Sayo Ajiboye
DMin Creating Onramps for Calling
May 2007
Encounter God in the City
Randy White
191 pages

The global city is a symbol for many things that are NOT positive. Randy White did a yeoman’s job at redemption of the city. Writing from many years of actual residence in a city that has been rated as one of the most challenging in the United States of America, Randy saw hope in the midst of devastation and the book is an attempt to assist others who might be called by the Lord to such a ministry to create an onramp for access.

Dr White is totally convinced that the city defines the future of our world. They are stronger than nation states in their influence over global economic systems, political alliances, and forge and shape the social realities of our globe. Cities are the new bastion of question for the relevance of the church. Is the gospel true only in the suburbia or is it true in the concrete jungles of the global cities? How can our gospel be valid if it is not true in the place where bad news seemingly resides? Can one truly experience God’s strength under the curving sections of massive freeways? Finally, can the church hope to reach a world that is flowing to the cities if the church flows away from that same locus? If 50% of the world’s people and 62% of its Christians live in a place, how can the church engage with this population and be involved with this “catch basin” of humanity? Dr. White is totally convinced that a transformed Christian in the city will be a transformer of the systems of the city.

Dr White went down the formational memory lane. He stated how a “sorry I can’t help you” in the middle of a study of Isaiah 58’s classic promise of God’s help became a tsunami of the soul that confronted his observance of God’s word. The church m,ust not just talk compassion, it must practice it; if we do commit to this, we will be ready for an extreme overhaul. The word of God must encounter and be enshrined in the work of God; this is when transformation occurs. Reflection must be accompanied by response; this is when dissonance learning takes place. Experience is critical to learning; this is a core thesis for Dr. White.

Dr White wrote about a “disorienting dilemma” this is a dilemma where perspective of the actor and that of the observers clash. How often it is we seek to appear good and the recipient read snobbish. For Dr White it was a little girl’s perception of him as “rich” and his need to simply say “I guess I am.” Layers of knowledge became multifaceted for the good doctor, actions became carefully conceived, because in the city, it does not always look as it seems.

Dr white dealt with the sin of low expectation of people other than himself, he engaged with assessment and reassessment of assumptions; Action follows reflection, truth becomes crystallized and the result will be “a deep calling , a single message and a true love of neighbors.”

Dr. White quotes Lauren Daloz when he affirmed that all of these (and more) will happen “not in a gradual linear way but in distinct and recognizable leaps.” Shalom between people and for people will be built not as a concept or a theological construct but as an experience. The gospel for instance must develop a confrontational face. Dr White was strong about the need to “unmask the social systems in order rto transform them.”

Dr. White wrote – relevantly about my nation and my people. Wew have seen a massive move of the gospel, millions of people throng crusade grounds conversions occur in their thousands per meeting but everyone wonders, what day will it be when “the gospel will permeate and redeem the city?” When will it ever “connect with the culture and language and be noticed in the midst of the endless parade of choices and options?” Dr White writes about the identity of the city, the urbs, the civitas and the anima.

The very thought of a night in the midst of Lagos city sends fear of potential danger up my heart. The set up or the urb of my city is confusing to say the best, planless and chaotically dangerous to say the truth. The civitas can be summarized in a slogan that was popularized many years ago. In Lagos popular street English (pidgin English) the saying goes like this: “Lagos don spoil, Egunje spoil am” literally translated this means “Lagos has spoilt, bribery and corruption will not make it work.” The anima of the city is fatalism at its worst, but it is a fatalism that has at its core a violent almost cannibalistic push for self perseverance; there is another saying among Lagosians that goes like this “I go make it” meaning “I will be successful at all cost.”

Can this civitas be a proto – evangelistic tool? Are Lagosians waiting for a Christian or two who will be willing to live vicariously among them and show them what it means to be agents of change?