Tim Keller - Why is Church Planting so Important in Cities?

Richard Coekin, Director of Co-Mission, sat down with Tim Keller, founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York, to discuss the importance of church planting in cities.

[johnkim]

Timothy Keller rightfully has expressed the need for more churches in urban areas along with such places being where the church needs to expand into. The world is increasingly urbanizing with many people from rural areas moving into cities and suburban areas increasingly developing into cities and/or becoming annexed into cities. Many rural areas wouldn't even have the population necessary to even begin a church and are continuing to see population declines. The church must keep up and see where to reach out in order to even survive. A much smaller percent of people within large urban centers are Christian and more secular signs are advertised all over, leading many to believe that cities are places of evil. But Christians need to remember that church planting and mission work need to be done to reach unbelievers and those who reject the Gospel rather than waste resources on recruiting most people who already go to similar churches and are already believers. The city is a very good place for such. We need to remember that the Early Church flourished within the city while being rejected in rural areas. With all of such being said, I believe we need to reexamine church planting and how funds are spent as the church expands into the city as well. There will always be necessity for church and Christian community but the current models of church are wasteful of resources with many churches being built just to recruit people who already go to church, taking up too much real estate costs in urban areas, and funds sometimes spent to attract wealthy patrons rather than to help the needy. These are all problems that the church must examine as they expand into cities.