Christians are being slaughtered in the Middle East. Black churches are being burned down in America. North Korea and China impose party atheism on the believers in both lands. When the Islamic State comes with swords, nobody asks the name of your pastor. If Jesus is Lord, you are going to die. That is persecution and nothing unites a movement faster.
As Christians look at the world, we are realizing that while we are from many nations, tribes, and people groups, we are one Body. Urban Christianity here in America has pioneered and can go further than any other place to do something good with that realization.
Why urban Christianity? First, we have been forever cast out of the garden and are heading toward the City of God. We are urban by God’s choice. Second, urban areas are where most of the world’s immortal souls are gathered, waiting the end of time. Finally, Christianity is a universal faith: it favors no language, tribe, or nation. The message of Jesus is for everyone equally.
Why Houston? Houston is diverse: it contains thousands of people from many lands. Houston is wealthy: there is enough money here to make a difference. Houston is Christian: the churches here have not given into the decay of the West and are not controlled by government. We are free, God has given us the means, and by God’s grace, we mean to act.
So what does this mean?
Wherever you are in America, whatever you are doing, there is always a city to watch: Philadelphia in 1776, Chicago in 1875, Los Angeles in 1976. These are the places where history was being made. Houston is the American city for this century . . . and by 2076, though I will not be here to see it, I expect that the Christians of Houston, orthodox, classically educated, and living in liberty will have created something new.
There exists the potential to educate all God’s children in a way that squeezes out debt, exalts justice and mercy, and unites divided Christians. It will not center on any guru, big name, or sage. What if the people of God simply demanded an orthodox movement rooted in the past, but with a progressive vision?
I am an educator, so of course, my job is to be a small part of the educational aspects of the Houston revival, even if it is just as a reporter. The seeds are everywhere and the optimism is growing. However small my part will be, I see the revival coming. The Holy Spirit must act and each one of us can be a part of it.
What if we help drive the debt out of education? What if teachers and professors are given the tools to educate and the power to make decisions? The vision will be built on orthodoxy and given to orthopraxy.
Christians will pioneer profoundly liberal education, in the American Founder’s sense of liberal, for the groups the Founders excluded: people of color, women, and the poor. Christians will ask any question and wait to persuade and not just to triumph.
We will spend everything for goodness, truth, and beauty, but nothing for past paradigms. There is hope here in Houston, not because any of us are mighty, but because by God’s grace, we may just be in the right place at God’s time.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In