Mumbai is the urban future

Listen to an audio version of this post at http://media1.imbresources.org/files/77/7739/7739-43113.mp3

Read my full coverage of Mumbai at http://www.imb.org/main/news/details.asp?StoryID=7858&LanguageID=1709

See a multimedia presentation about Mumbai at http://www.commissionstories.com/?p=141

Flying at night into Mumbai, India, you see millions of pretty lights glittering along the curving coast, like jewels on the neck of a queen.

At ground level, in the harsh light of day, illusion gives way to reality. The elegant monarch that once was Bombay is dead. Something altogether different — both exciting and terrifying — has replaced her.

Two-pack-a-day air pollution. Round-the-clock road wars between vast armies of cars, trucks and auto-rickshaws. Sleek skyscrapers, posh coffee shops and luxury high-rise apartments abound, taking their place alongside the grand Taj Hotel, the monumental Gateway of India arch and other reminders of the city’s former glory. But they’re surrounded by slums, filth, stench, violence and the crumbling remnants of old Bombay.

And everywhere, people.

Greater Mumbai’s population is approaching 20 million. That number is projected to rise to 26 million by 2025. India, the land of 600,000 villages, has joined the relentless human trek toward urban centers as the global economy moves in the same direction. Half of the nation’s more than 1 billion people will be living in cities by 2020, some estimates say.

“South Asia, set to overtake East Asia as the world’s most populous realm in 2010, will contain nearly one-quarter of all humanity by 2025,” reports geographer Harm de Blij. “Consider this: There are more people in Dhaka [Bangladesh] than in Greece. There are more people in Manila [Philippines] than in Belgium. There are more people in Delhi [India] than in Chile. Mumbai will soon overtake Australia.”

On a global scale, urban dwellers will double to 6.4 billion by the middle of this century — 70 percent of the projected human population, according to a United Nations forecast. By that time, predicts a BBC report, Mumbai “will have reached an almost unimaginable size.”

Mumbai, then, “is the future of urban civilization on the planet,” declares Suketu Mehta. “God help us.”

Mehta, author of “Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found” (Vintage, 2004), left the city of his childhood in 1977. When he returned two decades later to live there, he barely recognized it. Somewhere toward the end of the 20th century, the bustling but livable Bombay he remembered had become — like Jekyll turning to Hyde — the dangerous, uncontrollable beast called Mumbai.

Mumbai has “hundreds of very different ethnic communities, most of whom heartily dislike one another,” Mehta notes. “They [tolerated] one another for centuries” — until the Hindu-Muslim riots of the 1990s, which left 1,000 dead and drove more than 100,000 from their homes. The riots tore apart the city’s delicate ethnic fabric and fueled extremist forces in politics and society that persist today. The citywide unity displayed after last November’s terrorist attacks encouraged many, but didn’t erase the memories of past bloodshed.

Bombay’s name change to Mumbai, part of a national initiative that renamed several major cities, symbolizes more fundamental shifts. The steady inflow of migrants and merchants seeking a job, a deal or a patch of ground to occupy has become a torrent. Organized crime bosses control major parts of the economy; their gangs attack each other and victimize the public. More than 100,000 women and children work as prostitutes in the city. The police have become notoriously violent and corrupt. The rule of law is nearly nonexistent. City government is dysfunctional. The courts have slowed to a crawl; justice interminably delayed is almost a guarantee.

On a more mundane level, accomplishing anything in Mumbai requires single-minded determination — and money.

“You’ve got to pay five bribes to get anything done,” complains Suman Nabar, an eye doctor who struggled for years to build a private medical practice. She treats her patients all day — and sometimes cleans the office toilets at night to make sure it’s done right.

“I just wish people would do their jobs,” she says with a tone of exasperated resignation.

Yet for all its staggering problems, Mumbai radiates addictive energy and excitement.

“The chaos is what I’m going to miss when I leave,” says Rose Wynn,* a Southern Baptist worker retiring after serving in the city for more than 10 years. “The chaos and the people. I love it.”

She marvels at how people still help one another, regardless of caste or class. If you fall on the street, someone appears from nowhere to offer assistance. If you’re lost, someone shows you where to go and personally takes you there, if necessary.

Somehow, the city keeps going — like its trains, the arteries that move 6 million people through Mumbai every day. And like Mumbai’s renowned dhabba wallahs.

Mostly nonliterate deliverymen, the dhabba wallahs carry some 200,000 hot lunches each work day by foot, bicycle and train from the suburban homes where they are made to the cross-town offices where they are consumed. That’s more than 60 million lunch tins a year. Of that total, they misplace perhaps 10 — an accuracy rate UPS and FedEx have enviously studied (see a multimedia presentation about Mumbai’s dhabba wallahs at http://www.commissionstories.com/?p=141 )

“It looks like chaos, but it works,” says an amazed observer.

