My grand novelty this year is my induction into Facebook.com. It allows me to send daily update status reports with minimal effort to my growing network of friends. Sometimes I report on my travels, sometimes the stuff of the daily grind. And my friends and family return the same.

My daughter recently sent me a piece entitled, “What if God Updated His Facebook Status?” This triggered my weird thinking about Biblical urban missionary characters. Here is my stab at the theme:

Cain is experiencing a serious skin problem and so thinks about building himself a city (Genesis 4:15-17). Abraham is having a birthday and preparing to skip town (Gen. 12:4-5). Abraham is yearning for a city but doesn’t have a clue where it is (Hebrews 11:8-10).

The Lord is busting up a unity service with a bunch of Babel (Gen. 11).

Abraham is bargaining with God to save Sodom but can’t seem to find 10 righteous people to pull it off (Gen. 18:32).

Two angels are hanging out in a pretty bad part of Sodom (Gen. 19:12-13).

God is really ticked off at the Sodomites because they “were arrogant and spoiled, they had everything they needed and still refused to help the poor and needy. They thought they were better than everyone else” (Ezekiel 16:48-50).

Joseph is planning a massive social reorganization program and urban development scheme that will save both the locals and the foreigners (Gen. 47: 13-15).

Joshua is tearing down city walls with some trumpets, noise, flashlights, and a rag-tag bunch of drinkers (Joshua 6).

Rahab is lying about some stowaways in her brothel and yet God saves her in the ruins of Jericho and blesses her (Joshua 2).

Jonah is running for his life away from the city, but gets corralled into witnessing to it anyway (Jonah 3).

Jonah is swallowed by a big fish and swallows his pride over a tiny worm because God really wants to save a city (Jonah 1, 4).

God is concerned for nasty Ninevites and their animals in big cities (Jonah 4:11).

David is building a holy city that just keeps getting corrupted, and yet continues to be loved by God (2 Samuel 5:10).

Ezra is ripping his clothes and tearing out his beard and hair, reduced to a catatonic fit, because of the sins of his people (Ezra 9:3-4).

Nehemiah is using “worldly” resources to rebuild the city (Nehemiah 2:7-9).

Nehemiah is raising a “tithe” of people to go back and be redemptive presence in the city (Nehemiah 12:1).

Esther is leveraging her beauty and status to free her people from annihilation (Esther 2:12-18, 8:14-17).

Isaiah is dreaming about a New City of Jerusalem where everybody owns their own homes (Isaiah 65:21).

Jeremiah is telling his displaced friends to accept the realities of their ghetto and to make peace and prosperity in it (Jeremiah 29: 4-7).

Ezekiel is imagining a New City which will be called: “The Lord is Here” (Ezekiel 48:35).

Daniel is working under a tyrant but makes his job “count” for the Kingdom (Daniel 5).

Jesus is shedding tears over the city because its citizens don’t have a clue what is about to befall them (Luke 19:40-42).

Jesus is dying just outside of the city. His death is too horrid for urban sensitivities (John 19:19-22).

The Holy Spirit is breaking through the old forms and interpersonal hostilities and creating a new people and a new unity (Acts 2).

Paul and Barnabas are arguing over deployment of Mark. They agree to make two urban mission teams rather than one (Acts 15:37-41).

Paul is doing the city tour throughout Turkey and Greece, establishing churches all along the way (Acts).

Paul is taking a love offering from the member of Antioch First Church to give to the needy and troubled members of the “Mother” church back in the “hood” (Acts 11:29-30).

Paul is having an intellectual debate with the intelligentsia of the city, an exercise in apologetics because these, too, are worth saving (Acts 17:16-19).

An angel in Philadelphia is receiving a letter with the message: “It is the New Jerusalem that my God will send down from heaven” (Revelation 3:12).

God is preparing the most magnificent, unimaginably glorious city for all those washed in the blood of the Lamb. “Face to Face” is not just a “Facebook” facsimile (Rev. 21).

So what is your urban status update today?

by Fletcher L. Tink
Executive Director
Bresee Institude of Metro Ministries