Missional in Suburbia Seminar in the Philly Suburbs - Time to Register

ToddMay 9, 2008

A few months ago I made an early announcement of a seminar we are hosting at The Well on the topic of the missional church in suburbia.  We are honored to be able to bring in Al Hsu.  Al is the author of the book, The Suburban Christian.  I read this book last year and found it really, really helpful.  Al not only gets the missional church stuff but also really gets the under the surface issues around the development of suburbia and the calleges that the church faces in this context.

So, get off your over busy, suburban, individualized, consumer-driven butts and sign up for this seminar!

The seminar is August 9, 2008 from 9am - 4pm.

On Friday night the 8th we’ll be having an open house at The Well for those who want to hang out and get to know some people. This time will be free and will also be an event for the Philly Emergent Cohort.

You can see the schedule for Saturday and more details here.

The cost is a mere $25 for the day and that includes lunch.

Just for the record, there will be lots of coffee for the event from One Village Coffee, a local roaster in our area.  And yes, its 100% fair trade and organic.  I like to call it super tasty and super good for the farmer.

The event will be in partnership with the Ecclesia Network and C4ML of Biblical Seminary.

Oh, REGISTER HERE.

There is room for about 80 spots so sign up quickly…

Posted in General, Leadership, Missional, Suburbia, The Well |
4 Comments »

Four Missional Movements for the Suburban Church

ToddMay 7, 2008

At The Well, we’ve been studying the book of Acts. Its been a very, very formative and challenging book for us to work through. For me, there have been four ways that my life, and I think our life, has been challenged so far.

Here are four movements that I’ve seen:

From Individual to Communal
As individuals we are important, very, very important. But we need to continually celebrate the individual but we must do it within the context of community. Our world is so individualized that we’ve lost a sense that there is something greater than ourselves. In our culture, this is a challenge because we are so good at isolating ourselves and disconnecting ourselves from the rest of the world. Our priorities can easily become very selfish and insulated.

From Consumptive to Cooperative
When you live in a world that holds individualism as a god you naturally going to find that consuming is a higher priority than cooperative. If the most important thing is me, than I am going to do my best to take care of me. But, if the most important thing is me, in the context of community than we can start thinking about cooperation together for a common goal.

Event to Family
We need to rethink our definition of “church.” When we come to “church” as an individual who is primarily a consumer we begin to view church as an “event” where we can consume spirituality or religion to meet our own personal needs. The alternative here is to move from church as event to church as family. When we approach “church” as individuals in a community where we are cooperating together for a common goal its almost impossible to think of church as an event. Instead a better metaphor for church, as we have talked about at The Well a lot recently, is “family.” A family cooperating together to care together for the individual needs, all for a common goal.

From Sucking in to Sending out
The idea of a common goal then leads us to the final movement. The challenge of the family metaphor in the church setting is to not become all cliquish and even worse cultish. But, when you take a group of individuals, who are here to consume and think of the “church” as a event, you end up with a “church” that is sucking in rather than sending out. We’re all drawn into a Sunday event and leave behind our primary mission field. But, when we view the “church” as a community that is dependent on each other and cooperates together, it is not naturally seen as something that sucks in but instead sends out.

Refread Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” This is the mission that drives the early church (and should drive our churches as well!).

This cannot be done if the church is an random collection of individuals who are coming to an event to consume christianity. But, this mission can be accomplished if “church is defined as a family that cooperates together for a greater purpose.

Posted in Culture, General, Missional, Suburbia, The Church, The Well |
1 Comment »

Personal Financial Accountability In the Church, A Way Forward

ToddMay 6, 2008

For the first three years of our marriage my wife and I didn’t have any outstanding credit card debt. Then the crap hit the fan. Between some unnecessary purchases, not making enough money, hospital bills, and a string of car repairs, we amassed ourselves some significant credit card debt.

Over the last two years we’ve been trying to be more conscious of how we spend and how we save. We’re finally starting to show some signs of progress. Of course, our adoption set us back this past year and we’re in the midst of paying that down. But the good news is that this week we finally paid off my outstanding seminary bill and due to the kindness of some friend we made some significant progress on that adoption debt.

I have become convinced that being in debt is not a necessary “part of being American.” At least, it shouldn’t be. I have talked with a number of people who have pretty much resigned themselves to always being the debt. This is too bad. While I think you could argue that in some instances, its unavoidable, its certainly not something we should settle on. In fact, we’ve got to get aggressive after debt! It’s a terrible thing that so many people in the church are strapped financially by debt payments that we can’t give our money away like we really want to.

If you didn’t make any credit card, debt payments each month, how much would you be able to give away to those in need? Kind of depressing isn’t it? Of course, this number should also be motivating! Imagine those you could help and the good you could do if you got serious (or kept on being serious) about paying down your debt?

But how?

For Melanie and I we’ve made progress but we’ve not done it alone. We’ve actually been meeting with two friends (another married couple in our church) for the past year. They’ve been holding us accountable in our finances and we’ve been doing the same for them. The problem with most accountability however is that its easy to lie and keep things back. This is always tempting. Especially with your finances, its really hard to be fully transparent. Not only is it hard to admit when you don’t spend your money well, but its just hard to keep track of and show someone else.

Opening your checkbook

I am a big, big fan of opening your checkbook to someone you trust. I mean literally. This means that they would have full access to every penny you spend. I’m convinced that one of the greatest lies that our culture teaches us is that money is a totally private matter that is between me and God. Jesus didn’t talk about money that way. For something that can be so threatening to the Christian faith, we need to be intentionally counter-cultural and “open our checkbook” to someone that we trust and give them the freedom to speak into this area of our lives.

Enter Mint.

Mint is a described as “fresh, intelligent online money management.” Basically, you pull all your accounts (including credit cards!) into your secure account and it gives you up to date balances on all these accounts.

That’s nice. But, the best part is that you categorize your transactions and it gives you a beautiful pie chart of your spending per category for a time period of your choosing. The categories are really “smart” so that once you use it for a few weeks the program gets really good at auto categorizing your transactions for you. So, you can easily get a quick glance of how much money you spent on coffee, how much you overspent on fast food and if you have any more money left in your budget to go out to the movies.

The best part about Mint is that you can access it from anywhere. This means that you can give your accountability partner your username and password and they can go on anytime and see where all your money has been going. Scary eh? Yes, its scary. But I’m convinced that is what it just might take for some of us to become better at managing our money.