Could the Gospel follow similar paths across Mumbai and other vast megacities, bringing living bread to millions of hungry souls? The time has come to find out.

“I wouldn’t say so much that we’re failing as that we’ve never tried,” says John Wynn,* a Southern Baptist worker in Mumbai, of the Christian movement’s response to the global urban explosion.

“We haven’t had the focus and the vision to reach the urban masses. The only answer is Jesus Christ. We can talk about the problems, the poverty and corruption and politicians. But it all goes back to the darkness they live in.

“They need Jesus Christ.”

*(Names changed)

London: end of 'Christian civilization'?

Before reading this post, check out “London: Capital of the world,” a short multimedia presentation and overview of the challenge of omnicultural London at http://www.commissionstories.com/?p=45.

“Upon this battle depends the future of Christian civilization.” – Winston Churchill, June 1940, preparing the British people for expected Nazi invasion

The discouraging news headlines just keep coming for Christians in London and the rest of the United Kingdom:

-- “Government plays down Christmas for fear of offending minorities”

-- “Active Muslims to outnumber Christian church members by 2049”

-- “Planned London mega-mosque would be biggest religious building in Britain”

-- “Archbishop calls incorporation of Muslim shariah law into British legal system ‘unavoidable.’”

-- “Britain ‘no longer Christian,’ says influential think tank

That last item isn’t exactly stop-the-presses news, given the long, slow death of the Church of England. But it jars nevertheless.

“It’s time for Britain to recognize that it is no longer a Christian nation and should embrace multiculturalism,” said a news article summarizing conclusions of a 2007 study by the Institute for Public Policy Research. “Echoing sentiments heard throughout Britain in recent years, the authors of the report say the traditional pillars of British identity have now vanished or been greatly weakened. Church attendance is at historically low levels, the British Empire is gone, the monarchy is far less popular and the Second World War is inexorably slipping into memory.”

The government should create a “new and more inclusive national identity, part of which includes honoring the diverse cultures found in Britain,” the study recommended. Conservative critics charged that the study’s authors were calling for “throwing out” history and “denying the fundamental contribution” of Christianity to Britain.

Meanwhile, overall Sunday church attendance declined from 3.7 million in 1998 to 3.2 million in 2005 (year of the latest United Kingdom church census) – barely more than 6 percent of the population. At current rates, it’s likely to fall below 5 percent by 2015.

So has the “Christian civilization” the late, great Winston Churchill courageously called Britons to defend against Nazi barbarism (see quote above) finally succumbed to the quiet onset of senility, secularism and shariah?

If “Christian civilization” means a civic religion to which government and society pay lip service, yes, it’s dead in England – or on life support. If it means the kingdom of God on earth, however, reports of its demise are greatly exaggerated.

“Denominationalism is in big decline, but Christianity is on the increase,” contends evangelical Anglican vicar Mark Melluish, whose multicolored London flock is rapidly growing. London Baptist pastor Boyd Williams agrees — and challenges other London churches to break out of their siege mentality and get moving.

“We’ve got eyesight that isn’t clear,” says Williams. “We don’t see the (believers) around us from other ethnic groups for all the potential they have. They’re more gifted than we are in many ways. They’re evangelistic. They have faith. They just need training and channeling and they will be a mighty force. We’re just scratching the surface.”

Make no mistake: London is an enormous challenge for missions.

“Secularism is the predominant ‘religion’ of the city, but every other ‘ism’ is here in strong force,” acknowledges a Southern Baptist missionary in the city. “The largest Sikh and Hindu temples outside of India are in west London. London is the Islamic capital of Europe. Satanism and all kinds of mystic practices are also alive and well.”

In other words, London mirrors many of the urban centers of Europe. The Gospel is one often-lonely voice in a noisy, crowded marketplace of ideas — not unlike first-century Athens, where Paul preached to intellectuals and pagans, scoffers and seekers.

Christian history shows that sometimes God sends His children to the nations, and sometimes He sends the nations to us. London ceased to be the capital of “Christian civilization” long ago. But it might just regain that title as Asians, Africans, Arabs, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and every other variety of people find Christ there — and take His Gospel to the world.

(Listen to an audio version of this post at
http://media1.imbresources.org/files/63/6326/6326-34691.mp3)

Location, location, location

The lightening speed with which the global economic crisis has spread from one financial capital to another – heedless of national borders – seems to confirm one of the basic tenets of globalization: The world is flat.

Writer Thomas Friedman made that proposition famous in his influential book of the same name (The World Is Flat: Expanded Edition Thomas L. Friedman). The basic idea: Interconnected technology, trade, communication and mobility have tied us all together so tightly that national and cultural barriers are becoming increasingly porous, even irrelevant.

Not so fast.

