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CityVision - a strategy for our cities and regions

by Reinhold Scharnowski

Human history, as we see both around us and in the Bible, starts in a garden and ends in a city. That's hardly a revelation, but spiritually of great importance. 174 million people live in the world's twelve largest cities. 94% of North Americans, 80% of Russians, 74% of South Americans and 73% of Europeans now live in towns or cities. For the first time in history, the world is more urban than rural. For a long time, towns and cities were associated with a curse and sin. Christians, and with them, their churches, moved to the suburbs. Today, that is changing; leaders and their churches are learning that the cities are a mission area. The "Transformation" video shows impressive examples of changing cities. What can God do with our cities and regions? What is already happening, what could still happen? What should happen, and where can we start?

A nation - city by city

How do you eat an elephant? By cutting it into small pieces, correct. How do we win or saturate a whole nation? By dividing it into manageable units. The truth is that very few people have the vision or task of reaching an entire nation, but towns or regions are units with which most Christians and church leaders can identify.

In the 1990's, a number of books were published on this topic, and initiatives started. Authors such as John Dawson, George Otis, Ted Haggard and Ed Silvoso demonstrated the spiritual importance of cities. Jack Dennison started to apply the DAWN strategy to cities with his City Reaching concept. It is important that we resist the temptation to simply adopt a programme or model "which worked" in Argentina or elsewhere. As usual, the aim is not to copy the models but to comprehend the principles and then, led by the Holy Spirit, creatively apply them to our own area.

Some personal observations

In the region where I live, I see many trends which are also happening elsewhere. Some of the most important are:

Denominational barriers are falling. Normal church members generally have no problem with attending conferences, seminars or other events organised by other churches or for a region. Unity is no longer a theory or the pastor's job.
As a result, a growing number of Christians have a local focus. Particularly for the under-40's, it is no longer important to which denomination they belong; identity and task are increasingly linked to a town or region, across church boundaries.
The charismatic/non-charismatic divide is of diminishing importance, even if it has not yet been completely overcome.
A weariness of institutions is clearly apparent, particulary among active church members. Many recognise that traditional church structures are about as effective as an Edison lightbulb, producing 95% heat and 5% light, despite the fact that it is there to light the room, not heat it.
On the other hand - or perhaps for exactly that reason - a growing number of Christians are investing in their neighbourhood in the form of neighbourhood prayer groups, cell and house churches. The desire for fewer church events, making time for the world around us, is growing.
More and more Christians are recognising that the expectation that one church should be all things to all people is unrealistic, and can be fulfilled by extremely large churches at best. Various churches are recognising that they have a particular gift and can use it to complement the gifts of other local churches.
A new generation is creating its own forms of church. The era of the classical youth group is over, and church-like structures for young people are springing up.

These trends - which have been visible for years to some degree - are interwoven and reinforce each other. Throughout Europe, they are moving in the same direction. In a growing number of cities:

pastors and leaders are meeting, becoming friends and corporately taking responsibility for their town or region.
Christians from many different churches are gathering for prayer for blessing, healing and change in their city.
there is a growing sense of the "local body of Christ", which is increasingly being expressed in united meetings and events.

The process of reaching, saturating and transforming a city starts when the Christians realise that God sees only one Body of Christ in the city, and start to act as that one Body, taking spiritual responsibility for that city.

Wine and wineskins, or the interaction of spiritual and structural renewal

In recent months, I've met an astonishing number of Christians who are in some way on the outside of the structures, searching, unsure, sometimes hurt, but open and waiting. A large number of them are middle-aged or older. Something like a spiritual mid-life crisis caused them to start asking "What have I achieved with my years of effort? And what became of the many great promises?" We're setting our hopes more and more in the revival. Prayer, fasting and desire for revival are growing, along with an expectation and prophecies of new wine. But many are asking themselves whether it is not also time to be talking about new wineskins. What if revival is more dependent on structures than we have previously realised? What if we must reach not only "higher into heaven" but also "more down to earth"? The fact is that structures - the "organisation" in "organism" - have a far greater influence on the effectiveness of the church than many "spiritual" people recognise (see for example Christian Schwarz' Natural Church Growth). Structural change is by very nature difficult, but I am convinced that we would make dramatic progress towards the desired and prayed-for revival if we would start asking ourselves questions like

How can we give the Body of Christ in our city more effective structures?
What can we merge, where is the potential for synergy, how can we save time and money?
How can the church become slimmer and fitter to serve the world?
What can we do better corporately than alone?