Now, like any accountability situation, we can’t get legalistic about every penny and spend all our time trying to catch each other doing something wrong. The idea isn’t to control each other and second guess every single purchase. Rather the goal is to have someone to speak grace and encouragement and be able to ask you honest questions about the way you are spending your money.

I think the best accountability asks questions like, “was that a good decision?” and “are you happy you made that purchase” and “do you regret anything here?” Its not about keeping record of wrongs, its about helping us live more and more free.

So, open up your checkbook. One good way is to use Mint.

Why? So you can live in freedom. When we live in freedom, we’re not strapped to a job we hate because we have to pay our bills. When we live in freedom we are not giving all our money to debtors instead of those in need.

Posted in Culture, General, Life, Money & The Church, My Family, Suburbia, The Church |
6 Comments »

The Consuming Christian and the Consuming Church

ToddMay 5, 2008

I was thinking Sunday morning as I was getting ready for church. I do that sometimes… think, that is. Anyways, we’ve had a number of new people visiting our community recently. There is a general theme going on with their story. Many of these folk have come from either not being in church for a long period of time or suffering (their words) through being part of a church that is not very life-giving.

At The Well, we typically do a great job of scaring off chronic church hoppers because we’re a little, uh… different. If our ugly warehouse doesn’t care them off, something else is bound to. But, when people who are Christians come into our community, we want to be sure to let them know that we’re passionate about the unity of the body of Christ. So, we strongly urge them to be sure that they are not leaving their old church on bad terms and if they are, they really should get things right before they move on, whether its with us or with another church.  If it seems like someone is running from conflict or something else, this is a problem.

Another thing that I try and say up front is that we’re not desperate for new members. We don’t “need” them as part of our community for our ego, growth, size or even our budget. We are passionate about seeing people become part of our community who are passionate about the gospel and serving God where He has them.

This gets me to the point of this post. Someone in at The Well said recently that “you can’t consume community.” I think that’s true. New people learn quick (at least I hope they do) that if you are going to be part of The Well, we’re not going to live out your faith for you. Our goal is not to make your spiritual walk easy with a bunch of prefabbed programs. If you want to get involved in what God is doing here, or you see an area that we can grow as a community, you are likely an important part of the solution! You can’t come to The Well with a consumer mindset or you won’t be happy for too long.  Of course, this doesn’t mean we won’t do our best to walk alongside you.  But we’re not going walk for you…

Of course there is another side to this. I think some churches are consuming churches. Growing up, I was in church on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and twice on Sunday. Now I don’t actually want to be too negative on my church that I grew up in. I loved that church experience.  I learned of God’s love there and it  it was full of amazing of people.  But, the fact is, the church ruled my life. I was always at church events. We were a heavily programmed church and as a result, I was very rarely “out” in the world relating to anyone who wasn’t a Christian (its a good thing I was in public school so I could at least relate to the world a little bit). In a sense, the church consumed me. (Which, ironically taught me to be a consuming christian. Consuming all the programs and all the services that they offered me.  It could be argued that even consuming opportunities to serve.

Here’s the problem. When two things consume each other…one of them has to die. Right?  When two animals fight, one consumes the other. They are either both desperately wounded or one of them wins.

I wonder if this is what happens to many of the people who end up leaving larger, consumer driven churches.  The people who are really good at consuming get by and make it. But the ones who are willing to serve and really want to give end up getting consumed…

Thoughts?

(Note, I am not willing to say that large chuches are evil, they just have this big challenge to deal with.  Small churches have their own challenges to deal with).

Posted in General, Leadership, Missional, Suburbia, The Church, The Well |
6 Comments »

I’m Not A Good Suburbanite

ToddApril 19, 2008

I have a confession to make: I was a bad suburbanite yesterday. Why? Well, there are a number of reasons…

• I carpooled down to the city in the morning with someone who was already going down there instead of driving my own car.
• I walked all over the city. Yes, on foot.
• Since I carpooled down to the city, I had to take the train back to the burbs.
• When I got to my train station, I walked home about 1 mile.
• Later, I had to return some movies and go to the bank. So I rode my bike. (To which, i noticed that people find bikers really annoying in the burbs. Its actually a slightly dangerous adventure).

So, there you go. I am a bad suburbanite. But, I think I exercised more yesterday than I have in 6 months. That’s sad.

(This isn’t supposed to be some kind of “look at how good I am” kind of post. It’s just that I think this is the first time I have done so much and gone so many places without ever driving my own car. I can’t help but think that’s not a bad thing).

Posted in General, Life, Suburbia |
No Comments »

Missional in Suburbia

ToddApril 4, 2008

There is a growing discussion around this topic. Go here for a good overview and here for a good collection of resources. I’m excited about the conversation because I think its so important.

So much so that I went out and bought a new domain name. I’m not totally sure what I am going to do with it yet, but i do have some ideas.

www.missionalinsuburbia.com

Posted in General, Missional, Suburbia |
No Comments »

The Church & Suburbia Seminar with Al Hsu

ToddMarch 28, 2008

I know this is early, but with vacations in the summer, I’m trying to get the word our early.

So here it goes…On August 8-9, 2008, my church The Well, in partnership with the Ecclesia Network and C4ML at Biblical Seminary, will be hosting a one-day conference with Al Hsu, author of The Suburban Christian around the topic of Suburbia and the mission of the Church.

Register online here.

EVENT SUMMARY

“God always shows up in the most God-forsaken places.”
- Alan Roxburgh

In some ways, it doesn’t get any more God-forsaken than suburban America.   This seminar will take a look at two important topics:  Suburbia and the Church. For some people, there is a sentiment that its impossible to really be the church in the ‘burbs.  But for others, we believe that this is the place that God has called us.  If we are going to stay, we need to ask what it means to “be the church” in a culture that is defined by comfort, consumerism, isolation, wealth, strip malls and hidden poverty.  

This one day seminar will focus on the development and culture of suburbia and the opportunities and challenges that this context presents the Church.   We are honored to have Al Hsu, author of The Suburban Christian, lead the discussion along with some other local pastors and thinkers.

This one day conference is open to all and will be helpful for pastors, lay leaders and members of congregations.  Our goal is to have some substantial discussion around practical issues that relate to the everyday practice of the Church and the Christian life. 

