This event featured Randy White, Inter-Varsity National Coordinator for Urban Projects. The title for the conference was taken from the first chapter of his book, Journey to the Center of the City: Making a Difference in an Urban Neighborhood (IVP). Randy claims that one may have to fly upside down “to see things right-side up.” In a society that esteems those who climb the social ladder, Randy calls for the equivalent of the yuppie nightmare: “downward mobility,” which is really what God’s Son did in becoming a humble servant. “Flying Upside Down” is about a paradigm shift, which involves taking another look at God, at Scripture, and at our lives.
The prophet Jonah was angry with God for sparing Nineveh, that pagan city, whose people repented at Jonah’s preaching. God replied to Jonah, “But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?” (Jonah 4:11) God is also concerned about the well-being of the great city of Portland. The Jonah syndrome, though, is rampant in our culture, showing forth not only in white flight to the suburbs, but also Church-flight as well. Our cities are dying. Do we care? If not, perhaps we’re dying, too. If the Evangelical church does not develop a parish mindset for the cities of this land, the church will perish. Yet God is calling many Christians back to the city to live and to care.