What does our nation really look like?

The situation in Switzerland

Switzerland has a number of cities with active pastors' and leaders' networks. The meetings generally have the following focus or aims:

unity
prayer
counselling each other
renewal and revival
occasionally an in limited scope: united actions

Those are very encouraging signs, and an enormous progress compared with only twenty years ago. Standard accusations such as "Christians even fight each other" or "they steal each others' sheep" are certainly less true today than before. We have learnt to talk with each other; leaders take a step out of their isolation and become friends. Prayer with and for each other is a foundation on which more can be built, and the spirit of prayer is generally increasing.

Naturally, the process is not friction-free: new problems and challenges arise in any process of becoming one. Conversations with those involved have revealed the following weak points:

Everyone has a different understanding of revival, filled with their own dreams.
Various expectations - from "united prayer" to "fellowship", "counselling one another", and "inviting Bonnke", the whole spectrum is represented. Who sets the direction?
Extra work for preachers: if there is no common strategy, the pastors' meetings are quickly seen as simply another event and more work for preachers.
Visionaries leave: people who want to see change can be bored by preachers' meetings. I've heard comments such as "We always discuss the same things, but without result" a number of times.

On the one hand, we can view such points as normal, but they can also be a sign that we haven't yet recognised God's clear vision for the city. From time to time, perhaps during a retreat, we catch another glimpse of it, but in daily church business, high aims can easily be overseen.

We need a paradigm shift

A vision for the city requires a paradigm shift - a transformation of our thinking processes for the future. A new age demands a new way of looking at our churches, our cities and our task. I'm convinced that this shift is worth it, and would like to try to describe it with the following seven theses:

1. From a peaceful "come to us" to an offensive going

We no longer live in the relative peace of a Christian age, but in war. There is no lasting neutral ground; our post-Christian society will rapidly become anti-Christian. Andrew Wells writes "It is too late to view Western society as 'fallen below Christian standards' and to attempt to bring it back through sermons and convincing arguments. We must learn to think and act like mission agencies, which have worked in non-Christian cultures for centuries, developing ways of understanding them, entering them, studying them and bringing the gospel in their language."

It is astonishing, how many churches still have a "come to us and find God"-mentality. God is quite clear:

"Go and make disciples," said Jesus;
the shepherd "goes" to seek the lost sheep (leaving 99 sheep alone in the process!);
the woman turns her house upside down looking for one coin;
the yeast of the gospel is kneaded into the world with great effort;
"How should they hear, if noone goes to tell them?" - and how should they see, if it is not made visible?

If we want to reach the city, individual churches must see themselves as offensive outposts of the Kingdom of God, and find practical ways to express that in their daily business. Where that does not happen, pastors' prayer meetings will also be inward-focused. Let's not forget: the church is the only society founded for the good of non-members! City-wide processes must serve the whole city, and not just organise the Christians a little better.

2. From individual churches to a true local church

Most Christians agree that the church is both local and universal. The local church consists of believers who attend the services, while the universal church encompasses all believers around the globe. In the New Testament, though, we can clearly see a third structure which is now being rediscovered around the world: the church of the city. Rex Koivisto writes "In the New Testament, there are three basic dimensions of church: the believers who regularly meet in a house church; the believers who occasionally meet as the entire church in a locality; and the entire fellowship of believers, which cannot meet in one place, but of which every believer is a part."

In Romans 16, Paul greets "the church in the houses" several times, but writes the letter to "the believers in Rome". I am convinced that God sees only one church in a locality, which has many different meeting places. Paul, of course, was in the enviable position of living in a time before denominations and confessions. But I am convinced that the expression "the believers in Rome (Corinth, Houston, Zurich, Thun)" is more than just a historical coincidence; most Christians can identify with their home town or region; it is the place where we are first and most naturally witnesses, where we seek the good of the city. Even in the internet age, personal relationships are normally regional.

