Chicago's New American's Plan: The Most Immigrant-Friendly City in the USA!

Image by City of Chicago

If you haven't heard, Chicago's political leaders and Mayor Rahm Emanuel have set a goal of making the city "the most immigrant-friendly city in the country".  Their plan is designed to make Chicagoland the premiere immigration hub in the United States and even to stimulate a "race to the top" to inspire other cities to become more welcoming to foreign-born peoples.

I know the plan isn't perfect, but I'm so excited about it and the implications of this initiative for mission.  Once again, I must sound the call to local churches, ministries, denominations, and Christian organizations.  Are you up to speed with what God is doing in Chicagoland? Are you ready for the "human tidal wave" that is coming?

I'm including a video webinar below which features Adolfo Hernandez, Director, Chicago’s Office of New Americans, explaining some of the details for the Chicago New American's plan.  The total video is about an hour long, but Hernandez' presentation is only about the first 18 minutes.  Or, if you prefer, just check out the written summary of the plan available here.

The World in a City and We're Still People-Blind!

Photo By 'J'

In 2003, my wife and I moved from Oklahoma to Chicago fully expecting that we'd just be passing through.  In fact, we began our application process for the International Mission Board (IMB) right away and planned to move overseas as soon as finished my graduate studies.

As he so often does, God threw a major wrench in our plans as he began to introduce us to our neighbors of many nations.  Convinced that we had moved into the very heart of the white, Evangelical Midwest (just ten minutes from Wheaton College), we were shocked to find that some 80-90% of the families in our subdivision were foreign-born.  Indeed the majority of them where South Asian Hindus and Muslims representing a number of unreached people groups.  Some how, God had move the frontiers of mission - the ends of the earth - to the Chicago suburbs!

As we explored the surrounding communities, we found a great disparity between the local churches which were largely homogeneous (ethno-linguistically speaking) and the schools, the grocery stores, the libraries, and other neighborhoods which were multicultural.  We began visiting churches locally in an effort to discover why this was the case.  We wanted to know if anyone was trying to reach our neighbors for Christ!

I remember a lunch with a local pastor from around that time.  He generously offered to take me out to Applebees for cheeseburgers and listened as I shared my heart for the Hindus and Muslims all around us.  After several minutes of this, he stopped me suddenly and, with a flourish, extended his arms to either side inviting me to survey the restaurant and asked, "Cody, WHERE are all these Hindus and Muslims you are talking about?!?!"

In 1974, Ralph Winter challenged the global church to repent of a malady he called "people blindness" -- a  blindness to the existence of distinct people groups within countries.  Wrote Winter, "'People blindness' is what prevents us from noticing the sub-groups within a country which are significant to development of effective evangelistic strategy." A generation later, it would seem that we are still blind.  Or perhaps, we simply refuse to see that in our day God is changing the world.

I rejoice that in the decade since we cancelled our application with the IMB and committed our lives to reaching the least-reached peoples of Chicagoland, we have met a number of kindred spirits here -- people that realize what was wrong with that pastor's question and who have a deep love for diasporas who now call Chicago home.  But people blindness is still too prevalent. Too many individual Christians, local churches, denominations and Christian organizations fail to see that Chicago is not only a "world city" but indeed the world in a city.  And this is true with megacities all over the globe.  New York, Paris, Singapore, Manila, Jakarta, are all becoming increasingly diverse as they become increasingly large.

So, it is gut-check time for churches and mission organizations and denominations and Christian leaders.  As one of my teammates, an immigrant pastor from Ethiopia, recently said, "We (immigrants) are the future of the church! Most of the standard American models of church and ministry are now obsolete." So, how are you adjusting? How are you changing? How are you embracing the new era of diaspora movement?

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For fun, I want to direct you to a blog post I tweeted out a few days back.  This is from a great blog called Chicago is the World.  The article is called "Hello World - Chicago Calling" and gives a nice, brief summary of some of diaspora Chicago.  Every Chicagoan who cares about mission should understand what is being said in this article.  Otherwise, you simply don't get this city.  And, if you are from elsewhere, consider writing up a similar article for your city and I'll post it here on The Ramblings.

The Frontier of Mission Advance is Shifting

By pam's pics-

During my recent tour through Michigan teaching the infamous "Lesson 14" of Perspectives ("Pioneer Church Planting"), one of my primary emphases was that in the 21st century, the frontiers of mission are shifting radically.  In the latter part of the 20th century, Ralph Winter (following McGavaran and Townsend) opened the eyes of the Church to the reality of unreached and unengaged people groups.  Frontier missiology was thought of as primarily a discussion of how to get the gospel to unreached peoples who had never heard.  It was critical in those days to de-emphasize geography in order to help mission leaders and practioners realize that the "unfinished task" was about reaching peoples rather than about merely establishing the church in every geo-political country.  As Winter said strongly, "Geography is not as important as peoples."

