the gospel and the god-4-saken
Clearly mission to the burbs is a major issue for the vast majority of missional minded followers in the West. This is especially true for America where the cities are comprised of what seems to be never-ending suburbia. I have always experienced middle class suburbia as soul-less places, symbolizing consumptive lifestyle, the loss of adventure, and a slow but inevitable death of the spirit. So how do we engage the suburbs? Here is an excellent article on mission in suburbia by Todd Hiestand (used with permission.)
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Alan,
I can’t wait to read this. My paper that I’m writing for you and Kurt–guess what? It’s on missional engagement in suburbia. I’m tackling the brokenness of busyness, consumption, emptiness and the like, and how the missional church can bring healing to this group.
I grew up in suburbia, so I feel I know a little bit about the challenge of suburban Christianity. I’m looking forward to reading Todd’s paper!
A great book on the emptiness of suburbia–Death by Suburb by David Goetz. A popular style, but witty, sarcastic, self-accusatory, and dead on.
James
James, dude, we are too much on the same page! I also am preparing to minister in this setting and look forward to reading the paper.
Alan, how gracious of Todd Hiestand to give you permission to share this with us.
Be blessed.
About a month ago I decided to search for anything on mission in suburbia and came across this paper. I think this is a timely contribution to the mission-to-the-west movement.
The reality is that most people live in the suburbs.
I feel we need to get serious about looking at how to do mission in the suburbs. One of the problems, I think, is that many in the suburban church have either moved there for the same reasons (security, comfort, sameness, big houses and land etc) as everyone else, or they have grown up in the suburbs with these values passed down. While many of these “ideals” are understandable, they nevertheless need to be critiqued. Because the suburban church is comprised of fellow suburbanites, it first needs to understand the problems with some of these suburban values before it can be a distinctive, transforming and redeeming community.
I feel Hiestand has given a good general picture that should function to get things going – which is appropriate. I think we need discerning church leaders to understand the unique, specific contexts they are faced with and move past the packaged evangelism or discipleship program. There is, I think, a lot that needs to be worked through!
Anybody who has read anything current on the future of the church has been struck by the reality that the Church to a large degree has fled the cities for the safety of suburbia. And so, the call: Go to the cities. And that is a good thing — I know I feel the call.
But, what about all the people who fled the cities? Who is going to reach them? Would it not be ironic if those who God has quickened to see the needs of the church in a post Christiandom world made a reverse exodus, not fleeing from the Cities, but to them, and leaving the hard work of making a missional suburban Church to others.
Thanks Al! It is great to see something and be part of a discussion about suburbia. You know our situation and I for one have often felt that folk often view what is done in the suburbs as almost inferior or of less importance to the work or cultures (read cutting edge) of the urban environments. I look forward to reading this paper and the comments that will follow here!
BTW - Great party!
hey everyone, i will be following all your comments and thoughts closely. I am excited to see more conversation happening around this issue since I obviously believe its a very, very big deal. I have also found that its a lot easier to write about being missional in suburbia than it is to lead a community there. looking forward to all your thoughts, critiques and questions.
I look forward to reading it too. There is truly a need to better develop this area of missional engagement.
My only concern, and I don’t want to it to dismiss the value of this article, as I see a greater responsibility in the nature of suburban missional engagement, I don’t see a marked rise in urban involvement. In fact, on some level, some use such material to further ignore the critical imbalance. This does NOT reflect on this article or the author (or those genuinely called to these communities), but rather on those who are not responding to call to urban centres. And let’s face it, someone isn’t responding.
Peace,
Jamie
Read the paper. Thanks, Todd, for the thoughts. Suburban Nation and The Suburban Christian are two of the few books on this subject, which Todd cites. The literature directly on this is rather sparse.
One of the problems with suburbia is the absence of good third places. They are literally zoned out of existence. For this and many other reasons there is a loneliness and lack of community in the suburbs that is profound.
One suburban parent that I shared the gospel with confessed to me that when her child wanted to drop soccer, she didn’t want him too. Why? Because those other soccer parents were the only community that she had.