EVENT DETAILS:

Cost:
$25 (includes lunch)

Dates
August 8-9, 2008

SCHEDULE:

Friday Night: 
7pm - 10pm: Optional Open House / Meet and Greet at The Well

Saturday:

9:00 - 10:15 “Understanding the Suburban Context”
10:15 - 10:30 Break
10:30 - 11:45 “Ministering In, To and From Suburbia”
12:00 - 1:00 Lunch
1:00 - 2:00 “Envisioning a New Suburbia”
2:00 - 4:00 panel/discussion

OTHER INFORMATION:

Recommended Reading: 
The Suburban Christian by Al Hsu

The Gospel and The God Forsaken by Todd Hiestand

Helpful Links:
Steve McCoy has collected a list of links around this topic here

Questions?
Contact Me

Posted in General, Missional, Suburbia, The Church, The Well |
3 Comments »

Pastoring Like It’s 1989…kind of

ToddMarch 18, 2008

For the last two days I’ve been with out a computer. My MacBook Pro is on a little vacation for some R&R. Okay, it actually had a bunch of problems all at once and I finally broke down and sent it off to get fixed. I should have it back on Thursday. I am writing this post from my wife’s 12″ Powerbook.

Now, if you know me you’re probably wondering if I am breaking into a cold sweat or something but I’ve been surprised at how much I’ve enjoyed not having my computer with me all the time. Here’s why…

I’ve spent more time thinking and reflecting.
The thing with having my computer around all the time is that it makes it hard to just sit and be still and reflect and do some critical thinking about the church and our mission. When sitting at a desk or table, I usually have my computer open and it is often distracting me. Not having it has allowed me the opportunity to not be so distracted and really get some critical thinking and reflecting done.

I’ve read longer and more.
This follows the same logic as the last one. Again, this shouldn’t be rocket science to me but it’s amazing how hard it is to get reading done with a computer on in front of you. Duh eh? I can read for longer periods of time and retain more when the computer isn’t around.

I’m spending more time with people.
This is another “duh” and a really good reason to keep the computer in my bag more often. It’s a lot easier to set up time with people when the computer isn’t calling my name.

Not having a computer makes me think critically about what it means to be a pastor and leader
Let’s face it, all of us, no matter what our job is, can find reasonable and legitimate things to do on the computer that fit our job description but keep us from doing the most important parts of our job. This is especially true for pastors. A small example: Since I didn’t have my computer to distract me today I was planning my day and ended up stopping by to visit one of our community members at work. We ended up having a conversation about a fantastic new idea / experiment around reaching out to the local hispanic population in the area. Unfortunately, I probably wouldn’t have done that randomly if I was sitting in front of my computer all day.

What Now?
Like I said this stuff isn’t rocket science, but it seems fairly obvious that I need to learn to keep my computer in my bag more often. I mean, my grandpa, a pastor who I respect as much as anyone never really had a computer to use like I do. I am guessing ministry looked a lot different for him than me. I am fairly sure that us pastors have become far too dependent on and distracted by the computer for our ministry.

I think we would all do well to leave our laptops at home a few times a week.

So, that’s just what I am going to do when I get it back. I’ll be taking at least one day a week where I just leave it at home. Now, since I am not only a pastor but a web designer I’ll likely have to spend an hour in the morning and afternoon of those days taking care of things I need to do on the computer. But, most all the time those things can wait a few hours.

Now, granted, I’ve been using the iPhone that I got for Christmas. They didn’t have iPhones in 1989 so hence the reason for the “kind of” in the title of this post. The iPhone has worked well for me because its not near as distracting as my lap top. When it all comes down to it, its really hard to spend more than a minute or two checking e-mail and surfing the web on the iPhone. Its more of a quick task type device, so its actually been a great companion while I’ve been out and about the last two days.

Now, perhaps many of you reading this post will be like, “wow, this dude has problems. Its sad he’s so addicted to his computer.” So, maybe I am showing some unfortunate true colors here. But, I am guessing I am not the only pastor / person out there who needs to hear this. Right?

Posted in Culture, General, Life, Suburbia, The Church |
3 Comments »

Community: Stop Making Excuses

ToddFebruary 10, 2008

I was at the bank last July to send a large sum of money to Guatemala as the last part of our payment for the adoption. As I was waiting in line the man in front of me, in somewhat of a panic, was pleading with the bank tellers to help him with his situation. He had apparently deposited a check earlier in the day for a client that he wasn’t supposed to deposit, and he needed that check back. From the way he was talking, he needed it back badly. He wasn’t being rude. He was just very intensely trying to plead with the tellers and let them how know big of a deal this really was. The tellers, while trying to help, were responding to him with reasons as to why they couldn’t get the check back. All the reasons made sense. It was right after one of these reasons that the man said something that I will never forget.

He said, “It would help me if you didn’t keep telling me why you can’t get this done and begin sharing with me how you can get this done. Let’s be proactive please.”

Wow. What a great statement. Admittedly, I am a very good excuse maker. Perhaps one of the best that I know. This is crippling. Its admitting defeat with little effort at changing the outcome. Honestly, it’s fairly lazy. I am good at that too.

I was thinking about my frustration with the suburban life again this week and specifically how it relates to how busy we are and how little my family and I are able to be with our closest friends. It seems as if we go by week after week saying how we want to “do life together” and “be in community.” Bla. bla. bla.

The problem is that we continually find reasons why we can’t do this. Busy here. Busy there. Something came up here. Something came up there. We are all guilty. Not one of us is innocent.

So, taking this guy’s advice my wife and I decided to start thinking about how we can be with our community more often. We decided we would be a little proactive and see what happens. On Monday I sent an e-mail out to some people from our church who lived in the general vicinity to us and invited them all over for an open dinner on Friday nights for the month of February (We’re starting with Feb and seeing what happens - I’ve learned that trying little experiments are better than acting like this will be the one thing that will work for all time). The idea here is that our house is open to anyone starting at 5:30pm. If no one shows up, we’ll be okay we’re eating anyways. Of course, we ask people to let us know they are coming so we can prepare enough food and so that they can bring something to contribute if possible.

Now, Melanie and I live in a small apartment. We don’t have enough room for everyone. It’s not easy to have a house ready for people and to make dinner for a large group like that. But, those are reasons we can’t do this. Reasons we can? We love to. We have a roof over our heads. We have food. We love to host people in our homes. I can get working earlier on Friday mornings so that I can get home earlier in the afternoon to help Melanie get ready.

Last Friday night was awesome. We had seven people in our home. One family who we rarely get to see. We ate together in our small kitchen and then sat in our living room till midnight talking and telling stories. For some reason I found it profound and really awesome that at one time during the night, I was cutting our friend’s daughters’ smily face mashed potatoes for her. That’s how it should be. Will this last? We’ll see how the next month goes and then we’ll figure out where to go from there. But, I think Friday night was a breakthrough for us.

