There have long been countries that are “closed” to the gospel, which is to say that it is illegal to share the gospel there, but I recently learned of a new barrier to sending full-time missionaries into cities across the world. Essentially, countries are looking at a missionary’s visa that says that he or she wishes to go to a certain city to be a full-time missionary and rejecting it because that is not what they think they need.

As you may have already noticed, our world is increasingly urban. The percentage of people in the world that live in urban areas has been steadily increasing—today it’s about 54% of all people. That percentage could be anywhere from 66% to 80% by 2050. By some estimates, everyone who is a part of Vintage Church is living in an urban environment (even you River Ridge folks). Most of us, however, did not grow up in a city. How then do we raise our children in this foreign environment? Let’s begin the conversation through this blog series.