In 2020, 4.3 billion people lived in cities – that’s 56% of the global population. By 2050, it is estimated more than two billion people will be added to that number.

The cruel reality is that 86,765 city dwellers die every day without a relationship with Christ. These city dwellers include many unbelievers who travel to cities in search of jobs to support their families. Their home countries are often resistant to Christianity, and they may never have heard of Jesus. To address these realities, the International Mission Board committed to engaging 75 global cities as part of the organization’s five 2025 Targets.

Victor Hou, the IMB’s associate vice president for global advance, said the goal of this target is to engage every people group, every community and every segment of cities, including business professionals, factory workers, students, migrants and slum dwellers. Hou explains that “cities are the intersections where population segments and people groups come together.” The combined population of the 75 cities will exceed one billion.

To help reach these cities with the gospel, IMB’s global engagement team is facilitating cross-regional cohorts of IMB city leaders to accelerate learning and increase knowledge of how best to minister in cities.

Cohorts seek to equip the city leaders to engage their city and provide opportunities for peer-to-peer learning, ministry tools and a forum for discussion and the sharing of ideas. The cohorts also include coaching for city leaders as they form comprehensive plans for reaching their cities. Fifty-five city leaders are participating in these cohorts, and more leaders will join in the coming months.

Collaborating with other organizations and local churches and believers is another core component of reaching cities, Hou said.

“Engaging the cities is really a God-sized task,” Hou said. “It’s huge. How do you go about engaging a city like Johannesburg with more than 12 million? We can’t do it ourselves.”

Johannesburg, South Africa

Johannesburg, South Africa, is one of the 2025 Target Cities. IMB missionaries Kurt and Janna Kay Holiday have served in Johannesburg for 21 years.

The Sub-Saharan Africa affinity set a five-year goal to begin ministry among 55 unengaged and unreached people groups (UUPGs). While researching his comprehensive plan for reaching Johannesburg, Holiday discovered 49 of the 55 people groups live in and around the city.

Three hundred languages are spoken in and around Johannesburg.

Holiday also discovered that Johannesburg is home to people who represent 32 out of the 50 countries on the Open Doors’ World Watch List of persecuted countries.

There is an urgency to reaching the city – 200 people die every day in Johannesburg.

“The city is 7% evangelical, which means 186 people are dying daily outside of a right relationship with Jesus, so that accelerates what we’re trying to do,” Holiday said.

“One of the Scriptures that is really meaningful to us is 2 Timothy 2:2. We want people to be discipled who will disciple others who are going to disciple others,” Holiday said. “That’s the key to get the gospel pumping through the city, through the country and throughout the world.”

Holiday said that even though he has been working as the city leader in Johannesburg since 2009, the Target Cities cohort gave him tools, and the opportunity to dialogue with other IMB leaders about their strategies was a blessing.

As part of the comprehensive ministry plan Holiday developed, he divided the city into five sections: students, segments (relational and geographic), scattered (UUPGs and people from persecuted countries), business and young professionals, and townships.

“I have more excitement about my city than I have in a long time,” Holiday said.

Holiday gave the example of driving a speeding car to describe the status of ministry efforts in Johannesburg. When the car’s accelerator is pressed down, the wheels spin and wobble before finding traction.

“All of a sudden, it catches, and then you’re just flying. In my mind, we’re in that wobbling stage. We’ve hit the accelerator, and the wheels are spinning a little bit – they’re about to get traction and start flying down the road – and that’s where I feel like my city is right now. We’re about to get traction and start making progress,” Holiday said.

Read more about how you can be involved in the Holiday’s ministry here.

South Asian Megacity

Zeek and Keelie Rocks** are the city leaders for a megacity in South Asia. The Rocks have served in their city for 16 years.

“In many ways, my city feels like Nineveh. There are about 30 million people – comparatively the population of Australia squeezed into a geographic space that is half the size of Virginia,” Rocks said.

Millions of people come for work and education, but no one really feels at home, Rocks said.

“Many call our city an unloved and orphaned city,” he added.

The Rocks’ hope is that their city would be transformed from a Nineveh to an Ephesus.

“Our city, like Ephesus, is the heart of the region. It is a diverse place with great opportunity to reach millions,” Rocks said. “Ephesus became a hub for training and sending church planters to the entire region. Through the teaching and training efforts of Paul and his team … the entire province of Asia heard the Word of the Lord (Acts 19:10).

Rocks said he’s attended many trainings throughout the years, and most were geared toward village ministry.

“I found that many of the rural strategies that were very fruitful in the villages just weren’t working in the city. The way people live, work and connect with one another was very different in the city. In some ways, we felt like we were fishing with a sniper rifle rather than a net,” Rocks said.

He said the cohort helped him understand the complex social relationship networks that form when people live in cities and how to effectively reach these different segments of society.

While the IMB is emphasizing the need to reach cities, the calling to reach remote regions and people groups remains, Hou said.

