Nellie's Life

“History is not just a study of the past. Archeology is a study of the past. History, by contrast, is a study of the written records of the past.” (Bakke 102) The Lord is calling us to the city and the chapters in this book are obvious that is what the bible is trying to tell us. We need to be praying for the city because, “Satan is intervening in the day-to-day decisions of even our best leaders.” (Bakke 103) We also need to pray because all the nations are moving into the city neighborhoods and we need more ministries in those neighborhoods to minister to all the nations. In the book of Esther she gives us permission to reflect on our call to serve God within the matrix of modern secular or oppressive system to confront evil and work for justice. Where is the modern secular or oppressive system? In the city, we need to confront evil and work for justice and I believe the very place to do that is the city.
I lived in Atlanta for a year and I wish it could have been longer because I believe the ministry was just starting when we were about to leave. I feel like there was so much more to do and a year just wasn’t enough. We have to get in and get to know the city and their needs and then start to minister, just figuring out the true needs takes a lot of time. I believe real ministry in the cities requires living there for a long period of time and becoming a part of the community. A person really needs to take time to understand where the “itch” of the community is and then find a way to “scratch” that “itch.”
One thing Bakke said that I agree with is all the churches that are located in the urban neighborhoods should have strong, resourceful members of the church living in the community, as well as, being very intentionally about becoming a part of the community. “For the nations have come to the city neighborhoods in our time.” It is our time to come to the city and minister to all the nations. I think that is where the church needs to be, and right now I don’t see a lot church members living in the actual community throughout the neighborhoods the church is trying to help.
It is not only urban neighborhoods that this should be happening in, I think it should be happening in every neighborhood. Personally, I think that churches should go back to being neighborhood churches instead of commuter churches because a true community has a better chance of developing. Also, the people who the church is most likely trying to reach is the community, if we have members of the church living in the community the people in the neighborhood have a better chance of being reached.
Justice needs to be happening in the community and I think by having resourceful members of the church in the neighborhoods, justice has a better chance of reaching the community. Church members need to become a part of the community because all of a sudden their problems become your problems. Church members need be examples of leadership, show people how to fight for their justice, and that is not okay for the system to treat them the way they are being treated.