Southside Church

Milwaukee and the Mission of God

Last Sunday was my first official day serving the Southside Church in Milwaukee as the new lead minister. New is usually exciting for many reasons, especially for the opportunities that await.

As mentioned, the Southside Church is located in Milwaukee, and the name of the congregation tells you something about the location. We’re located on the south side of the city. If you’re looking at a map, the Southside Church is about a mile due west of Milwaukee’s Mitchell International Airport.

This coming Sunday is Family Bible Day, with a focus on the Old Testament book of Jonah. During the Bible class, the children will perform a play that will tell the story of Jonah. During our worship gathering, I will share a message from Jonah that I’m calling The Rest of the Story. The title of the message is because when many people think about the story told in Jonah, all they know is about Jonah being swallowed by a large fish and later spit back out. But there is much more to the story of Jonah, which offers an immensely important contribution to our understanding of God’s mission and our participation in the mission of God.

Knowing the entire story of Jonah has me also thinking about the city of Milwaukee. Like any urban center, many things are happening. The city is also a socially diverse place with different ethnicities, languages, and religions, and like any city, it’s obvious that Milwaukee has its challenges.

When Jonah is told to go preach to the city of Nineveh, he runs the other way. In my experience, I have met too many Christians who would rather run from the city than go on mission with God into the city. Though Jonah’s fear was likely rooted in his ethnic disdain for the Ninevites, there are likely many reasons why Christians want to run from the city. Sometimes, it’s that the city is intimidating. Christians just don’t seem to know how they might engage people in such urban spaces. I also have met White Christians who wanted to flee the city because of their own racism, but that’s a whole other problem to deal with.

I’m raising the matter of Jonah running from Ninevah because Christians need to think about their disposition towards the city. Simply put, whatever we think about the challenges that any city brings, we cannot allow those challenges to have us running away from the city. The redemptive mission of God is for the urban cities as much as it is for the suburbs and rural communities. If God locates us within a city, we can either participate in the mission of God by joining in the redemptive work that God is doing in the city, or we just don’t participate in the mission of God. The former breathes new life into the local church, while the latter is the slow death of the local church.

Whatever challenges we face in the city, we remember that by our baptism, we live in the name of Jesus Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit. The challenges may at times seem like very difficult challenges, but we have nothing to fear, only a city of people to love as followers of Jesus who embody the gospel—the good news of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God.

It’s great to be serving with the Southside Church, and it’s great to be in Milwaukee!