This too is a broken condition.
On Jamie’s comment, yes, we need not neglect a call to cities. One of the things that I propose in my paper is “mission trips” from suburban churches into the cities. Not necessarily primarily for what they can do for the cities. But for the transforming affect upon suburban Christians, both as a communitas experience and as a way to deconstruct the consumeristic and materialistic worldviews of suburban Christians.
James
I recently was talking with someone who has a long background in church planting, and it was interesting that he had equated missional church with a particular form of church–an emerging church. That is, a more postmodern expression of the church, with cool music, candles, tables, etc. The concept of being missional in a suburban context was new to him.
I think that this confusion, unfortunately, is fairly widespread. We need to help all churches see that they need to be missional, regardless of their context. And yes, that includes suburbs.
James
This is something that I am struggling with on a very personal basis. What does it mean to be an alternative witness as a middle-age, middle-class housewife in the midst of suburbia?
What are the values and practices I must embrace? Simplicity rather than consumerism, hospitality rather than isolation, involvement with people rather than individualism.
Will doing these things make a difference and is it really missional? There are places I could “go to” and serve, but I feel like I need to figure out a truly missional lifestyle in my “living among.”
While in suburbia you can live among and minister to very real spiritual needs, there has to be an aspect of looking beyond the suburbs to minister to the poor because they aren’t among us.
So, I guess what I’m saying is that I can go to serve, but I think for those of us who live in the suburbs there has to be a noticeable way of living as an alternative witness to the hustle-bustle, keep up with the Jones’ life around us.
Todd, Thanks for the article. I lead an urban church but people are coming from all over the place. I appreciate the topic. It seems to be once we have de-constructed the problem, we have to ask what is next. Often times it seems the answer for Suburbia is for them to become more urban. I don’t see how this answers the problem.
I want to know how the Gospel becomes good news to the suburban person, without having them engage in an urban mindset. It creates a new colonialism to assume that Suburban must become urban to be more missional.
With the rising cost of living in an urban context the poor are moving to many soft zones that buffer urban and suburban. These soft zones at least in my city have a higher number of low income apartment living, lots of car lots and strip clubs and very little “culture” that anyone would see as attractive. Even church plants are not attracted to these areas.
I see the suburbs having justice opportunity very near where they live in these soft zones.
I think it would be a great discussion to see how community happens in Suburbia, is it really different than urban? What does it mean for someone to have their heart transformed and stay in suburbia? What would their life look like, what would be different about it.
The irony of the suburbs of my city is that they have larger houses for less money than the houses in the urban core. So it is not a safe assumption that these people are wealthier than their urban neighbors. Though they are a bit more segregated economically.
The ethnic diversity is no longer an urban issue either. We live in a more suburban neighborhood, yet our kids go to school where 26 languages are represented, our neighbors are Indian Hindu, Chinese Buddhist, atheist and a seventh day adventist. So pluralism is here as well.
So many issues are similar but there are very different challeges. It would be great to see more conversation around these topics if anyone is up for it. Does missional in the burbs, look that much different than in the urban core? If the issues that the gospel has come to adress are hidden more in the burbs how do we bring them to light? What efforts has anyone tried that bore fruit in bringing issues of the Gospel to bear on this context? If the values of a people group are me, how, now, and wow, then is the seeker movment a missional movement to the burbs that needs to leverage its sending componenet better?
Thanks for all you guys are doing
Rick McKinley
Nailed it, Grace….counter-cultural, missional life in the suburbs will be very challenging and require significant vision and tremendous sacrifice. Each “mission field” bring with it a unique form of culture shock and sacrifice. My family is gearing up to slow down
James, good comments. I know this stuff is close to your heart. It should be an issue all of us take seriously though as most people in Western contexts live in suburbia.