Doing something like this isn’t really that complicated. But you have to make a decision to stop making excuses and start figuring it out. Honestly, it’s not even that radical. It’s actually somewhat laughable that it took us this long to try something like this…

Posted in Culture, General, Missional, Suburbia, The Church |
7 Comments »

A Holy (Suburban) discontent

ToddNovember 14, 2007

Tim Keel, author of the new book Intuitive Leadership, must be reading my mind. Or, it might be more accurate to say that I have been reading his mind. Or I could just say that I’ve been reading his book…

Anyways, I’m about 60 pages into his new book and he is basically telling his faith story. He is reflecting on how he had an intense and authentic experience of spiritual community in college. Then, post-college he entered into the world of suburban america. he writes,

“I was able to see a number of friends with whom I had live so intimately begin to lose their faith following college. That sounds dramatic, and i don’t mean it in the way you might initially read it: I don’t mean they lost the content of their belief system or became apostate doctrinally. I mean that upon leaving college and entering the world of twentieth-century suburban Christianity, they lost their way of life. They entered a way of life that was compartmentalized, disintegrated, individualistic, sub-cultured, ghettoized, programmed and purpose-driven.”

This morning I am sitting in a local Starbucks because I met with a friend, Mark, for coffee. We just spent about an hour discussing how our lives are enslaved to something other than the gospel. We are enslaved to jobs. We are enslaved to schedules. We are enslaved to debt. We lamented that its just too darned hard to be in community together because of all these things. For us, more than we really even realize it, the culture is calling the shots on our lives.

Frankly, I’m sick and tired of it.

I continually have what I call a holy (suburban) discontent with my way of life. I can’t really put my finger on it. But, I am realizing more and more that my life is still so controlled and governed by the culture rather than by the call of discipleship (and I feel as if I’ve made some good strides in this!). See this holy discontent is good. If I didn’t have a discontent with my way of life, I would be worried. I think that if you live suburban america and don’t have some kind of discontent with your way of life and how it corresponds to the gospel you are either missing the gospel or you are much more mature in your faith than I am. Hopefully its the second reason.

I feel at a moment of crisis. Not a bad crisis. But a good crisis. We can’t keep on living this way. I must personally make some changes. My family must make some changes.

I’ve learned it begins with the little things.

It begins with making my weekly schedule submit to me and not the other way around. For example, Since I work on Saturday some and Sunday, I don’t work on Thursday. I spend the day with my wife and kids. You can’t believe how freeing this is to all of us (or maybe you can).

• It begins with me wrapping my day in the prayers of the Psalter instead of my to do list.
• It begins with Melanie and I dealing with our financial situations. We are meeting once a month with a couple from church who are helping us aggressively attack our debt. She and I are also paying very close attention to how we spend our money.
• It begins with something as simple as me being a servant doing the dishes every night.
• It begins with me being intentional about connecting with one or two other good friends at least once a week and letting them speak into my life. Confessing my sins to them. Encouraging them. Receiving encouraging. Making bad jokes.
• It begins with finding a way for my family to stepping outside of ourselves and regularly serve those who are in need.
• I begins with a lot more things I have yet to process…

Do you feel this same discontent?

Posted in Culture, General, Missional, Suburbia, The Church |
15 Comments »

Being Countercultural with the Workday

ToddNovember 1, 2007

Eugene Peterson writes in his book Working the Angles:

“In short, the Psalms provide the language, the aspirations, the energy for the community as it comes together in prayer, and they then call into being and are formative for the activities of prophets, wise men and historians. The Psalms initiate; the prophets follow.  The inner action of prayer takes precedence over the outer action of proclamation. 

The implication of this for pastoral work is plain: it begins in prayer.   Anything creative, anything powerful, anything biblical, inso far as we are participants in it, originates in prayer. Pastors who imitate the preaching and moral action of the prophets without also imitating the prophets’ deep praying and worship so evident in the Psalms are an embarassment to the faith and an encumbrance to the church.“

Woah, what do you really think Eugene?  I’ve started taking about an hour of personal time meditating on the scriptures and writing in my journal in my day off. This week, as I was spending some time thinking and praying I realized that I need to be much, much more intentional about setting aside “little sabbaths” in my work day.  

Throughout the course of a day I can get really focused on work and often I’ll work straight through lunch without even thinking about it.  Some might call this fasting.  But last time I checked, fasting had to be intentional, not accidental.

Anyways, after reading the book, Praying with the Church (my thoughts on it here) about a year ago I have constantly felt like some kind of prayer rhythm would be really healthy for my overbooked life.   I love the idea of praying the hours because it is just so counter-cultural.   (Praying the hours basically means stopping at set times of the day to follow liturgical prayers which are mostly built off the Psalms.  One such guide that I highly recommend is The Divine Hours compiled by Phillis Tickle).  

In such a fast paced world where we are constantly on the run, I feel as if one of the ways we can be “in the world and not of the world” is for us to stop what we are doing at set times and pray.  Sit. Be still. Regather our life, and in a sense, remind ourselves what we are living for.  This would allow us intentionally to fashion our work day around God, rather than God around our work day.

Now, to be honest, I’ve not been so good at “keeping the hours.”  I am not suprised though.  If you think about it, it’s a fairly big change to make.  One of my problems is that I have always started with great ambitions.  So, on Tuesday I felt called to try something new.  Something a little more simple.  Something doable, yet hard at the same time.  

I need to share it publically so that I can’t just give up too quickly.

Here’s what I am going to do: For one week, starting yesterday, I am going to live a new rhythm to my day.  
My goal is to read three psalms a day. 

• One when I first sit down to work in the morning. 
• One when I break for lunch.  
• One before I end work for the day.  

This is doable, but not easy. I’ve already learned that to be true. Yesterday I read my morning Psalm.  Then proceeded to outright forget the other two.  It wasn’t till I was laying in bed falling asleep that I remembered my forgetfulness.  

Taking a fresh start today.  

So far I’m 1 for 1.

Anyone else want to join me?  I’m only on Psalm 2… 

Posted in Culture, General, Life, Missional, Prayers, Suburbia |
2 Comments »

I Can’t Hide the Homeless Anymore.

ToddOctober 18, 2007

My friend Tim from The Well has been doing some reflecting on his experiences of recently serving the homeless down in the city. Anna from our church leads a group of people down the Love Park area each Monday night. I went down a few weeks ago and look forward to going again.