(In the 1970's, Witness Lee's "local church" movement over-emphasised this Biblical truth, founding "The church of ..." in many cities. That did not bring unity, but rather simply added another group to the multi-faceted local church. That cannot be the way forward. Today, the question of the local church is of renewed importance, quite simply because the general public frequently only sees the Christians' inexplicable disunity, and because most Christians do not understand the differences between the various groups).

The Biblical witness is quite clear: the 'local' (city or regional) church is the largest structural unit known in the New Testament. That is no coincedence: locally, Christians are able to develop a common conscience and act corporately. Even at provincial level, such as a county, that becomes far more difficult. Particularly in a time in which new house cells, house churches and neighbourhood groups are developing, this city view is important for creating a Body of Christ identity and prevent atomisation of the local church. This common identity gives the smaller groups a public identity: "We belong to the regional church of ..."

A common identity can also benefit traditional churches and free churches, giving them a new, gift-oriented importance: church A is strong in social work, church B has an excellent Bible school, church C is particularly prophetic, and church D has a number of visionary youth leaders. Why must every church have its own youth group? What would happen if the city church decided to start a powerful youth church for the lost generation, with the city's best youth leaders?

Do we need revival or strategies?

"We need more prayer, not more strategies."

That sounds good, doesn't it? Statements like that are 'in' at the moment, and are often applauded. But are they true? I think an attitude "either strategy or prayer" is a dangerous dead-end:

1. We don't have any strategies yet!
At city or national level, we may have a good idea or two, and a couple of tactical methods, such as the Alpha Course, but we hardly have any strategies, in the all-encompassing, long-term sense.
One of the reasons, particulary in Switzerland, is the lack of true leadership at city level. We are good at allowing everyone to contribute, but often bad at orchestrating the contributions to become a choir. Either nobody wants to take responsibility for a servant leadership, or they are democratically neutralised with all sorts of concerns. How many courageous initiatives are stopped because someone has a problem with some aspect or another? Building something which lasts in a federal system is a real challenge!

This either/or which I encounter again and again is also a sign of

2. The spiritual-technocratic dilemma
Christian Schwarz explained the following process a little: as soon as something seemsdoable , people show up who tell us "we primarily need more prayer. It's not about organisation, but about organism." And everyone nods and bows their heads to pray. How often have I experienced that! Of course, prayer is decisive, and the source of all things, but I can't shake off the suspicion that it's an opt-out solution, because we haven't yet reached agreement in the strategic discussion (which we often didn't even seriously hold). As a result, many things are left hanging in the air - and in different places: the one group is upstairs praying madly (even if they don't really know what's going on), and the others are downstairs in the office, planning for all they're worth (and hoping that God will bless it).
We must recognise the trap of the spiritual-technocratic dilemma! It wastes much of the Body of Christ's energy. The "Ora" (listening) and "Labora" (working) must both become a natural part of spiritual planning.

3. From a false either-or to Biblical Cooperation

In the picture of the five-fold ministry, the New Testament gives us clear help in understanding that we should not see ministries as opposing or competing, but as complementary. Paul prays that the church would recognise "the length, breadth, height and depth" - we should not think and live one-dimensionally. In order to advance the Kingdom of God in our cities, we need to think and look multi-dimensionally, and find ways to use the various gifts in synergy, not neutralise them with either/ors.
To put it plainly: I think that the spiritual leadership in every city has people gifted in each of the five directions:

Upwards: the prophets and intercessors
People who live far into the unseen, are strong in prayer and able to hear and recognise God's current instructions

Forwards: the "apostles"
People who develop innovative and strategic plans, and pioneers who develop new structures, often across church boundaries.

To the right: the evangelists
People who are able to communicate the Gospel in our culture in such a way that it is understood.

To the left: the shepherds
People who care for the wellbeing of others, particularly in the Body of Christ.

Into the depths: the teachers
People who dig deep into the Word of God, and lead others in teaching and practice.

The inner circle is the city's leadership team. The shepherds are enormously important (counselling!), the teachers are needed to train others, and the evangelists develop effective ways of approaching people. However, if we want to make significant progress in our cities, we need to bring prophetic and apostolic giftings into synergy, particularly because they have such different directions. The "Ezras" (prayer leaders) and "Nehemias" (activists) must unite. Wolfgang Simson sums it up as: "Hear prophetically, act with apostolic strategy." Prophetic people set all their hopes on revival, which comes vertically from above. Apostolic people are interested in plans with substance. The two must learn to complement each other.