What worries me most about suburbia though is the stiflingly middleclassness (sic) of it all. You all know I love Ellul. Well here is another Ellul quote…
“There is an exact equilibrium. ‘The more security and guarantees we want against things, the less free we are. Tyrants are not to be feared today, but our own frantic need of security is. Freedom inevitably means insecurity and responsibility. But we moderns seek above all to be responsible for nothing.” - J. Ellul, The Subversion of Christianity, 168.
Grace,
I hear your struggle and your voice. You ask will doing things like living simply make a difference, and is it really missional.
To this I would say yes and yes. When we model what it is like to live under God’s reign, we demonstrate this reign and “proclaim” it to the world. The brokennes of suburbia doesn’t look that bad–what is a busy, rat-race life compared to extrem poverty? But talk to suburbanates, and in their honest moments, when they actually have an opening for reflection in their schedules, and they will speak to you of the emptiness that they experience. It is profound.
In the same way, offering healing and service to broken suburbanites doesn’t look glamourous and seems small. It is doing things like baby-sitting your neighbor’s kids–who are spoiled and lonely at the same time–so that the overly scheduled couple can have a night out together as a couple.
It may sounds strange, but it is probably harder to get people to do this kind of thing (baby-sit) than it is to get people to go to an inner city project and serve food to the homeless. Service doesn’t have to be sexy to be needed and truly helpful. Believe me when I say that when we or our life group have offered free baby-sitting to our stressed out neighbors, they have taken it gladly–and have been extremely grateful. Of course we hope to some time get to the root causes of all of this activity, and seek to model something different.
Is this missional? Yes. It is proclaiming the reign of God and serving the world. We don’t have to go to an inner city to be missional. Anytime we “go out” to our neighbors, our schools, our communites and do the ministry of Christ, we are being missional.
Alan,
Good quote. You/Ellul are asking, where is the risk, the throwing away of security in middle-class suburbia?
To this I would say that going to the inner city certainly does have its role to play (see previous quote). However, most of people are not going to live in the inner city, and there is a very prominent psychological risk when living alternatively in suburbia. The risk of not having your child “succeed” because they aren’t taking SAT prep courses when they are two. The risk of being socially shunned from not keeping up with the Joneses. The risk of trusting in God instead of material things. The risk of offering hospitality, rather than more self-absorption.
I would propose that any form of turning from idols is risky. That is the nature of faith. There are risks other than physical, and they can have a powerful shaping role in our lives as well.
I think your comment about middleclassness is spot-on Alan. This is what I was trying to get at in my previous comment. On the most part, I believe Christian suburbanites are given to the same middle-class values as everyone else. The suburban church, then, needs to engage in self-critique “before it can be a distinctive, transforming and redeeming community.” My guess is that if this is to be done sensitively, then it is going to take some time…
Having said this, I have been thinking recently about sitting down with some people to compile some kind of list of the positive aspects/nature of suburbia. Surely there has to be characteristics, practices, values that can be harnessed and redeemed?
I am getting excited with this thread…but I have a critical project that keeps me from reading and commenting and getting on with it! Soon, I hope.
Well, I finally had a chance to read this fine article. And all I can say is “Thank you” to my precious brother Todd for documenting yet another aspect of the vision God has given me.
I had a grand vision for a new kind of church planting movement (new to me, at least). The vision was so huge that people generally blinked at me and said: “Wow…big vision. What would that look like?” Well, I could see it in my mind, but I needed to sit down and describe it. So I outlined the vision. “Wow…pretty radical…how are you going to do that, and who’s going to sign up to join you?” And so I bagan to identify the people God would call to this “cluster” church. Then it was “How do you know that this could work? And, in my isolation, I was stumped. I knew that if the vision came from God, he would make it happen if I trusted him. And, as Brad is fond of saying, the “Divine Dominoes” began to fall with the documentation to back up this vision: First, I found Neil Cole’s “Organic Church,” then met Alan at Neil’s So. Cal conference and picked up Alan and Michael’s “Shaping” and Alan’s “The Forgotten Ways.” (And hooked up with all you lovely people at TFW blog!) Now I don’t have to worry that people are thinking I’m totally crazy when I show them my proposal for a counter-cultural, semi-communal, neo-monastic, simple and sacrificial living form of apprentice-based disciple-making in suburban subdivisions.
