Why Salt Lake City Matters

For as long as I can remember location has been a priority in my life. Over the past few years questions about location took center stage as I considered what it would look like to live out my calling of full-time vocational ministry in Salt Lake City. Most Christians who believe the Bible would agree that how we live matters. But what about where we live? Does where we choose to live really matter? Author Eric O. Jacobsen states,

"I would like to propose that, in contemporary American society, the choice of where we choose to live might also function as a fundamental ethical decision (I might make a parallel case for where we choose to work and where we choose to worship as well)...I believe that choosing to live in a neighbourhood that is mixed in income, mixed in use, and replete with inviting public spaces can be an important fundamental ethical decision. When we can walk from our home to the corner coffee shop or park with the realistic expectation of running into someone who is destitute in one way or another, we place ourselves in the uncomfortable realm of Christian decision making." (Comment Magazine article, "Where Then Shall We Live?")

After much consideration of location and considering various cities in the world, Salt Lake City began making since to me. I began to see my love for the city connect with my desire to be in a place where historic Christianity has had little influence.

My desire to live in an urban center began at a young age. Throughout my life I have been fascinated by, inspired by, and drawn in by the city. As a child visiting a new city brought a adventurous excitement. I remember being fascinated by seeing buildings that seemed to reached into the sky. I remember the energy that came with walking city sidewalks filled with busy and determined people. Since then my choice of location has been the city. Yes, Salt Lake City is a small city when compared to cities like New York, Tokyo, or Mexico City, but Salt Lake City is the urban center of the Intermountain West.

As an adult the city has taken on a new significance as I have begun to understand more and more the story that the Bible tells. From its beginning the biblical story reveals the importance of a future city. The story tells us about a man named Abraham who looked forward to “the city that has foundations whose designer and builder is God." As the story unfolds, we are lead to the climax of history, a depiction of this future city, the New Jerusalem. The story of humankind is essentially a story that begins in a beautiful garden, the Garden of Eden, and ends in the glorious city of God.

So what defines a city and what is significant about the city? It seems to me that if the city is such an important aspect of the whole of the redemptive storyline that the Bible tells, than it is important that we seek to understand what a city is. Classical urbanology defines cities based on their form, size, density, heterogeneity, and structure. Others define cities in terms of human relationships, community, and the relationship of people to institutions. For example, Harvie Conn and Manuel Ortiz define cities as “mosaics of institutions, family and kinship groups, ethnic enclaves, and associations.”
Urban Ministry: The Kingdom, the City, and the People of God, 165) Regardless of the specific definition, cities are places of diversity and creativity. As Joel Kotkin puts it,

“Cities compress and unleash the creative urges of humanity. From the earliest beginnings…they have been the places that generated most of mankind’s art, religion, culture, commerce, and technology.” (The City: A Global History, xx)

Joel Kotkin also characterizes successful cities as performing three critical functions – the creation of sacred space, the provision of basic security, and the host for a commercial market. He states, “Where these factors are present, urban culture flourishes. When these elements weaken, cities dissipate and eventually recede out of history.” (The City: A Global History, xvi) Density, diversity, and beauty make up a flourishing urban culture. In the density and diversity of human populations God displays his common grace to which all of humanity experiences something of the goodness of God.

Furthermore, In A Biblical Theology of the City, Tim Keller, shows his readers how the city is a place of God’s grace. First, Keller says that the city (as the garden) is a place of refuge and safety having once been a place of refuge from wild animals and criminals. Furthermore, Keller points out that the biblical story tells us that when Israel moved into the Promised Land the city became a place of refuge for the accused. The city has always been a gracious place for minorities of every kind creating dense communities of diverse people. Today, cities remain a refuge for the poor, for those seeking deviant lifestyles, and for immigrants.

Keller also points out that the city is a cultural mining/development center where music, the arts, manufacturing, trade, technology advance, and family building are prevalent for the purpose of glorifying God as they are cultivated. It was the city of Jerusalem that became a significant place of worship for believers and symbolized God’s future city in which God promises to dwell forever with his people.

The city, however, is not only a place of beauty, but a place where beauty is disrupted. The biblical story, not only displays how the city is a place in which God’s common grace is display and where the good news of the redemption and renewal is revealed, but also how the sinfulness of humans bring about disruption to the city. Keller explains that while the city is full of beauty, we must also recognize the ways that sin disrupts the beauty of the city. Amidst the diversity, sin fosters the prevalence of racism, classism, and violence. Also, because of sin, the cultural-development power of the city fosters a place of pride, arrogance, excess, over-work, and exhaustion. What results is a spiritual restlessness in the city, a place where there is the fostering of false teaching and false belief.