In his new book, The Power of Place: Geography, Destiny, and Globalization's Rough Landscape, Michigan State professor Harm de Blij argues that location still matters – a lot.

“Earth may be a planet of shrinking functional differences, but it remains a world of staggering situational differences,” De Blij writes. “From the uneven distribution of natural resources to the unequal availability of opportunity, place remains a powerful arbitrator. Many hundreds of millions of farmers in river basins of Asia and Africa live their lives much as their distant ancestors did, still remote from the forces of globalization ….

“In their lifetimes, this vast majority will have worn the garb, spoken the language, professed the faith, shared the health conditions, absorbed the education, acquired the attitudes, and inherited the legacy that constitutes the power of place: the accumulated geography whose formative imprint still dominates the planet.”

True, “global playing fields” are leveling for many, de Blij acknowledges. But assuming a homogenized, borderless, “flat” world is now the rule just because you can find identical high-rises, malls and office parks “from Minneapolis to Mumbai” is a mistake. The urban economic boom of China and high-tech industries of India get plenty of publicity, for example. But out in the rural vastness of both those Asian giants, countless millions continue to struggle for existence – seemingly a universe away from the growth centers of their own nations.

Despite modern mobility and massive migrations, fewer than 3 percent of us are “mobals” who live in a country where we were not born. An even smaller minority make up the “globals” who have access to all the advantages of modern technology and travel. The rest are “locals” – still tied, for better or worse, to the places and cultures that spawned us.

Christians, then, still must traverse many literal or figurative back roads, dirt tracks, mountains and valleys to bring the Gospel to every people – even in the chaotic maelstrom of megacities. There is no “flat” superhighway to world evangelization.

“In our current rush to embrace the rewards of global ‘flattening,’ it is worth reminding ourselves that point of entry continues to matter when it comes to opportunities in reach,” de Blij cautions.

For transmitting the love of Christ to all peoples, our key points of entry remain language, culture and place. That means continuing to mobilize churches, missionaries and local believers to take the Gospel – personally – to every part of the globe’s “rough landscape.”

Cities: quick facts

Consider these numbers and projections:

-- In China, 200 million people (the equivalent of two-thirds of the U.S. population) have migrated from the countryside to cities over the last 10 years.

-- Every second, two people move from rural areas to cities.

-- Half of all Asians and Africans will live in cities by 2030.

-- The number of squatters living in urban slums and "shadow cities" will double to 2 billion within a generation.

The movement of humanity into cities might never reverse. According to demographic forecasters, we face an "urban future," with all its challenges and opportunities.

"As recently as the early 20th century, the vast majority of the world's people lived in the countryside and practiced subsistence farming," writes Christopher Flavin, president of Worldwatch Institute. "By 2005, the world's urban population of 3.18 billion people constituted 49 percent of the total (global) population of 6.46 billion."

The 50-percent mark has now been passed, marking "a significant milestone on the long road of civilization."

How will cities – even in developed countries – find or produce sufficient food, water, housing, energy, jobs, healthcare, education and infrastructure for so many people? Government, business and community leaders are looking for answers to that question with increasing urgency. The increasingly urgent question for missions: How will so many city dwellers hear the Gospel?

Simply locating and identifying them – and their myriad communities and subcultures – is becoming a daunting challenge. Sometimes they maintain distinct, separate communities. Sometimes they mingle and form new groups. Either way, such groupings may multiply into millions of members, each subgroup struggling to gain and maintain its place in society.

"We look at the city and wonder what it will take to change its heartbeat – one that doesn't pulse for Jesus," says a Christian worker in urban India. "We know that God's desire is that all people bow at His feet in worship, but we see people daily bowing instead before almost anything else .... This city is our passion. Pray that God will change unbelieving hearts -– miraculously, contagiously."

A mission strategist adds:

"We need to receive this gift [migration to the cities] that God has set before us and use it to take the Gospel to the mass of people in the cities around the world," says a mission strategist. "For so long, life in the rural world has shaped our missions efforts. Now we live in an urban world and our methods to reach people must change. We must love the city as God does."

How, specifically, do we do that?

Cities: challenge of a new era

Yep, I finally started a blog. Welcome to the first post!

The topic: cities. Specifically, Buenos Aires, the second-largest "urban agglomeration" in South America.

It's the first of five global giants I'm profiling for an extended coverage project called "A Tale of Five Cities." Why? Because more of us live in urban than rural areas for the first time in history (we passed the mark sometime last year, according to demographers).

The implications of that reality for humanity, for the church and for the mission task are enormous -- as Buenos Aires illustrates.

(View a multimedia presentation about Buenos Aires — including video, sound, stories and photos at http://www.commissionstories.com/?p=38)

Is it possible to feel alone in a city of 13 million people? It is in Buenos Aires.