Not that people don’t still think I’m crazy. I just am thrilled to have articulate tools to share with them that can show them I’m not the only one thinking like this.
God is so totally faithful to us when we step out in faith to obey his call…wow…so I continue to follow this word: don’t wait; be patient.
Thanks for letting me share…stay tuned…all prayers are welcome.
Be blessed, all.
Peggy you are such a gem! Really unusually saintly perrson. You inspire me!
Hi
It’s lovely when things come together in a melting pot of ideas. I’m finding this as well where I am, but the most exciting aspect is as you see it all get simpler rather than more complex! lol
One point I would throw in is that it isn’t always safe to assume that people in suburbs (or anywhere else for that matter) actually want community. Some people genuinely find the community aspect of church repellant. Nigel Wright has just written an article over at Incarnate, the Baptist European Church Planters network, which makes this point.
http://incarnate-network.eu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=23&Itemid=45
We are used to being consumers, able to keep everyone at arms length, a safe distance away. We have internalised our trust impairedness to the point of it simply being our cultural way of relating to the world.
The church in the UK seems to be entirely designed to meet the needs of those who are living at arms length, those who would not choose to be particularly engaged - as demonstrated by the lack of emphasis on discipleship and formation in our churches generally and the downplaying of the meaning of membership. ‘High demand’ church is so associated in people’s minds with abusive church, the two concepts are almost inseparable.
Suburbia and communitas do not seem to go together.
What do people think?
Well, we find inspiration is the most unusual places, now don’t we
Praying for the visa situation for you and Deb to be resolved in God’s time…which, as you know, could be “11:59″ if you follow me
And, James, I’m having this discussion with my oldest(12 years old) son every day. Like why designer clothes do not define his identity…and why it is okay to be “the only” 6th grader who doesn’t have a cell phone…and why it is important for his to invest in the lives of his two younger brothers, who are asking all the “what does it mean to be Christian and when am I ready to make that decision–and is their older brother a Christian?”
This is the arena where we are preparing to go forward and cast down the idols of ease and comfort and security and “sameness” for the wild and free life that centers around people getting closer to Christ and each other…everything else “burns.”
My father-in-law has been sharing stories that his father journaled of his growing up year at the turn of the century. At not-quite nine years old, for many deeply sad-but-understandable reasons, his mother was left alone with no money to care for 10 children. She decided she could only care for the three babies…so the older seven were told that they had to leave and fend for themselves. Looking back, he wondered how any of them survived.
My oldest son read that story yesterday and looked at me and asked if I could do something like that. I have an almost nine year old son…and I cannot imagine sending him off to fend for himself…there but for the grace of God….
But it certainly gave him some significant perspective on the whole cell phone discussion. And he is looking on his little brothers in some new light.
Or, as my almost nine year old said, after listening to me getting worked over by a woman for not preventing my son from opening his car door into her bumper (not a scratch or dent occurred): “Mom, why does that lady think that things are more precious than people?”
Our little ones are watching and listening…and it is a tremendous task to see what they are seeing and hear what they are hearing and speak God’s perspective into their lives….but they do listen and I was very proud of my son (not for banging her car with the door) for putting the entire episode into perspective.
Our true hope is in reaching the children, friends…
Well, being born and raised in suburbia I would say, we just need to accept that it is unredeemable.
I am more and more believing that the truth of incarnational ministry goes across all cultural borders.
rev
Several questions, confessions, maybe proposals…
First a proposal. There may be several different suburbias with different kinds of cultures. What I’d call “settled suburbias,” second or third ring residential areas that have been around for forty or fifty years may have a decidedly different ethos than the more recent phenomenon of vinyl villages emerging from farm fields in “outer” or “ultra-outer” rings of urban areas. The former might become soft areas as described above, but they tend to take on more of a neighborhood feel and neighborhood practices. There is still some sense of being a community with a name– and the name isn’t that of the “development” but of the region.