I have a bunch of things stirring in my soul from that one evening. The biggest thing that night did to me was that it made me deal with a very real problem. No longer can I ignore it. I’ve tried to push the fact that there are hundreds of homeless men, women and children 25 miles from where I sit on this nice comfortable couch from Ikea while typing on my MacBook Pro out of my head. Its just not a comforting thought. The empower has no clothes.

I’m not ready to sell all I have an give it to the poor… but damn, didn’t Jesus tell the rich young ruler to do just that?

That night that I went down there I learned something about the homeless that I had just never thought about before. Some of these things are obvious. Others were stereotypes I had that came crashing down.

These people have names. Joe. Janet. James. These people have stories. These people are kind. Many of them have jobs. Not all of them are drug users (though, some are). They love playing UNO. Not all of them dress like slobs. Some of them wear ties to work everyday. They appreciate that we chose wheat bread because its healthier. These people are not really that much different than you and me. In fact, perhaps one thing that would help is if I stopped calling them “they.” We are all humans. Loved by God. His beloved. All of us. Some of us have made poor choices. Some of us have had a string of bad luck. Some of us have been fortunate enough to have families, homes and well paying jobs and sofas from Ikea that we can use to blog on our MacBook Pro computers.

I am not here to make us all feel guilty about having sofas and computers and blogs. But, to those of us who have been given much (like you and I)… God is calling you and I to love those in need. Maybe he’s not calling you to the homeless in Center City Philadelphia. But, I am sure he’s calling you to care for those in need somewhere in your life. If you don’t know anyone who is in need? Well, then maybe you need to either just open your eyes or make a major change in your lifestyle to make it possible.

Oh, and being too busy is not an excuse. I use that one all the time. Honestly, that excuse stinks. It’s convenient. But it stinks. That excuse is a lie that our culture is telling us. If you are too “busy” to serve those less fortunate like Jesus did than you need to ask some serious questions about your current lifestyle. I know I do…

Like I said, Tim is doing some reflecting on his experiences in the city. Part I, Part II, Part III. I’ve read part III and its especially good.

Enough from me. Now I’m off to watch The Office. I know… I know…

Posted in General, Life, Missional, Suburbia, The Well |
5 Comments »

10 Ideas for Living Missionally in the Suburbs

ToddOctober 9, 2007

Will Samson, a fellow blogger, friend and author who cares about the suburbs linked to an article by Chris Smith. Chris put together 10 ideas for living missionally in the burbs. I like em. I am drowning in work at the moment. If i had more time, i would add some commentary and share some of my own ideas… but i’ll let chris speak for me. He writes,

Ten Ways to be the People of God in Suburbia
by Chris Smith

1) Live with others from your church community

Whether you share your home with another person or family, or whether you have several families that have homes in close proximity or both, sharing life together is perhaps the most powerful (i.e., going against the grain of suburban culture) way to be the body of Christ in suburbia. If you can’t live together, at least find a way to share resources (power tools, lawn mowers, children’s clothes/toys, etc).

2) Work Less!

One of the major powers that enslaves suburbia is the idolization of the career. There are many ways to pay the bills that do not involve a 9-5 job, and even within a 9-5 job, there are ways to work less (turning down promotions, taking unpaid leave, etc.) Working less will free you to serve your church community, your family, your neighbors, etc. It will also spur creativity: finding a solution for working less, finding a way to “make ends meet” financially, etc.

3) Throw out the television

Another (and perhaps larger power) that enslaves suburbia is consumerism. You’ll be amazed at how your desire for things ebbs as you take the TV out of the picture. If you can’t bring yourself to kill the television, at least take steps to lessen its influence (get rid of cable, only use it for movies, put it on a cart that can be wheeled in and out of a closet, etc.) Throwing out the television will also stimulate your creativity.

4) Drive less

Suburban culture is also enslaved to the automobile. Find ways to loosen those bonds (much more difficult in suburbia than in urban areas). Share a vehicle with others in your church community (much easier if you are doing #1 above). Invest in a good bicycle. Walk. There was a segment on “60 minutes” a few weeks ago about how much we miss when we zip around in automobiles. Walking and/or biking will help you be more attentive to your surroundings

5) Have a garden / grow food

Suburban life is often very shut off from the food cycle (Food comes from the grocery store, of course!). Homegrown food is more healthy, it gives you a good excuse to be outside (see #7 below), and it provides you with a resource to share generously with your church community and your neighbors. Phil Kenneson outlines a number of horticultural lessons for the people of God in his intro to LIFE ON THE VINE that are additional benefits of this practice.

6) Get to know your neighbors / listen for their needs

To be human is to be poor. Or in other words, everyone has needs. The challenge of suburbia is that there are many more ways to conceal that poverty, and similarly that it will take more effort to get into a position where a neighbor can reveal their needs. Be intentional about building relationships. Share meals, play poker, have block parties, whatever it takes.

7) Be outside as much as possible.

Another temptation of suburbia - fueled by individualism - is that of the house as an impenetrable fortress. Dissolve this temptation by eating, playing, relaxing outside. This practice is also one avenue to interact with your neighbors.

8) Do not fence in your yard

All apologies to Robert Frost, but fences do not make good neighbors, and in fact they often keep us from making good human neighbors. This is a corollary to #7, the fence is a major component of the impenetrable fortress syndrome; it protects our privacy and keeps out our “evil” neighbors. It often is a statement of distrust. If you must have a fence (to corral a dog for instance) make it as low and as permeable (i.e., not blocking off the view) as you can get away with.

9) Take a stand against the greed of mega-corporations

Whenever possible, resist buying from domineering mega-corporations (e.g., Wal-mart, McDonalds, Starbucks, and others). These corporations destroy local economies and have little or no concern for the environment. Buy as much as you can from businesses that are as local as possible (family-owned businesses are preferable to local chains, local chains are preferable to regional chains, and regional chains are preferable to global corporations.)

10) Utilize and support non-commercial public spaces (parks, libraries, colleges, etc.)

This point is another corollary of #7 above. We must utilize and show our support for these public spaces, lest they be conquered by the powers of individualism (by becoming private property) or by consumerism (by becoming commercial or industrial property). This is also a wonderful way to foster relationships with our neighbors.

Some quick thoughts from me:
Regarding #1) Live with others… This is something I’ve wanted us to do as a family in some way or another. Even if it meant buying a duplex and having together but separate living spaces for two families. We would then have some scheduled meals and family times together and volunteer times together. I’ve also wanted to have the church buy a house and make it a suburban community house where we can house people in the church who want to be a blessing to a direct neighborhood… anyone want to buy us a house?