Today, frontier missions is still about unreached peoples and this has become the overwhelming majority opinion of the evangelical world.  But Winter had also seemed to believe that understanding what was happening to peoples geographically was key for the fulfillment of the Great Commission.  So, to quote Winter with a bit more context, “Geography is not as important as peoples.  Once that is clear, the question of where they are is a very exciting one." (Unreached Peoples: What Are They and Where Are They?, 1984) 

Today, we must ask afresh the geographical question of where are the unreached peoples of the world.  Indeed, it may be more appropriate to ask where they are going.  In a new era of mission history, we see a borderless and wireless world of instant communication, high-speed travel, and ever-accelerating mass migration.  People are on the move like never before.  My friend, Joy Tira, likes to refer to this as a "Human Tidal Wave" which is an image that captures well the magnitude and power of diaspora phenomena.

I have much more to say on this issue.  But today, I would rather you take a look at an excellent post by another friend, Justin Long.   In "Shifts in the Remaining Task", Justin writes about the traditional understanding of "World A, B, and C" or "evangelized" and "unevangelized" and reflects upon how migration and urbanization totally transforming the mission field in our day.

Here's an excerpt:

Most World A (unevangelized) individuals are found in heavily World B peoples, cities and countries. And more and more, we are seeing World B provinces and cities in World C countries. This is especially the case because of the movements of diaspora peoples into World C countries. Europe today, according to the Atlas of Global Christianity, is home to 28 million unevangelized individuals. I know some will think the number is far higher. My point is only that the West is not 100% Christian, and there’s plenty of room for work. One can’t say that Europe or America is completely evangelized–only that it is largely evangelized.

Please take careful look at Justin's entire article.  He has done a great job of  helping us to understand the exciting and complex nature of today's shifting mission frontiers.  Now consider:

1. Do the mission structures of your church reflect the realities of these shifting frontiers? 

2. Who are the "World A" peoples and the "unreached people groups" that live near you?

3. How do you see the "Human Tidal Wave" powerfully changing the dynamics of your city?

An Alternative Way to See a City

There are different ways to see a city.

There is one approach that finds a travel book, video or website. Discovers those “must-see” spots and proceeds to plan their trip around seeing those things.  After all, it seems strange to return from Paris not having seen the Eiffel Tower or New York City without seeing the Statue of Liberty.  This tourist approach is really fun. I myself like it to a point. Ultimately, however, I find it rather unsatisfying.

The travel buff goes a step further, priding themselves on discovering those “lesser known” places.  They hang out at the Shakespeare & Co. book store in Paris and know the best place for hotdogs in NYC. I’m much more this kind of person.  I love finding the hidden treasures of cities.  But this is also ultimately dissatisfying to me.

A third approach to seeing a city is rather simple by comparison. It is focused on simply going about, keeping your eyes and ears and heart open.  It is focused on seeing the people.  I have a friend that has been to Cape Town, South Africa several times but has never been up to Table Mountain.  He took this third approach.  It is a much more missional gaze because it flows out of a desire to connect with God’s image-bearers. As was said last night at the Lausanne Congress here in Cape Town, “cities feature more image of God per square inch than any other place in the universe.” 

So, here towards the end of my mid-congress day off, having not even set foot out of my hotel room (I really needed the rest), it is becoming clear that I may or may not make it to Table Mountain or Robben Island.  I may not cage dive with the sharks or see any penguins (though I would really like to do all these things). But I’m very grateful for the people of this city that have allowed me to see them – at least a bit.

We in the U.S. have a view of apartheid and the "new" South Africa that I’m learning may not be the full picture.  I suppose my view has been a bit simplistic. I don’t think I quite felt it was hell during and utopia after apartheid, but that’s not too far off from what I’ve thought.  But there’ve been some interesting encounters this week that have helped to complicate my view of things. 

One that stands out was a late night conversation with my Cape Malay cabbie.  She, a fourth generation Malaysian South African, gave me her perspective on the country.  “It was better before,” she declared. “Now, it’s just the reverse.  Mandela did a good thing, but his successors are too stupid to cover up the corruption.  At least the white government could sweep everything under the rug.”

What a statement! I asked her how the Cape Malay people were affected by the end of apartheid.  She described loose immigration policies that allowed for what she described as a free flow of immigrants from other African nations.  “It’s great for them, but they take all our jobs.”

I thought about how I have enjoyed meeting the numerous Malawian and Somali immigrants who work in various places in and on my way to the convention centre.  There seems to be a basic goodness to the fact that such people can immigrate to this country and find work.  But my friendly and opinionated cabbie reminded me that it’s more complicated than that – it always is.

Now, staying in downtown Cape Town with limited ability to move around town makes it challenging to see the whole city – the whole story.  It might be tempting to see and interact with the many (usually very friendly) black South Africans working around here and just assume that all is well. But I was grateful to happen upon a protest on morning being held at a housing office in Cape Town.  Here’s a short clip.  I managed to speak with the organizer who was a bit hard to hear over the loud singing.  Still, you get some idea of what she’s saying.

So, while apartheid is over, the healing process continues. Not to be critical of South Africa.  I really just post this today to illustrate the fact that the reality of things are often very complicated.  Working for reconciliation and the peace of Christ in our world today necessitates that followers of Jesus exert enormous effort to understand the complexities of our world.  I’ve said a number of times: for the gospel to be understood as “good news” by its hearers, it must speak to what they already understand to be the “bad news.”

So, there you have it. The complicated brokenness of image-bearers -- a way of seeing a city that I recommend trying from time to time.