World Mission and the Global City

The two great new realities for world mission are globalization and urbanization. A 2002 article in The Economist said that in 1950, New York was the only world city with a population of over 10 million people. Today there are over 20 such cities, 12 of which have arrived in the last two decades, with many more to come. All of these new megacities are developing in what used to be called the Third World. Why?

In the 18th century, a combination of population growth and technology brought rural Europe to its "carrying capacity," creating a surplus population, and in every family some left countryside and small towns to make a living elsewhere. As a result there were 150 years of urbanization in which the great cities of Europe swelled to be the largest in the world. Many experts now believe this is beginning to happen in Africa, Asia, and to a lesser extent inLatin America, where the cities are literally exploding with new immigrants from the villages and rural areas. If urban-rural population in the southern hemisphere stabilizes at 75 percent to 25 percent, as it did in Europe and North America, then over the next few decades we will see over half a billion people move into the cities of Africa and Asia alone—the equivalent of one new Bangkok (8 million people) being created every two months. (Click here to continue reading this article)