A Biblical Theology of the City

For your reading pleasure...Tim Keller is a pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, and he has some helpful thoughts about how to understand the city biblically. The article can be found here. Enjoy!

Art in Greenville

As you know, art has great power and can have a tremendous effect on its audience. Often artists seem to have their finger on the pulse of the city, reflecting emerging ways of thinking and positing new ones. Greenville is quickly becoming a haven for developing artists young and old, and this is something that is very encouraging to me, who remembers downtown without places such as Artist Crossing and West Greenville. Artisphere is a three-day arts festival coming up soon that never would have been possible 15 years ago.

If you're downtown for fun, I would encourage you to stop by a gallery and observe and appreciate the art you see. Ask questions about the art: 

• Is it nihilistic? 
• Is it happy?
• Is it dark or light?
• What does it say about the city? 
• How does it portray God?
• How does it portray man?
  
• Is it sensual or jaded? 

These questions can help us better understand the culture of Greenville and how we are a part of that culture.

(Just a side note...) And by all means, if you don't like what you see or think you can do better, start creating what you want to see. The way to change the arts culture is not to theorize about why it is bad but rather to make something better and more creative.

Serving Greenville

One of our core tenets as a team is to serve Greenville in tangible ways. I wanted to let you know about two organizations who are working to make Greenville a stronger city.

• Hands on Greenville is a non-profit organization affiliated with the United Way. They are sponsoring H.O.G. Day on Saturday, May 2nd, a day when they direct volunteers to complete service projects throughout the city. Last year, 2,800 people participated during the morning hours and gathered at Fluor Field for a huge celebration. I know that May 2nd is right in the middle of exams (I have two that morning), but if you are able, I would encourage you to participate.
  

• Greenville Forward has written a vision for progress in the city by 2025. I would encourage you to read the Vision 2025 and consider how you and Downtown Impact Team fit into that vision.
  

Engaging Culture with the Gospel

At this week's meeting we talked about how to define culture and how to understand the way the gospel relates to it. As we start gathering information about the culture of Greenville's urban poor, keep some of these questions in mind. You may even want to ask people some of these things on your own while hanging out downtown: 

• Where do people spend their time and money?
  
• What do people do during their free time?
  
• What do they fear?
  
• What do they dream about?
  
• Where do they shop?
  
• What cultural experiences do they value?
  
• What are the most painful experiences they have had?
  
• What music do they listen to?
  
• What film and television do they watch?
  
• What do they find humorous?
  
• In what ways are they self-righteous?
  
• What do they read?
  
• What is their spirituality?
  
• Whom do they trust? Why?
  
• What do they think about the gospel?
  
• What sins will the gospel first confront and then heal for these people?

Jesus was the perfect missionary, taking 30 years to understand his culture and then preaching the gospel and accomplishing the work of the gospel. Our missionary efforts are weak and often misdirected; however, we continue learning about our culture and seeking to share the gospel in it because Jesus died for our sins of cultural arrogance and insensitivity. The progress of the gospel is not tied to the quality of our efforts but to the sacrifice of our Savior. Jesus exchanged our sin-filled efforts for his perfect missional life.

As we take these first few outings to gather information, remember that Jesus made our acceptance to God possible on the cross; no amount of cultural relevance can make us more pleasing to God. We take time to learn our culture not for our own sake but for the sake of our friends living in culture. To understand them and take the gospel to them in an understandable way reflects the life of Christ and highlights him as the perfect missionary. In every way possible, we want to be highlighting Christ and pointing to him as our only hope.

I encourage you to further your understanding of these issues by reading this helpful article at TheResurgence.com.