Regarding #2) Work Less. This is great. How about this: Take a sabbath. I’m trying that out now and its been amazing the couple times i have done it. My son bragged to a friend the other day “On Tuesday my dad stays home and plays with me all day.” Never mind that he had the wrong day (its actually Thursday this week) but I can’t tell you how awesome its been. Fact is, we work way too much to be with our families and to serve others. If are working too much to serve others than, well, we are working too much.

Okay, I need to get back to work… more from me later maybe…

Posted in General, Missional, Suburbia, The Church |
4 Comments »

The (Actually) Sent Church. Time to Put Up or Shut Up.

ToddSeptember 2, 2007

Those who have spent their time learning the language and theology of the missional church know that its popular to talk about the church being the “sent church.” I wrote about this extensively in my paper on the suburban church (The Gospel and the God Forsaken: The Challenge of the Missional Church in Suburbia).

The challenge of course lies in the fact that many of us talk a great game about being “sent” and few of us actually can really figure this thing out and get our hands around it. It’s a lot of trial and error and expirmenting. Basically, it’s not easy when you are shaped by a society and culture that is based in consumerism. This kind of culture goes directly against what it means to be a sent church. Before you know it, your faith and church community life becomes a consumer way of life as well.

At The Well we have found that no matter how much we teach and talk about being missional (a sent community for the sake of the world) it is a whole other thing to live it out. Now, we do have an awesome community. We have people who are doing their best to live as “ordinary radicals” (to steal a term from Shane Clairborne) in their daily lives.

• We have moms who are intentional with their neighbors.
• We have social workers who are doing their best to work in often broken systems and fight for the disenfranchised and poor.
• We have baristas who are doing their best to be teh presence of Christ in their coffee shops.
• We have waiters who are doing the same in their restaraunts.
• We have business people who are trying to be faithful in their 9-5s.

These people understand that in their daily lives, they are sent.

But (you knew there was a but coming didn’t you?) the hard thing is to think creatively and effectively about structuring a church so that we are not only sent individuals, but a sent community. We need to not only be sent in the places we go everyday. We need to be sent into the places we don’t naturally want to go. And, we need to be sent together.

Someone asked a question a few months back that really got me thinking:

“How do I get involved at The Well”

Since we are a community that does not have a bunch of weekly programs this is not an easy answer.

When I was a kid, the answer to this question would have been this:

1. Come to church on Sunday’s.
2. Come to church on Sunday Nights.
3. Volunteer at AWANA on Monday nights
4. Go to youth group on Tuesday nights. (if you are an adult volunteer for this)
5. Go to the youth group bible study on Wednesday nights. (if you are an adult, go to a small group).

Now, these things are all good. I am very glad I participated in them as a kid. But, notice something. They are all “in house.” There isn’t really much “sentness” going on here. (yes, i think i just made up the word “sentness”).

So, as a community that doesn’t really have all these things (we have some small groups and some other “in house” ministries but not near enough to get someone “fully involved.”

For a while my answer at The Well was this:

1. Come on Sunday mornings.
2. Get to know some people through our community dinners.
3. Get in some good friendships that are challenging you to grow in your faith.
4. Go to work everyday and be a faithful witness for Jesus.

Now, while I guess this is good and all, its wasn’t really a satisfying answer to me. It was fine for those who are outgoing but for those who are a little more socially introverted, this is a hard thing to imagine.

So, we (Gary, my co-pastor and I) began looking for another way to answer this question. It was just at this time that he led a team to Center City Philadelphia for a missions trip serving the homeless and I was in Guatemala with my wife bringing home our new son, Mason. Before these things we had spent the summer studying Romans 12 and had some good discussions in community on the concept of Sacrifice.

In the midst of these things, something clicked for both of us. The light bulb went off. What we had to do was clear. There was no longer any excuse for us to be calling each other and our community to give up our own comforts for the sake of others who might be considered the oppressed and outcasts in our society.

Simply put, it’s time to put up or shut up.

To make a very long post a little less long here is what I will now tell anyone who asks (And even those who don’t) how they can be involved at The Well…

1. Come and be part of our community through our Sunday mornings, community dinners and bible studies.
2. Be sure to be in closer relationships that intentionally encourage you in your faith.
3. Find an external ministry in the city or in the suburbs that serves the poor, disenfranchised or oppressed and go serve regularly with a few others from our community. (From our trip to Philly, we have a few awesome ministries to partner with).
4. Maybe come to a weekly bible study.
5. Take a look at how you can serve others in our community in some of our in house ministries like children’s ministry and other stuff.

My wife and I are joining another family with small children and we’ll be heading to the local nursing home in our town. In my mind, the elderly are a little bit like the leapers of our culture. We shut them of from society, stick them in their own communities and pretty much forget about them. We’re excited to build into our kid’s lives from a very young age that serving others is just assumed when you are part of the Hiestand family. We’re also excited to not have our lives and evenings revolved around television shows, but serving others. This might sound stupid, but if you’re honest, its unfortunately a big deal.

We pray the same for our community. That we will cultivate a culture that just plain assumes that to be involved in practicing justice and compassion is part of what it means to be a Christian. And, that as a pastor, I pray that I can help by cultivating a community structure that aids all of this.

We had a big sign-up Justice/Ministry Sunday thing this morning in church. We’ve got a good wave of momentum moving forward and its going to take a lot of hard work to keep us all motivated and involved.

What a privilege it is to be part of what God is doing in the world….

Posted in General, Missional, Suburbia, The Church, The Well |
2 Comments »

Missional in Suburbia at Allelon.org

ToddJuly 6, 2007

Allelon.org, a fantastic missional resource, has generously published my paper called, “The Gospel and the God Forsaken: the challenge of the missional church in suburbia” which I put up on my blog a few months back here.

They also put it up along with a post by Alan Roxburgh on their new blog called “Moving into the Neighborhood” which I think is a blog all about the suburban missional church. I’ll follow that blog closely for sure…

I also noticed that, Ryan Bell, a good friend of mine has a paper posted this month as well called “Leadership Begins with Listening.” Looking forward to reading that one too…

Posted in General, Missional, Suburbia |
1 Comment »

Discussion on the Missional Church in Suburbia

ToddMay 14, 2007

Alan Hirsch, co-author of The Shaping of Things to Come and author of the new book, The Forgotten Ways has posted my paper on his blog. I quoted from his Shaping book a bunch in my paper so its great to hear his perspective on the topic. It has started some good discussion so far on his blog. Feel free to stop by and join the conversation…

Posted in General, Suburbia, The Church |
1 Comment »

Further Thoughts the Suburban Church

ToddMay 1, 2007

As you can tell from the title of my blog, I live in the Suburbs. In the past I have considered that a negative thing. I used to long for the day that I could move to the city and “be a real Christian.”