4. From tolerance to cooperation

If we truly understand the dynamics of God's Kingdom in a city, we won't simply tolerate each other and our various giftings; God gives us the task of combining our various gifts in dynamic cooperation. This can also be described as:

5. From fellowship to functional unity

We have made amazing progress in fellowship in our cities in recent years. Today, there is often less tension between various denominations than within any one of them. In my hometown, we have wonderfully united services, prayer meetings and youth events; we are clearly theologically and relationally more united than before. But we dare not stop there. "Alliance" is a wonderful word, but it does not mean drinking coffee together and being good friends, no matter how important that may be, but 'agreement for coordinated attack'. We strengthen our fellowship with worship nights, prayer meetings, Jesus Marches and church services in the local stadium. Those are good signs of unity, and perhaps even appear in the newspaper, but they don't change our cities. Carlos Mraida warns us against seeking unity for its own sake: "The focus of unity in the church must be our task," he writes. "As long as the focus of our church life is on teaching or particular experiences, we are bound to divide again." We must do all that we can to ensure good relationships with each other at all levels, but it is the task which Jesus gave us - reaching the lost in our city - which holds us together in the long term. The great advantage is that this form of unity requires neither control nor conformity; theological differences are possible. The unity gains its strength, direction and permanence from the task at hand.

6. From 'permanent evangelisation' to goal orientation

We must examine this task anew. Of course we will permanently evangelise until Jesus returns, but have we really ever thought about what we want to achieve in our city? What is our aim? Can we define it somehow? Very few of us will be able to express our aim the moment we are asked, but the New Testament seems to define our task as giving every person the opportunity to make an informed decision for or against Jesus. Logically, changed people mean changed structures and surroundings - but the aim remains the same: that the Kingdom of God breaks through.

I am convinced that an unclear (or even completely lacking!) understanding of what we want to achieve in our cities means that we will not evangelise with all our strength. Why put effort into something today, if tomorrow is just as good? Why such priority on the task of discipling if it's not going to be finished until Jesus' return, and we can't know how far we have got anyway?
It's not about mechanical, automatic aims, but in a growing number of cities, leaders are asking themselves "Where do we actually want to go? What does God want to do in our city? Can we determine how much of our task is completed? What does a city look like, in which the Kingdom of God has broken through?"
Goal-oriented thinking and working is different to muddling through. Steps suddenly become clear, priorities recognisable, and evangelisation in the city has a previously lacking long-term dynamism.

7. From tactical actions to long-term strategy

Then we realise that if we are goal-oriented, we're no longer focussed on tactics or single methods, but on developing a strategy. Strategy and tactics are military terms. The cool head behind the battle plan is often more important than the blazing gun in combat. A strategy is the all-encompassing plan for reaching an aim, with a long-term view. Tactical actions, such as an evangelistic crusade, an Alpha course, VIP services or distributing tracts are methods of implementing the strategy.

is goal-oriented - the target is clear;
establishes a framework in which every church can find its place;
sets priorities
guards against waste of energy
helps gauge our effectiveness
gives us the ability to say 'no' with a clear conscience

Typical questions which help us define our strategy are:

How do we manage our resources (people, time, money, gifts) wisely, so that we waste nothing, honour God and fulfill the Great Commission?
What if we do nothing, or continue as we are?
Where must we take the Gospel? Which parts of the population in our city are unreached?
Which parts of the population are most open for the Gospel, which are beginning to open, where should we concentrate our resources?
Which neighbourhoods, suburbs or groups have no access to an active church? How can we plant a 'demonstration of God's love' in each neighbourhood?
What is Satan doing in our city? Our strategy should not disregard the Enemy of God. Paul says "We are not unaware of Satan's schemes" (2. Cor 2:11). Where are the invisible blockages and centres of power?
Which churches have which particular strengths on which they should concentrate? It is not necessary for everyone to do everything.
What can we do better together than each alone? How can we put our resources to better use?

Our strengths can often be compared to a box of nails which someone emptied on the floor: pointing in all directions, with no apparent order. A strategy is like a magnetic field, bringing order and direction. Besides churches, businesspeople and para-church organisations, who generally like to think and invest strategically, become involved in the planning process. Priorities become clearer.