I think mission may look a bit different in these two different types of community practice. These areas do still have a few third places around– and some of those may be cul de sacs and sidewalks and even porches.
Confession: Where my family now lives is in the latter type of development– a vinyl village sprung from a former corn field. Something like 800 houses in the development. It’s technically part of a town– but not really, only geographically and via the school system. It was the school system and the affordability of living there– closer to my wife’s work in the downtown of the major city (Indianapolis) that brought us there from a small town setting near a small city with a school system that was desperately failing our children– and at a one hour drive from my wife’s work.
We moved into this suburb for the schools and the convenience of shopping and other amenities. We also chose it because it was likely to be diverse in many ways– since in contained a wide variety of housing sizes and prices.
And we hate it. The loneliness is oppressive. Neighbors come and go– a number rent for a while and move elsewhere. Debt is driving a number of them under– foreclosures are not uncommon. Diverse, yes. Community– no. Not yet for us.
A further confession– I’m not connected to any of the churches there. Nor are my wife or family. We have church connections, but they’re in the city. Though a lot of the folks there live in a variety of types of suburbs as well.
As I look at the churches that ARE in the suburbs near us, what I see seems to be the kind of cultural capitulation that Todd describes. These churches appear to be attractional rather than missional. They are raising funds and helping some in the cities– but from what I can pick up, that appears to be more of a side venture than job 1. Job 1
is any number of things– many of them driven by consumerism. Perhaps these churches are helping people become more “moral” consumers– but the consumerist slavery is not broken.
I’m with Peggy, I suppose. (And I’d love to hear more about your approach, Peggy!). I don’t know that the churches there will do what needs to be done. The churches I’m connected to aren’t where I live. I know I need authentic Christian community in this place– not to be extractional but to be missional with these particular neighbors I don’t know and may rarely find at home or about to be able to connect with them.
I don’t think existing suburban congregations are likely to do much for us, I mean our local community, really. They exist on ratifying consumerism of particular sorts. That’s sustainable for their maintenance and even their growth– at least for the time being.
Bring on the ideas. We need more of them. Desperately.
Hullo-o-o
At the risk of stating the obvious… people are people. Whether they’re urban, buffer or suburban people, most people have a deep-seated need for community (since they are created in the image of a relational, communal God.) I grew up in an urban environment and in my formative adulthood lived, breathed, drank and drugged in the inner city. When I did come into Christ and then later felt that God was calling me to mission in the ‘burbs… I came kicking and screaming. For a time I detested it and railed against it, attempting to give God enough grief that He might reprieve me and send me back to the excitement of the inner city. Alas God did not change His mind… I changed mine! I realised that the need for community is just as strong, if not stronger, in Suburbia than it is in the inner city locale.
In generations past the church gave expression to that need for community, and people were prepared to pay the price of church services that were unrelated to their lives or just plain boring, for the sake of connection with a community that were, in the main, like-minded. The increasing prevalence of consumerism as an indicator of success, has ramped up competition between neighbours, so we isolate ourselves from the Joneses. Since isolation is not our natural state we are in pain - which we fail to accurately diagnose, so we self-medicate with bigger and better stuff than them pesky Joneses, which is designed to at least make us feel better, if only momentarily. Unfortunately the church in the western context has embraced consumerism… so we have bigger and better “holy” stuff than them pesky Charismatic/Baptist/Orthodox Church of Jesus Christ of the latter day Joneses down the road have, which is designed to at least make us feel better, if only momentarily.
With that in mind we recognise that the church is no longer the centre of community, so we ask the question “where are the centres of community?” and we go join them! In our suburban context we’ve simply identified the places of gathering… and encouraged people to get involved there. The primary opportunity in our suburb is through the local schools - people still have to send their children to school… so we partner with the schools in events that they are running, or we initiate events that serve them and we build relationship with the families. It’s not as sexy as running an inner-city cafe/restaurant but that’s not our context. Incidentally a few years ago we did run an evening alt.worship service in a local community hall that we’d spend all afternoon preparing… with great coffee, nice candles, artwork and graphic presentation, a live band performing “secular” songs with meaning, interesting and diverse subjects and contributors. After a year of notable public myopia we surrendered to the awareness that it wasn’t a happening thing for us.