In the beginning it was the rampant individualism of the burbs that bugged me the most. I longed for the city, where community seems to be a bit more natural. People actually know their neighbors and they aren’t so isolated. I also began seeing how much the bible talks about the need to take care of the orphan, the outcast and the widow. It seemed to me that one could not really do this living in the burbs. Another issue is that in the burbs, we’re so defined by our possessions and our careers (this is true in the city too, but even more so here). Working at Starbucks for two years just brought this point home even more. I watched people go to work day after day to jobs they hate. Most of them didn’t go because they needed to put food on the table for their family and a roof over their heads. Most of them went so they could have someone else cook their food for them and have a large house with a three car garage. Work a job you hate so you get stuff you don’t need. I wondered if we are a rare breed of people who work, not to survive, but we work to be more comfortable (I think is true).

I began to see all of this and was strongly feeling the call of the city. The best metaphor I found for my feelings about the suburbs was in the movie “The Matrix” when Agent Smith was interrogating Morpheus when trying to get the codes for Zion.

Can you hear me, Morpheus? I’m going to be honest with you. I hate this place. This zoo. This prison. This reality. Whatever you want to call it. I can’t stand it any longer. It’s the smell, if there is such a thing. I feel saturated by it. I can taste, your stink. And every time I do, I feel I have somehow been infected by it, it’s repulsive. I must get out of here. I must get free…
Agent Smith, The Matrix

I’d say that suburbia is both a threat and an opportunity for the spiritual lives of suburban Christians. The fact that suburbia is a land of abundance cuts both ways. Suburban Christians have more access to material and spiritual resources, but we’ve become numbed to physical and spiritual needs both at home and around the world. There’s so much potential for suburban Christians to do remarkable, counter-cultural things with our affluence and influence, but there’s also the spiritual danger that we’ll just turn inward and build our own empires rather than seek the welfare of others.

The challenge we face is how to wield our resources strategically to advance Christian mission, champion the poor and the marginalized and advocate for justice and peace.

The article I wrote on this subject recently brought out a lot of my thinking on the subject. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how well it has been received but I am fairly sure that it is only the tip of the iceberg. A lot of that paper was pure theory and there wasn’t a lot of “how does this work out in an actual congregation?” thoughts. Of course, when one writes a paper for a contest it can’t be 100 pages long. So, I stuck to the basic theory. Also, when it comes to how this works out in a congregation, we can’t find answers that will work for all suburban contexts. At The Well we are working out some experiments and trying to wade through the mud of what it means to be the church in our context. I believe we are making some very good progress but its a long journey filled with frustrations also.

So, here’s to the joy of learning. I’d love to hear what others are experimenting with and thinking through in regards to this subject…

Posted in General, Suburbia, The Church |
3 Comments »

The Gospel and the God Forsaken: The Challenge of the Missional Church in Suburbia

ToddMarch 23, 2007

Below is a paper I wrote in an effort to give an introduction to Mission in a Suburban Context. I presented this paper at the Eastern Region Evangelical Theological Society meeting on March 23, 2007. There is much more that needs to be written, but hopefully this serves as a helpful introduction. Feel free to cite this resource, but I do ask that you give credit when/if you do. The illustrations are original with me. You can download the PDF here: Missional In Suburbia (please link to this pdf rather than downloading it and putting it on your own site - thanks, Todd Hiestand)

Can you hear me, Morpheus? I’m going to be honest with you. I hate this place. This zoo. This prison. This reality. Whatever you want to call it. I can’t stand it any longer. It’s the smell, if there is such a thing. I feel saturated by it. I can taste your stink. And every time I do, I feel I have somehow been infected by it, it’s repulsive. I must get out of here. I must get free
- Agent Smith, The Matrix

Two years ago this was how I viewed our suburban world. It was a zoo. It was a prison. I hated this place: the strip malls, the individualism, the consumerism. Certainly, I thought, Christianity is best lived in the city. I figured if I wanted to really serve God and follow the radical call of Christ I would have to move to the city. There I could better live in proximity and community. There, I could do a better job of taking care of the poor and needy at my doorstep. The city was the place where following Jesus would easily be lived out on a daily basis. This is how I thought. But God has a way of shaking things up.

Alan Roxburgh recently said in seminar, “God always shows up in the most God-forsaken places.” If one had to choose the most God forsaken place in our world today, where would that be? There are some obvious and graphic examples. We could name the atrocities in Darfur, the poor in Calcutta, or the AIDS crisis in Africa. Locally we see that this year Philadelphia has had the most murders since 1997. These “God forsaken” places are under our noses and on the news everyday or at least they should be. But where is the hidden, “under the surface” poverty of our world? Despite its nice exterior of SUV’s and housing developments, could it be that the suburban world is as God-forsaken as any place on the globe? This paper will argue that it is. If this is true, what does it mean to be the church in suburban America? What does it mean to be “missional” in a context where there are very few apparent and obvious needs? This paper will begin with an overview of the important aspects of the missional church as it intersects with suburban life. It will then take a quick look at the challenges and obstacles that the suburban life presents to missional Christianity. Finally, it will explore four key areas of focus for the suburban church as it seeks to move toward a missional ministry.

The Missional Church: An Overview
Perhaps one of the most important and foundational ways to understand the missional church is to put it in the context of the trinity. David Bosch addresses this in his book Transforming Mission:

Mission [is] understood primarily as being derived from the very nature of God. It [is] thus put in the context of the doctrine of the trinity. The classical doctrine of the missio Dei as God the Father sending the Son, and God the Father and the Son sending the Spirit [expands] to include yet another “movement”: Father, Son and Holy Spirit sending the church into the world. Mission is not primarily an activity of the church, it is an attribute of God. God is a missionary God. Mission is thereby seen as a movement from God into the world; the church is viewed as an instrument for that mission. There is a church because there is a mission, not visa versa.

One might be tempted to make missional living a secondary result of the church’s life together instead of it being the very reason for its being. But, if we understand that the mission of the church is derived from the very nature of God and that the church’s mission flows from God’s desire to redeem the creation, then we cannot minimize it as something that is simply part of the church’s task. It is the church’s task. In this desire to redeem the creation, God has sent the church so that in His mission His “love and attention are directed primarily at the world.”

