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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May 14th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
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
May 14th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
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.
May 14th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
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!
May 14th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
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.
May 14th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
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!
May 14th, 2007 at 9:46 pm
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.
May 14th, 2007 at 11:27 pm
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
May 14th, 2007 at 11:59 pm
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
May 15th, 2007 at 12:40 am
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
May 15th, 2007 at 1:31 am
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.