I’ve often wondered what defined an inner-city person. Is it the overwhelming financial struggles that restrict them to living facilities unsuitable for most hard-working Americans? Would it be the high crime rates that plague their neighborhoods and often seduce their children? Perhaps the definition of an inner-city person rests within their broken relationships that have consumed their family structures leaving them with minimal hopes for renewed kinships. On the other hand, maybe it is the cultural differences that frustrate their every effort to appropriately assimilate into popular mainstream American culture. Regardless of what the fitting definition is for an inner-city person, when the church is called to minister to these people, the church knows exactly where to go. Or do they?

The Myth:

The myth is that the inner-city people are found in the geographical center of any metropolitan area. For our great city, we would surely head to the heart of the inner-city of Denver. Surely here these so-called inner-city people would be everywhere. The markings of their neighborhoods are easy to identify with graffiti on the walls, broken glass on the sidewalks, liquor stores on every corner, pawn shops at every turn, and the much needed fast cash and payday loan shops within the blink of an eye.

The Reality:

Inner-city people are not geographical certainties. They also live, dwell, and suffer just as much, if not more to varying degrees, outside of the known geographical inner-city of Denver. In fact, this is true of just about every other major metropolitan city in America. Subsequently, these suburban inner-city peoples are often treated as faceless human beings because they are stuck somewhere in between their inner-city struggles outside the traditional inner-city walls, and the much focused on geographical inner-city mission of the church. Otherwise, in isolation they walk the streets at night, work the late shifts, cut the lawns, clean the offices, unload the trucks at the local Walmart, speak their native Spanish language behind the counters at the local fast food restaurant, heavily depend on welfare, and often pick up the trash many of you place in your front yards, all outside the heart of the city.

The Truth:

Regardless of what has traditionally defined an inner-city person, inner-city people are becoming defined in much broader terms now, but with many of the same ailments. The challenge now is to try to imagine what will become the mission of the church to these suburban inner-city peoples that have rudely invited themselves to live outside the authorized inner-city walls, and have perhaps given the church a mission it didn’t want so near.