Glittering, sophisticated jewel of South American cities, Buenos Aires is Argentina’s capital, economic hub, cultural center and home to a third of the nation’s 40 million people. The city ranks as the second-largest metropolis on the continent (after São Paulo, Brazil) and the 10th-largest in the world, according to United Nations statistics.

But if you look beneath the surface of modern Buenos Aires’ frenetic pace, its wide avenues, its trendy bars and tango cafes, its cultural riches and European atmosphere, you find deep undercurrents of isolation, insecurity, hopelessness — and fear.

Why the pervasive sense of unease?

“In a big city, the spiritual strongholds are loneliness and fear,” says missionary Randy Whittall, the International Mission Board’s team leader and strategy coordinator for Buenos Aires. “It may seem crazy to think about being lonely when you’re surrounded by 13 million people, but they are.”

The metal bars guarding doors and windows represent something deeper than fear of crime, however. The waves of political violence, economic chaos and social turmoil experienced by Argentines since the 1970s have left a legacy of suspicion, disillusionment and cynicism — similar to the malaise that has plagued the United States in recent years.

“People just don’t trust anyone anymore,” explains Whittall. “It’s a huge barrier to the Gospel, because it makes it very difficult to approach people and share. You’ve got this priceless gift you’d like to give everybody, but fear keeps them from being open to even talking about it.”
Fear and distrust aren’t the only barriers to the Gospel in Buenos Aires. Nominal Catholicism (perhaps 5 percent of the population regularly attend Mass) has “inoculated” many people to faith. As in other major urban centers, materialism, secularism and postmodernism are more powerful draws than any organized religion — although a variety of cults attract the poor, the young and the gullible. As in Europe and North America, “tolerance” trumps tradition, opening the door to immorality, New Age beliefs and paganism.

Another major barrier: People are hard to reach — not just spiritually but physically. In the Federal Capital, three of every four people live in apartments — typically, high-rise condos with vigilant doormen or locked entrances. Whittall describes the daily schedule of many apartment-dwellers in the city:

“They get up. They take an elevator downstairs and get in their car. They drive to work. They come back and hit their garage door opener. They drive downstairs, get in an elevator and go up to their apartment. Their actual contact outside of their home and work is practically nonexistent.”
What do these realities mean for the Argentine church? After more than a century of work by missionaries and Argentine evangelicals, the spiritual lostness of contemporary Buenos Aires rivals that of cities in much less evangelized regions of the world. According to recent research, fewer than three in 100 Porteños (“People of the port”) claim evangelical faith in Jesus Christ.

There’s no single solution to the dilemma, but the time for some experimentation clearly has arrived. That’s exactly what Whittall and his missionary team are doing.

One key strategy they believe can work: small groups — many, many of them — that develop behind locked doors among families and other “relationship circles.” Whittall and his team are aiming for 2,500 home groups around the city one day — groups that guide lost people to faith, worship, make disciples and reproduce themselves. Many will gather in apartments and houses; others may meet in restaurants or businesses.

“Churches tend to grow along family lines; you invite someone you know,” he says. “Our goal is not to see big churches but small ones that grow and multiply.”

WHERE THE WORLD IS MOVING

Buenos Aires represents the direction where the world is rapidly moving: sprawling, crowded, ethnically and socially diverse, fast-paced, urban masses of people.

Emphasis on urban. A projected 88 percent of human population growth over the next generation will occur in cities in developing countries.

Buenos Aires is one of 20 global metro areas with populations above 10 million. Cities with populations exceeding 1 million people each total 380 worldwide. Much of future global urban growth will come in smaller cities (500,000 and under), but it will still be distinctively urban.

The urban trend certainly applies in South America, where nearly 80 percent of the region’s 380 million people live and work in cities, a percentage that will rise in the years to come. The continent counts 39 cities with populations topping 1 million.

Buenos Aires presents all the challenges of other urban giants, reports Whittall.

Besides sheer numbers and sprawl, Buenos Aires encompasses many distinct population segments — majority Argentines, numerous immigrant groups from near and far, students, professionals, the rich, the poor, the middle class, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, postmoderns.

In other words, cities within cities.

“Obviously we don’t have the personnel or the resources to wage a battle on every front,” Whittall admits. “You have to strategically pick certain areas that best fit your people, their gifts, their calling and abilities. We try to match those with the different strata and different groups represented here.”

In 2006, International Mission Board teams and their overseas partners applied church-planting strategies in 170 urban centers, most of which were unreached (less than 2 percent evangelical). Twenty-eight of those centers were engaged by mission workers for the first time.

There’s a long, long way to go — and a major change in mindset is required to get there.

“We still have the mindset of rural missions,” says Whittall, who changed his own mindset after growing up in rural Oklahoma. “But the mission of the 21st century, however much we don’t like it, is going to be in the Beijings, the New Delhis, the massive, polluted, crowded urban areas where billions of people live.”

Do you agree? How should the church respond?