Serve the City

I’m thankful for RCL’s recent Equip class on loving and serving the city. Not only did we learn from the excellent teaching of Caroline Millar and Girma Bishaw, but we also had a chance to share practical ways that RCL seeks to serve the city. Here you can learn more about our partners and ways to join RCL in serving the city. We’ve also created a guide to help you start right where you are.

During his talk at our Equip class, Pastor Girma outlined five ideas that will help us be a church that continues to love and serve our city. What follows is my summary and notes based on the ideas he presented during his talk.

How can we love and serve London?

Stay Gospel Centred: the gospel — the good news of God’s grace to us in Jesus Christ — frees people to serve the city with both humility and confidence. On one hand, the gospel humbles you, enabling you to graciously move towards the needs of the city without a sense of superiority. On the other hand, the gospel brings confidence to you as you serve the city, knowing that you really do have good news to offer, in word and deed, to the people around you.

Embrace ‘Sentness’: whilst people come to the city for many reasons, from a biblical perspective we can affirm that we are not in the city by accident. We have been sent here by God. Embracing the truth that God has sent you into the city forms your posture and the ways you relate to the city, creating more openness and sensitivity as you join in God’s renewal of the city.

Avoid Abstractions: London is a massive city with manifold and enormous needs. For anyone wanting to serve the city and unsure of where to start, the sheer size of the needs can be overwhelming. Therefore, start small and start locally. Loving the city doesn’t mean loving an abstract concept of the city, but loving your neighbours, loving the people you share life with every day, loving your colleagues at work. Loving the city means getting local and paying attention to our communities.

Be a Unique and Unified Community: the gospel creates a unique kind of human community, bringing together people who are deeply different yet united because they have been loved by Jesus. This oneness without sameness, this unity without uniformity, is a powerful witness to a watching city of the gospel’s ability to bring healing and renewal. More practically, when people of different ages, races, and educational backgrounds come together as a family, the whole church becomes more aware of the diverse and nuanced needs in the city, and how to best move towards serving those needs.

Hear the Cries of the City: ‘Where you see tears, there you have ministry’. Our God is near to the brokenhearted, hearing the cries of the marginalised and oppressed (Exodus 22:22–23). As God’s people seeking to serve the city, we must develop habits of listening to the city and seeing its tears, knowing that those are the places God is leading his people into.

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All of this, for RCL, is just a start. As the months and years go on, RCL is looking forward to finding even more ways we serve the city. Sometimes that will mean joining partners who are already at work advancing good and seeking justice in the city. At other times serving the city may mean RCL creatively steps out in faith to serve isolated, disadvantaged, and marginalised people in London in new ways.