Mission Strategy in the City: Cultivation of Inter-ethnic Common Grounds

This book was written to suggest an appropriate mission strategy by identifying key issues that impact urban ethnicities through an urban socioanthropological lens. This book is based on the author's sixteen years of living in China, where he conducted missionary work in urban areas. The book discusses the author's interactions with enclaves of ethnic minorities who had recently arrived in the city after migrating from rural areas. The minorities' struggles to balance cultural assimilation and tradition preservation are highlighted throughout. The book explains that similar phenomena occur within Korean American communities in Los Angeles as well. Based on these observations, the author states that immigrants in many cities face similar social issues and find similar resolutions to them. Though there are many negative aspects to urban areas, readers will see some positive features of cities that can contribute to effective evangelism. The book highlights three main points: (1) Ethnic urban dwellers evolve into many more diverse ways than commonly thought. (2) Ethnic groups are actively choosing the future of their community types. (3) Modern cities create many new communication channels interethnically and also across social strata within ethnicities.