In our context supporting school functions, membership of local organisations’ voluntary management committees and community groups, running playgroups and craft groups, golf fundraisers and clean-up campaigns, are all practical events that benefit our community and give us proximity to our neighbours, helping us in the process of painstakingly persevering in building bridges. We finance an annual community day - this year with food, coffee, face-painting, jumping castle, funfair stuff all free for our community. We raise funds for the local schools - recently giving them $1,000 towards library books - we rent a traditional church’s building to provide a support service for senior people in our community two days a week… We run a Saturday night youth group and a Sunday morning church service in one of the school halls, which we rent cheaply.
Presently on most Sundays we have over 40 children under the age of 8/9 involved in our Kid’s programme and increasingly we are running events in support of what they are doing. A few mum’s host afternoon tea after picking the kids up from school, one organises regular nights out to a restaurant with parents whose kids are in her daughter’s class. A couple of men coach kid’s sporting clubs and some of us have the difficult task of being incarnational with a bunch of blokes playing pool at a local pub!
We have started on a journey to build a community college - offering subjects like “succeeding as a single parent,” “budgeting on unemployment benefit,” “what teachers wish you knew about your child’s homework.” Our aim is to restore basic biblical values to our community, preparing the way for people embracing the originator of the values - if they ever do! We’ll hold discussion groups on childcare and discipline, hire experts to discuss marriage relationships and dealing with divorce; we aim to provide childcare and an evening meal for kids while their parents are involved in study. We’re also planning recovery groups and days out/picnics etc etc etc… We are just a small bunch of people which has grown from 13 who began this journey 7 years ago - we’re not unique, anyone can do many of the things that are happening in our midst. We just have to be wearing lenses that can see there is a huge mission field before us, we pray that God will continue to open our eyes to the fields that are already ripe for harvest… AND people are regularly connecting with Christ in their/His own time rather than to fit a programme we run AND we’re having lots of fun in the process… Having originally come kicking and screaming I see such great purpose in what’s going on in our community and look forward to much more fun into the future…
Slainte
A Celtic Son
Alan,
My questions comes as a result of a unique situation where I live in the suburbs, but serve in an urban church, a story too long to get into.
My questions are: How does suburbia connect to the more urban or the inner city in relationship to the Gospel and being missional? Does being missional mean that we are only self contained in our own suburban community to the neglect of the urban? If we don’t live in the urban area does suburban bear any responsibility to engage in the plight of those in the urban? Can suburbia offer anything substantial to the urban if we don’t live there? and vis versa?
Do churches who move out of the urban in order to relocate in suburbia to avoid the complexities and difficulties of urban life bear any responsibility to this? Just questions I am personally struggling through that seem to be relevant the conversation here.
Just for clarification… when you folks are talking about “urban” do you mean “the urban poor”? In Australia the poor tend to be scattered through the suburbs, especially the outer suburbs. Where I live (an outer suburb of Melbourne) it’s a very mixed socio-economic place… our local church has a congregation of those with mental illness and drug issues, plus a more “middle Australia” kind of congregation… with significant mixing.
How do we engage the suburbs? Why Al. We have answered that question already: Show me your sub-boobs…
And one for the road: “Stand erect, you over-tall girl!” [Bertrand Williams from “Christian Girl’s Problems”.
Ignore Leanne you lot. Don’t encourage her!
We wanted to do a T-Shirt with that slogan on it “Show me your sub-boobs”
You had to have been there.
Celtic Son,
Thank you for sharing your story of missional engagement in the suburbs. You offer many practical examples of serving in this context. Where are you located, by the way? And what service has seemed to be most well-received by your community?
James
No great loss to the literature of blog comments, but I put in that it might be worth taking into account when looking at suburban church in particular that some people find the community associated with church one of the factors that put them off.