This spiritual restlessness is the result of living in the tension of existing grace and existing sin. We also experience the tension due to the fact that the kingdom of God has been inaugurated with Jesus Christ’s first coming and yet we still await his second coming when the kingdom will be consummated. The kingdom is already, but not yet and so we continue to await the new city. In short, Conn and Ortiz state,

“Despite sin’s radical distortion of God’s urban purposes, the city remains a mark of grace as well as rebellion, a mark of preservating, conserving grace shared with all under the shadow of the common curse. Urban life, though fallen, is still more than merely livable.” (Urban Ministry: The Kingdom, the City, and the People of God, 87)

Living with this kind of tension between the beauty of grace and reality of a fallen world has become very real to me in Salt Lake City. It has lead me to ask, "What relationship is there between being the Christian in this city and the city itself?" As a Christian, I, alongside those in the community in which I live, are called by God to seek the welfare of the city, for in doing so its welfare is our welfare (Jer. 29:7). In other words, as we seek the welfare of the city amidst the brokenness of the city, we will experience something of God’s grace.

For me, opportunities to seek the welfare of Salt Lake City are becoming more real. Why does Salt Lake City matter? First, consider the location of Salt Lake City. It's location is at the center of the Intermountain West, one region of the United States where the Christian faith has never had a significant presence. According to the Association of Religion Data Archives, in 2006 the LDS church’s Salt Lake City members included 790,764 of the area’s population--representing something less than 60% of the entire population. But, the demographics of Salt Lake City also indicate that a large percentage of the population, 30%, claim no religious affiliation. This leaves just 10% of the population who claim any kind of historic Christianity or any other religious affiliation such as Islam, Buddhism, or Hinduism. According to the ARDA, less than 2% of the entire metro Salt Lake City area claim to be Evangelical Protestants. As a Presbyterian minister this presents significant opportunities and challenges.

What makes Salt Lake City unique? Part of what makes this city unique is its historic beginnings. Unlike the rest of the United States where historic Christianity has had a strong influence upon the culture, this city has always been a place where historic Christianity has had little cultural influence. Salt Lake City, since its beginnings, has been influenced by the prominent presence of the LDS church. Throughout its history, Salt Lake City has been a difficult city for the gospel to take root. Conn and Ortiz state,

“In cities where urban power is overtly religious in orientation and strongly institutionalized, it may be very difficult to see strong church growth or a change of faith.” (Urban Ministry: The Kingdom, the City, and the People of God, 190)

Yet amidst this culture, influenced by religion, Salt Lake City has become like any city, a place of refuge. Salt Lake City is a place where at least 40% of the population does not hold to the dominant religious perspective and so amidst the culture are many who experience a great sense of alienation and have sought to carve out their own place here. Many in the city are seeking ways to experience both a sense of significance and a place of refuge. This is often expressed vividly through activism on behalf of the environment, politics, and human rights. For example, the prevalence of activism for gay/lesbian/transgender rights is vibrant in Salt Lake City where there is a significant gay and lesbian culture and where the annual Gay Pride Parade is the second largest annual parade in the city. (Information from Wikipedia)

Like most cities in the world, Salt Lake City also continues to become more and more ethnically diverse as it attracts many immigrants from around the world. In seeking a place of refuge, many who have also suffered from racial injustice have moved to cities. Keller states,

“The city attracts the minorities of any society who can band together for mutual support. Thus the city is deeply merciful to those with less power, creating safe enclaves for singles vs. families, the poor (and even the rich!) vs. the bourgeois, immigrants vs. longer-term residents, racial minorities vs. majorities. Thus the city will always be the most diverse human-life structure.”

Salt Lake City, which was settled in the mid-1800's by pioneers seeking refuge, remains a destination in which many have moved to in seeking a place of refuge. These include various ethnic minorities as well. Based on the U.S. Census Bureau’s information from 2000 Salt Lake City's population is made up of 33% ethnic minorities consisting also of immigrants from many countries. The need is high for a city-wide endeavor to meet the needs of ethnic minorities and immigrants in this place.

The city provides the diversity which is a reflection of the future city depicted in Revelation 21, a city which will consist of a great multitude of people “from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb”(Rev. 7:9). As the people of God, the church, we are not only awaiting a city in which harmony exists, but now in the present age it is essential that the church seeks justice, kindness, and humility toward this end. As I continue to learn more about my city, I hope to seek ways to do my part in providing refuge for the marginalized. My prayer is that I would discover ways to seek the welfare of the city. Because Salt Lake City matters, my prayer is that I continually look forward to and make steps here in this place toward the reality of the future city, “the city that has foundations whose designer and builder is God."

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