4 Ways To “GO” Together In Cities

By S.Crawley

Photo by Airam Dato-on on Unsplash ‍

When Jesus gave the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20), He commanded His followers to go and make disciples of all peoples. Since John Wesley, this passage has been widely emphasised in many Protestant circles.

However, there are two aspects of the passage that are under-emphasised and relevant to urban mission and discipleship.

Firstly, English translations often hide the fact that the thrust of the command is on the “As you go” rather than the “go”. That is, less about the physical movement and more about the posture of making disciples as you go.

Disciple-making woven into the rhythms of everyday life.

Secondly, those of us in individualistic cultures can easily overlook the fact that this is a communal command.

Jesus discipled within community, sent His followers in pairs, and called them to connect with households embedded in the social fabric of towns and villages.

Disciple-making is meant to be a group activity in everyday life.

Cities make this harder than it sounds.

Individually, the city pulls us in so many different directions.

Even within our own families, we feel the challenge of keeping up with competing schedules and relational needs - and church communities experience the same pressure, as any cell group leader or pastor will tell you.

So how do we “go” together and engage the harvest together in the midst of urban life?

There are no easy answers to this, but sometimes we get stuck with a fixed idea of what "going together" should look like. If there’s a mismatch between the approach in our mind and the reality of our life and family stage, what God is calling us to do in a given season, or even just the physical reality of our city, the result can be disempowerment and discouragement: “Oh, I guess that’s not for me.”

Not necessarily.

Here are four approaches we are seeing in Asian cities, and elsewhere.

Which one(s) fit your call and season best right now?

1. ‘Going’ Together As A Team

Going together as a team means a shared focus, allocation of time, and a clear goal you are pursuing.

A harvest-focused or affinity-focused team may also carry shared harvest relationships, which deepens both accountability and missional coherence.

The challenge is that for most people, the team is one life role among many - family, income, church responsibilities all compete for the same bandwidth, and this can make it difficult to establish rhythm and depth, particularly where the team depends on volunteers. There can also a constant tension to manage between depth of connection within the team and effectiveness in doing what the team is called to do.

From the Field

H leads a team in Asia serving a specific migrant population; she has built a layered structure, from general volunteers with a basic commitment to show up and socialise with the migrants, to a core team that has regular rhythms of prayer and planning, are highly committed to participating, and is on the same page with vision and values.

Shared purpose and commitment is the glue that holds a team like this together.

2. ‘Going’ Together As A Community

Going together as a community involves a larger overlap in the rhythms of life - families who know each other, shared weekly or daily patterns, and following Jesus together as a foundation of relationship.

One of the big challenges here is that because God places community members in different locations, workplaces, and affinities, it may be difficult to collaborate directly in the harvest. This causes a tension : (a) Do we engage separately in our different spaces and help harvest connections explore God where they already are, so their natural social networks can also taste Jesus? or, (b) Do we try to invite and assimilate them into the community we already have?

The latter may offer deeper support, but it often leads to a distancing in their existing, ‘natural’ relationships. In addition, the extra time and energy involved in getting comfortable in a new social group can be overwhelming and discourage seekers before they’re convinced they want to pursue Jesus.

From the Field

C leads a cell group in Asia with a clearly articulated intent to equip people for engaging and discipling those around them; members are discipled and challenged to discern what God is doing in the lives of people they already know. The result is lots of "little" things happening out in the world that spread away from the cell rather than drawing momentum toward it.

That can feel discouraging in the short term - particularly if there is a cultural tendency to celebrate numbers and size - but over time C and her community have seen momentum building in a number of situations unlikely to ever come back to the cell. Spiritual conversations, new discovery groups, baptism and new community connection spaces are all happening in ways that can naturally flow in a range of different social situations - hairdressing salons, workout groups, school communities and living rooms.

‘Going’ together as a community allows both relational depth in the discipleship journey of group members, and reaching out into diverse harvest spaces that would be impossible if they had to do it together.

3. ‘Going’ Together As A Workplace Community-Team

A third approach emerges naturally for those who already share a work environment: your lives have natural overlap without any additional logistics.

Without significantly adding to the time and energy you are already spending, additional intentionality can deepen the interpersonal connection, and prayerful discernment can surface shared relationships, social networks, and affinity groups you can bless and serve together.

The challenge here is managing the tension between this opportunity and calling, and the reality that important relationships in your life - a spouse, children - may not have the same access to the workplace, or the relational capacity to join in.

From the Field

Y leads an education company in Asia; he builds rhythms of prayer and seeking God together alongside practical equipping in living life with God in the workplace, and personally models a walk with Jesus that is transparent, vulnerable, and looks the same professionally as it does personally.

Colleagues in this community spend long hours together and engage in both spiritual and work issues. Their rhythms of gathering have replicated, spilling into social networks and families outside the workplace.

Just because it starts at work doesn’t mean it has to stay there.

4. ‘Going’ Together As A Peer Learning Community

A fourth approach is built around shared purpose more than shared life.

We may have completely different areas of primary focus, with ‘normal life’ moving in completely disconnected circles, but it may still make sense to come together with a high level of intentionality to connect, compare notes, and encourage and stimulate each other as we pursue a complementary vision.

This type of ‘together’ relationship exists for mutual edification and for the sake of a bigger vision.

The challenge is creating space for rhythms that support connection, learning and encouragement without those rhythms pulling members away from the primary responsibilities and calls they each carry.

From the Field

In one South Asian city, leaders from several churches, ministries, and educational institutions share a sense that God wants to do more there. Separately, they carry many responsibilities and full schedules, but they share a conviction that they need to create space in their calendars to seek God and discern how to move the needle in their city.

They are experimenting with new urban approaches in their respective contexts, coming together to pray, exchange experiences, and plan for how they can better serve lostness and brokenness in their city.

‘Going’ together in this way has led to connections and collaborations emerging amongst their second-level leaders as well. Projects are being initiated, new discovery groups are emerging. Everyone benefits from the lessons that are being learned and nobody is isolated in the challenges they are facing.

Learning with peers generates encouragement and momentum which is harder to find when working separately.

Four Ways to "Go" Together in Cities

Here’s an overview:

Approach	What It Looks Like	Benefits	Challenges to Navigate
As a Team	Shared focus, agreed time, clear goal.	Strong purpose and accountability.	Can compete with family, work, church. Hard to build depth.
As a Community	Overlapping life rhythms; families following Jesus together.	Deep discipleship and reach into many different spaces.	Community members live in different social worlds; discipleship as "pulling in" vs discipleship as "sowing in" to social networks.
As a Workplace Community-Team	Co-workers add prayer and intentionality to the day.	Lives already overlap; spills into families and wider networks.	Spouses and kids can't easily join in.
As a Peer Learning Community	Different leaders meeting around a shared city vision.	Encouragement, momentum, shared lessons.	Finding time to connect that doesn't distract people from their primary calling.

These are some of the expressions of ‘going’ together that we are seeing. It’s not an exhaustive list, but a sample of the kinds of combinations that are possible.

Getting Practical

As you think about God's vision for your city and/or affinity group:

1) Which of these four approaches best fits your current season - your family stage, your harvest relationships, and what God seems to be calling you to right now?

2) Each approach carries a specific tension to manage. Which tension resonates most strongly for you, and what would it look like to navigate it intentionally?

3) Where in your city do you see a peer learning community as an opportunity - and who might you invite into that kind of shared discernment?

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S. Crawley serves leaders and teams in Asia carrying a vision for their cities and is passionate about helping people grow in authentic relationships. He also knows how to make nachos.

© 2026 S. Crawley. All rights reserved.