It’s surprising how many Christian writers assume that just as there is a ‘God-shaped hole’ in every unbeliever, so there is this aching need for community in every by-definition-must-be-lonely non-Christian. Nigel Wright, Principal of Spurgeon’s College, points out in an article on Incarnate church planter’s network that some who are more used to consumer culture actually find the community aspect of church repellant. They are more used to being consumers, and in control of the situation, able to come in and pick and choose what to select and take away with them.
http://incarnate-network.eu/
I know that has been noticed in some emerging church discussions I’ve listened in on elsewhere, and wonder how it is possible to build a missional church with communitas in a gathering where typically 80% plus are going to remain passive. early stage Christians no matter how much they are encouraged into missional commitment, and where some are put off by the idea of involvement with others necessary for effective discipleship.
Warmest blessings,
Hope you get to come and sort the UK church out after you’ve finished with the US! Now we are the REAL challenge… :0)
Eleanor
Sister under private vows
Penzance
Out comes the geography buff…
Adelaide is only 1% city centre and the rest could be described as suburban, though there are pockets of high density. So when I read the article the first time (when Hamo pointed it out last year) the notion of the neglected city seemed a bit weird. In Adelaide the tragedy is that so many Christians have chosen rich suburbia over poor suburbia.
The points about individualism & consumerism are well made, and churches in rich suburbia need to hear it.
Although there’s not as much life lived local as their used to be, there are some things that stay the same.
Primary schools are nearly always local, so for families with kids 3-12, your kids can connect you to locals.
I’ve recently discovered that the local footy club is a third place for >100 people (mostly young men), and that there are over 80 such clubs in Adelaide, which hints at them being fairly local.
When I heard Alan say that typical churches only effectively reach 15% of Aussies, I struggled to understand it, thinking that the churches were a rough cross-section of the population, the difference being that they were the Christians. Hanging around at the footy is one of the things that has convinced me otherwise.
Hi James,
we’re in the southern-most suburbs of Sydney, in an area that was initially farmland, then a bit of a village. The city has expanded outwards and our community has been a relatively established suburb for 40 plus years. Our neighbours on either side - who are 60 years old and 75 years old - were born in the houses they reside in, I’ve learned a great deal from them!
To answer your question about what service is best received by our community, different services meet different needs and expectations. Also, if something is not working after a sufficient period we review and take a holiday from it… some things never recover from the holiday. So, most of what we are involved in at present is received well by those who participate. A number of us are involved in other community groups and gather information on community needs from there and bring them to our leadership table.
The playgroup we run in partnership with the local primary school supports 23+ families - only 3 are presently part of the church community. It has given us a measure of favour with the school, which in turn has led to favour with other groups. We have a number of opportunities to partner with other groups in events where we are able to present the values we believe in. We also aim to have some sense of enjoyment in the things we choose to do, so even if they weren’t well received, we’d be having fun anyway
Hi Sister Eleanor…
the fact that there are “some who are more used to consumer culture actually find the community aspect of church repellant,” is not necessarily an indicator that every “Christian writers [assumption] that just as there is a ‘God-shaped hole’ in every unbeliever, so there is this aching need for community in every by-definition-must-be-lonely non-Christian,” is untrue. There are lots of things about the truth that people don’t like. The point is an ontological one - basically an understanding of the fundamental essense of human nature. Since The Bible claims that humanity is created in the image of the God who self-reveals as relational community, it is a conclusion that the fundamental DNA of humanity contains a need for relationship and community. In general, sociology and psychology reveal human connection as a fundamental human need too.
The fact that people have been so bent out of shape by the prevailing culture, that they prefer to move towards isolation and independence in greater ways, is a measure of the task facing the authentic church. The reality is that people who “find the community aspect of church repellant” are unlikely to connect to a church. There is a need for mission minded people to find ways to go and connect with them - in the quiet places they find in clubs and other places - to assist in a process of rehabilitation (if it is appropriate) to community connection, for THEIR sake… not because they are a target for evangelism.
