In this concluding episode of the series "Urban World, Urban Church" we look at several odd things about the urban church.
The first is how nationalism is increasingly disparaged in Christian circles today, while urban church people want us to strongly identify with our city. How many sermons or articles have warned about making an idol out of the city vs. making one of your nation? They seem to be encouraging us to transfer our allegiance from our country to our city.
The second is how the urban church world is very focused on starting new churches, while rarely trying to renew old ones. This is very odd in light of how they often explicitly transform an entire city. Can you transform a city of you can't transform a church? The Catholic Church is an exception in this regard, having successfully transformed many parishes as neighborhood demographics changed.
The third is how tribal these urban church groups seem to be. At the elite levels, they seem to have virtually nothing to do with each other (e.g., Redeemer NYC and Hillsong NYC) and avoid even commenting on each other. They argue against nationalism by saying that our identity as fellow Christians should trump other loyalties, yet they seem to not even be in active fellowship with the church down the street.