical and theological insight with a keen awareness of culture, while casting their line with a sympathetic confrontation of the unbeliever. This is what will set us apart from the many cloistered voices in Christian writing and truly reach people.
Side Note: Evangelism and prayer prepare the way for faithful presence.
I believe scripture presents a general argument that bold and effective evangelism precedes the leaven and salt influence of the kingdom. Paul took the gospel into synagogues, homes, and public places to start the harvest. Edwards and Whitefield were at the vanguard of revival and renewal. In other words, cultural renewal in awakening follows and is consequent to the radical incursion of the gospel.
When it comes to faithful presence, bringing prayer into our public square and places of work is essential. In our ministry at Prayer Current, we rejoice that doors are opening to bring prayer into the public sphere. For example, we bring training on kingdom prayer to a group of Christian lawyers in Winnipeg, who now meet regularly to pray for the judiciary in Canada. On two separate occasions, we have spent a day of prayer and prayer training with the staff of one of the largest public housing organizations in British Columbia. They are faith-based but publicly-funded, so they cannot proselytize until they are asked, yet they meet daily to pray and often are able to pray with tenants. One Canadian industrialist tells us he now believes he is called to be an evangelist and that he finds opportunities to pray with and for his employees.
3. God is calling us to arms
In Canada (where I live) and throughout the West, there is a growing need to recover the framework for city mission. In scripture, the church’s engagement with the world is often described in unashamedly military language. Dennis Johnson’s commentary on Acts shows how it is the New Testament parallel to the conquest in the days of Joshua. In a sense, the early church was a conquering army and the enemies of the gospel were confounded and scattered. As one Chinese pastor I know put it, “When we pray as they did in Acts 4:23, we cease to be a captive people and become the conquering army of Christ” (cf. also Revelation 19:11-16).
Christians are increasingly surrounded by enemies of the gospel, yet appear strangely at ease. Détentes, truces, and finding common ground have a place, but these practices can lead to surrendering the field and often serve to endorse our present cultural assimilation. Perhaps more than ever, the church today is in a life-and-death war. The enemy intensifies his efforts as he realizes his time is short (Revelation 12:12). Our weapons are powerful and spiritual; we are to tear down every stronghold and argument that sets itself against Christ, expelling them through prayer as well as bold gospel proclamation (2 Corinthians 10:3-6). This battle requires the weapons and armor of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:10-20).
The church needs to heed the call to man the ramparts and intercede for the land (2 Chronicles 7:14, Isaiah 62:6-7). Individually and collectively, we need to remember that God’s judgment is a reality for unbelievers and is approaching rapidly. “Repent, the kingdom of God is at hand (Matthew 4:17).”
4. God is calling us to repentance
Until and unless the church repents, it will not be able to change the world. 2 Chronicles 7:14 says, “If my people confess their wickedness… I will heal their land.” Repentance begins with the household of God.
Tim is clear that the church is growing weaker, and that a return to strength and influence will involve radical change and deeper discipleship. This goes beyond understanding the surrounding culture. There is too little church in the world because there is too much world in the church. To put it another way, how can a lukewarm church ignite the fire of faithful presence? If the salt has lost its saltiness, what is useful for?
“There is too little church in the world because there is too much world in the church.”
Tim points out how both self-righteous moralism and cultural assimilation destroy our witness. Manifesting attitudes of hostility to the surrounding world or indifference to the fate of the lost equally disqualify us from the right to share Christ. These are not only ineffective attitudes. They are counter to the Spirit of Christ. We need to renounce our sinful dispositions before we can carry the good news to our neighbors.
Revival begins with repentance. Repentance begins with the household of God.
All of this—prayer, preaching Christ, the calls to arms, and repentance—reflect and deepen our love for the cities we call home. The most eloquent of all proofs of Jesus’s care for cities is his moving lament and sorrow for Jerusalem:
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. 38 Look, your house is left to you desolate.
—Matthew 23:37-38
When Jesus weeps for Jerusalem, his tears testify his undying love for the city. He grieves for Jerusalem as for a lover; he weeps for her as a mother for her child.
If we share the heart of Jesus, we too will learn to love and pray for our cities, too.
About the Author
John Smed and his wife, Caron, have planted two churches in Canada. He also directed church planting for Mission to North America for seven years and helped found Grace Network Canada. In 2012, Prayer Current: making disciples through prayer, was formed. They bring prayer training for urban mission to church planters, campus ministers, pastors, evangelists and network teams throughout North America, Cuba, and Asia.