The pareto principle of 80/20 may be a statistical norm for the attractional model of church, but it must not be the norm for missional churches. In comparative terms our community is relatively small, but we are pretty active in our community. We began with 8 adults and 5 children, 7 years ago and have seen a slow but steady growth pattern over the years. There are a significant number of others who engage in various activities with us, but who have not yet expressed an interest in connecting with the church. A number of families with children are not as actively involved in some things as they have been in other seasons, but in general people who have become part of the church have caught a missional approach to other activites in their lives - school, playgroup, childcare, sport. In the range of events we run, we organise on a two monthly basis and presently 60 of the adults (almost 60%) in our church community are involved in some event in that two month timeframe.
Our Sunday gathering - half the time is devoted to connection over morning tea/lunch - generally involves over 20 adults each week in some capacity of service, the majority serve about once a month. The culture has become such that new people are vey quickly invited into some form of service in a short space of time - we have even had new-comers who are not Christians enquire what they have to do to get involved. This helps people to see active service as part of their journey, that Sunday is more than passive pew warming and our missional activites are simply seen as a logical extension of active service, so we have high participation in all we do. Communitas is built in smaller groups with a shared mission and they in turn contribute life to the larger church community.
Although some people are repelled by community, nevertheless we believe that it is a fundamental value of the nature of humanity. So, we continue to try to find ways to engage people in all spheres where we have opportunities for input and influence…
Slainte
A Celtic Son
Celtic Son,
Thanks for sharing. I love to hear of churches that are servants to their cities. I also find it interesting that a hip worship didn’t do much to reach outsiders. In my own fellowship, there are those who don’t want to re-examine anything in worship, and those who think that if you just change the worship, the lost will flock to us.
Worship has missional implications, but should not be a substitute for going out into the world. I am bothered that so many equate postmodern or emerging worship with what it means to be a missional church.
We can use candles all we want, but if we don’t go out into the world, we will not fulfill our purpose.
Taylor, stay tuned…I’m hoping to get my website up and running…one of these days.
But my vision runs in a similar vein to Celtic Son’s and recasts what Christian community looks like…and it is much more about what Alan calls communitas. The oppressive isolation in the ‘burbs, and so many other issues on various threads here, is a huge part of this. Most families have no time or money or energy for mission because the enslaving lie of the individualistic, materialistic consumer has not been sufficiently outed in a manner that shows the amazing and dynamic alternative. Pray for courage in more Christ-followers to embrace the counter-cultural influence where they are…
I am so encouraged in pursuing this vision from what I’m reading here. Bless you all.
The Spirit of God is moving powerfully…can you feel the wind in your face? Then turn around and hoist your sail!
I thought I’d express my appreciation for the article also. My own focus is more sub-urban than urban so it is helpful to see how others are exploring the Jesus challenge within that context. I would agree consumerism is a critical issue and I find it very worthwhile to reflect on how our possessions can come to possess us if we go with the flow. And how much boredom with church is birthed out of risk avoidance?
Few people I interact with are economically impoverished, though some are. More frequently they are emotionally and socially and spiritually impoverished. They buy into things like “The Secret” in the hope that they will find fulfillment therein. Spirituality becomes just one more thing to consume. I am reminded of Tyler Durden, “Our Great War is a spiritual war … our Great Depression is our lives”. How can we escape the depression and oppression of wage slavery? We do need an exorcism of sorts – a dethroning of the god we call Market Forces.
Amen, Matt…and I like the post you just put up on your website on this. Spiritual, emotional and social poverty are much worse states and often more challenging to remedy…
Great and much needed discussion.
As a pastor in and a child od the suburbs who has sensed for many years that change is needed - I do get concerned that so much of our missional time and attention is directed at the inner urban context. The best missionaries we have, are abandoning the needy suburban wastelands as too difficult and embracing the retro-chic cosiness of belonging to the emerging cognoscenti. I wonder what else we need to consider in order to actualise Todd’s suggestions? I’m having a crack at thinking about this…here