Death of a City

I've always been fascinated by the new urban wildernesses that have been springing up in the last 30-40 years in our country's rustbelt. Once powerful metropolis's that have emptied of their commerce, their people, and finally, even buildings. I noticed this story about a house for sale for $1 in Detroit. Judging by its nearly rural appearance, you'd think the property was on some fringe of the city but its not. In fact, its right smack in the middle of what was once the 20th century's "city of the future."

But there's more. Take a brid's eye view of the neighborhood then just cruise to the left, or the right...or any direction and you can see what was once crowded, busy neighborhoods...people. Neighborhoods once packed with Irish from County Cork, Italians from Calabria, African-Americans from South Carolina, Syrians, Poles, Jews, Southern whites. But now there are empty lots everywhere where vandals have burned homes and the city cleared out the debris. The barely visible outlines of communities are slowly disappearing back into a wild landscape.

Detroit had 2 million people in 1950. Today, its has an overstated population of 950,000 and I wonder, what is the church doing out there? God is there. His people are there. Will this city ever live again or will it be doomed like an Ephesus?

Comments

[Doug Roorda]

Very interesting, Garrett. I see this in my more rural haunts; hadn't realized what was happening in The City.

Probably needs a hefty dose of the regulative principle of worship, or self examination, or something like that.

Times are a changing.

[Garrett]

Doug,

I think solutions (church-wise) may lie with what is being done (or not done) in dying rural areas. The problems are similar.