“It’s not that we’re ignoring the rural places and the villages, but we do have better access in the cities,” Hou said. “Ultimately, we want to lead people to faith, share the gospel with them and disciple them so that they can bring the gospel back to their hometowns and to their villages.”

* The World Urbanization Prospects: The 2018 Revisions
**Names changed for security

Caroline Anderson writes for the IMB from Southeast Asia.

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An elderly Japanese woman walks up the stairs in Osaka, Japan. IMB photo

Japan’s population is aging. Almost 30% of its population is 65 years old and older. This statistic is affecting church planting, church health and church growth. International Mission Board missionaries and Japanese Christians must answer the question, “Who will lead the next generation of believers?”

Scott Bradford, a missionary in Tokyo, said the average age of local pastors is between 60 and 70 years old. Many pastors are in their 80s and don’t feel they can retire because there is no one to assume the mantle, missionary Carlton Walker said. Carlton and his wife, Cornelia, also serve in Tokyo.

With aging pastors, Carlton, Bradford and other missionaries are asking, “What does that mean for the church in 20 years?”

Time is ticking, and the need is great for a younger generation of Christian leaders.

Missionaries are focusing on sharing the gospel in university areas, with the hopes of nurturing young adults who will fill church leadership positions and start churches in their communities. Journeymen on the Tokyo team are actively building relationships with university students, and many of their activities surrounding the Olympics involve outreach on campuses through 5-Minute English and virtual English outreaches.

While technology comes as second nature for Generation Z and Millennials, COVID-19 has been challenging for the older generation of Japanese pastors who’ve had to adapt to using technology and offer church services online.

Meeting online has been discouraging for some. As in the U.S., many congregations in Japan have gone more than a year and a half without taking the Lord’s Supper, going to Sunday School, attending prayer meetings or meeting in person, Carlton said.

However, pastors have adapted and have been able to extend their reach to younger audiences and to business professionals, who largely have been absent from churches.

“Before this, many churches were not really technologically knowledgeable,” Cornelia continued. “Many of them may have done videotapes to get to their older folks [who were homebound] but now they’re actually using their Facebook page, or they’re doing something on YouTube or Instagram, or they’re learning how to put themselves out there.”

However, Japanese pastors are concerned people won’t be motivated to attend in person once churches can meet in person again.

“Some pastors feel like they are going to have to begin from scratch,” Carlton said.

For older pastors, the thought of starting over is disheartening.

“[Pastors] are used to face-to-face shepherding, and many are weary,” he continued.

“Churches in Japan are facing the same thing that many churches in America are facing, and that is to realize, nowadays, you’ve got some people who absolutely want to get back together and see one another’s face,” Carlton explained.

This is especially true of the Walkers’ church, whose members are mostly older and prefer to meet in person. They recognize, however, the need to reach those who are comfortable connecting online.

Online services have allowed churches to connect with business professionals who, because of COVID-19, cannot go into their offices and have begun teleworking, working online from their hometowns.

This is exciting, Carlton said, because this population segment has largely been ‘missing in action’ in churches. Their work hours are often prohibitive to church attendance and involvement. Children stop coming to church when parents stop coming. This is a trend Christian leaders hope to reverse.

Journeymen are serving among the children-turned-adults of these business professionals who are now university students, but the students soon fade into the work world of late nights and long commutes, so maintaining contact with students after they graduate is key.

New church strategies

Bradford said they are asking themselves, “What are we doing to strengthen and encourage these churches, to support these churches toward health and come alongside and help them as they engage in their local community?”

Some of the recent ways missionaries are doing this is by prayerwalking in the neighborhoods around Baptist churches, setting up a mobile cart with an Olympic flag to attract attention, and sharing the gospel and distributing gospel materials near the churches.

The greater Tokyo area has a population of 37 million, and one-third of Japan’s population lives in the megacity.

“If we really did have every church that was healthy and filled to capacity, it still would not be enough to reach the 37 million people who are in this city,” Bradford said.

Walker said that even if each of their team members planted 50 churches, there still wouldn’t be a church within walking distance of everybody.

“What would happen if we had churches within walking distance of a 7-Eleven or a convenience store, a post office or a gasoline station? It would be so much more possible for the gospel to be shared, be believed and be known in Japan,” Walker said.

Their team is focusing on what they call catalytic work, coming alongside churches and bolstering their ministries, considering new locations and opportunities.

Though the numbers of those who don’t know Jesus are staggering and overwhelming, Carlton and Cornelia remain positive. The Walkers have served in Japan for almost 40 years and are nearing retirement.

Carlton said what has kept them upbeat amidst growing populations, aging pastors and, at times, slow church growth, is an attitude of gratitude. He wakes up every morning thrilled and in awe at the opportunity to serve among the Japanese. Gratitude makes all the difference, he says.

“God is doing something great in Japan, and I don’t want to die before I see it.”  

Caroline Anderson writes for the IMB from Southeast Asia.

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