The power of information

How do we recognise these priorities? Confusion reigns where clear information is lacking. The truth sets us free. Before rebuilding the city, Nehemia collected information which helped him gain a clear picture of the task.

When we make the change from a 'come-to-us' to a 'go' mentality and pose the question of strategy, we must gather information in three areas:

the harvest field (society)
the harvest force (church)
the invisible realm

We must ask questions such as:

How many churches are there? How large are they, where, and what do they influence?
Where are there house, neighbourhood and prayer groups?
Which evangelistic methods are particularly effective?
What is the city's spiritual history? Where are blockages and debts from the past? Where are the centres of occult power?
How is the population developing?

We don't want information for its own sake - nobody is interested in simply collecting numbers. The information must be gathered and interpreted to form a prophetic message which is part of the strategy's foundation.

Back to Switzerland

In every city where I have asked, the leaders emphasise particularly that their unity is based on friendship, not events - one of them described that as 'revolutionary'. Spiritual leaders becoming friends is a very important process; they meet as people and brothers, not primarily in a particular function.

But if we do not want regional leaders' meetings to sink into harmlessness, we need a vision from God for our cities and regions which we can turn into long-term aims. It's about more than just the occasional city-wide service, prayer meetings and an evangelistic crusade every few years, no matter how good that may be; it's about a long-term, carefully considered and consistent strategy which we have received from God in prayer, with the aims of bringing more people to Christ, stopping the spiritual, moral and social decay which we see in many cities and making the Kingdom of God into a visible reality. Ted Haggard expresses it as "We have to make it hard for the people in our city to go to hell." We're not talking about making all the instruments the same, but about orchestrating a piece of music to which they can all contribute in their own beautiful diversity. Will we allow God's spirit to orchestrate the instruments in each church? Who can fulfill the Great Commission in our cities, if not the church which lives there? Who can seek the good of the city according to God's will, if not the united Body of Christ? I believe that God has called and equipped the church in the city to do exactly that, and that this synergy contains undiscovered and previously unused blessing.

City Vision: I have a dream

This is my CityVision, the result of a paradigm change:

in 2005, there will be ten regions in Switzerland (cities, large, medium and small towns and rural areas) in which Christians have united to become some form of regional church;
the leaders of this regional church take spiritual responsibility for the region, in prayer and action;
research will have revealed the spiritual strengths and weaknesses of the region; we know something about the history and significant events, and how to deal with them. The leadership regularly deals with new facts.
home groups, prayer cells or even house churches exist in every neighbourhood, which understand themselves to be God's bridgehead for reaching their surroundings, and act accordingly. They intercede for the people, and live their Christianity in an open and relaxed manner. These cells multiply frequently, and nobody asks "Which church are you from?"
all Christians in the region meet four or more times each year for a united service, with praise and worship, but also a strong message with an apostolic challenge and prophetic direction - a different dimension than in the small groups;
an own newspaper and homepage links and presents the movement openly;
every "church in the church" has a clear identity within the whole, based on its location and strengths;
wherever possible, New Generation Churches / Youth Churches are planted and young leaders released to lead them; the church has learnt that the only way to have a future is to release the youth.
the leaders serve each other with their gifts. Those who are discouraged receive encouragement; those who are tired are supported and can rest; someone with a vision can share and discuss it - noone has to defend their fellowship, territory or existence; when one part is suffering, the others help carry the load: when one church is in financial or personal need, the others spring in to help; whenever it makes sense, events such as training, Alpha courses etc. are combined or opened for all;
churches pool their resources to work on larger projects (skate park, kindergarten, old peoples' home, Christian school, soup kitchen...
some churches even merge, releasing money for other projects. Some preachers are sent out to serve 'in the world' where they are more comfortable, and which they have secretly desired for some time;
the leadership prays for and plans to plant cells or neighbourhood churches, and cooperate in doing so;
the public and media realise that the Christians are no longer a disunited and uninteresting minority, but that their united presence is a force to be taken seriously. At last people know Who is Who;
the result: Satan's favourite method, 'divide and conquer' no longer works. The city or region experiences a spiritual and social transformation.
transformed cities impact the country. Within a few years, the number of Christians grows to twenty or thirty percent, which transforms one region after the other.

� Reinhold Scharnowski

DAWN European Network

June 2001