So if we can understand mission as the Father sending the Son, the Father and the Son sending the Spirit, and the Father, Son and Spirit sending the church, a question still remains: What does this look like? The answer to this question lies in being congregations that are “sent” instead of congregations that “go.”

The church that “goes” is the church that finds its primary identity detached from the world and set apart as holy. When it does mission, it ventures into this world to share the gospel. This view of mission could be depicted with the following illustration:

Here, the separate and untainted church rightfully understands that it needs to be a witness for the gospel. The church then takes a risky venture into the world to “do mission.” After it is done with this task, it retreats back to the safety of separation in order to be refueled. Missiologist David Bosch offers a helpful critique of this idea. He writes, “Spirituality or devotional life seems to mean withdrawal from the world, charging my batteries, and then going out into the world. The image is of an automobile that runs on batteries only.” He goes on to explain how this understanding of the Christian life in which the world “is primarily seen as a threat, as a source of contagion from which the Christian must keep himself free” leads to a view of life that is “docetic.” Docetism essentially claims that matter is inherently evil and has been rejected by all mainstream forms of Christianity.

A more helpful and biblical view of mission is seen when the church understands itself as sent (into the world) as set apart and unified. This view of the church and mission can be depicted in the following illustration:

This illustration comes from Jesus’ prayer in John 17. Here we see Jesus describe the church first and foremost as sent into the world. In verse 15 he prays that it would be sent, “my prayer is not that you take them out of the world.” In verse 18 Jesus states the need for them to remain set apart in their sentness, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” Finally Jesus prays that they would remain unified, “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” With Jesus’ prayer as a foundation for understanding the nature of the church we see that the Church finds itself in the world, yet set apart and unified.

There is no advantage in trying to separate ourselves from the world. Karl Barth helpfully points out that the church is a part of world history; the gospel takes place in “world occurrence.” Somehow I grew up with the assumption that there were two histories of the world: biblical history and world history. While this was likely never explicitly expressed as truth, it is what I instinctively learned. World history was somehow profane and corrupted and biblical history was holy and redemptive. But, Barth shows that this dichotomized view of history is unhelpful to mission. The church would be “guilty of a lack of faith and discernment if it seriously saw and understood world history as secular or profane history.” Instead, he states that we simply cannot separate the church from world history. He writes, “[The church's] history takes place as surrounded by the history of the cosmos and is everywhere affected and determined by it. Conversely, it is not without significance for the cosmos and its history that its own history takes place.”

Since we are unable to fully separate ourselves from this world, by the simple fact that we exist within it, we need to think deeply about how we can still remain both distinct and missional. This, of course, is not an easy task. It is the very thing that Jesus passionately prayed for in John 17:11, “Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name” and later in verse 15 He prays, “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.” Jesus knew that the church’s involvement in the world we be a dangerous mission. Because of this, the only way we will find success in being a distinct witness in the world will be through complete dependence on the Spirit. David Bosch writes, “The involvement in the world should lead to a deepening of our relationship with and dependence on God, and the deepening of this relationship should lead to an increasing involvement in the world.”

If we continue to follow Jesus’ prayer, we see that the church cannot stop at seeing itself simply as distinct in the midst of world history. It must also understand itself as unified if it desires to have an effective witness in the world. Jesus’ prayer clearly states that our unity is a major part of a potent witness. From the illustration above (illustration 2) we see that while the individual church must see itself as sent into the world, it must also see itself as sent into the world along with the church catholic. Again, Barth provides some helpful commentary on this topic. He writes:

[the Christian] is united to [other Christians] by the simple fact that, since there is only one work as the Word of God and only one Mediator between God and man self-declared in his activity, the content of his witness cannot be other than that of theirs, nor the content of theirs other than that of his. He and they may have received, and may take up and discharge, their ministry of witness in very different ways. But they cannot possibly be apart in this ministry. They cannot be monads or private disciples operating in their own strength.

Barth makes the important point that though there are different churches taking on quite different contextual expressions of the gospel, all churches and Christians are still united in their mission. This, of course, is the case whether they are aware of this fact or not.

The missional church therefore needs to derive its very nature and mission from the nature of God as the One who sends. As the church is being sent, it needs to express its mission as a unified body (locally and universally) that is sent into the world as a distinct representation of the Kingdom of God.

As we move into our discussion about the missional church and the challenge that the suburban context creates, we must first understand that all mission is contextual. Contextualization is defined by Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost as “the dynamic process whereby the constant message of the gospel interacts with specific, relative human situations.” They go on to write that this:

Involves the examination of the gospel in the light of the respondent’s worldview and then adapting the message, encoding it in such a way that it can become meaningful to the respondent. It is primarily concerned with presenting Christianity in such a way that it meets people’s deepest needs and penetrates their worldviews, thus allowing them to follow Christ and remain in their culture.

Here, Frost and Hirsch bring out one of the most important aspects and challenges of contextualization. As we “do church” in a specific culture we will be challenged to look at that culture and see which aspects of it are anti-Christian and which aspects are helpful to Christianity. As we take this task seriously in the suburban context I think we will be surprised to see there are some distinct ways the suburban church has inadvertently and unknowingly capitulated to the culture. Of course, this does not mean that all of suburban life is anti-Christian, but the focus of this paper will be on the “anti-Christian” aspects of the culture. The next section will seek to look at the suburban world and bring to light some of the challenges that the suburban missional church faces in this particular context.

Our Context: Suburban America

The suburban world is a unique place. It mainly developed in a post World War II culture. After the chaos of the Second World War, people sought suburbia “as a peaceful place of solace and refuge” and “a modern-day promised land.” Images of the television show “The Wonder Years” come to mind when suburbia is described this way. In this show and others like it (”Leave it to Beaver” for example) safety, security and a home on a quiet street seemed to be the ultimate end. Struggles were not so much about death, starvation or where the next meal was going to come from, but more about not being cool at school or about winning the affections of the cute girl down the street.

As the suburbs grew, the major promise of this world was the single-family dwelling. When explaining the growth of the suburbs, a major motivating factor in moving from the crowded city was the prospect of owning a single-family dwelling. Albert Hsu writes in his book The Suburban Christian:

Central to suburban housing and living is the core philosophical idea of American individualism. In this notion of the American dream, the ideal is that every individual family has their own plot of land, yard and picket fence to separate them from their neighbors, defining mine as mine and yours as yours. In the 1950s individualistic single family houses were seen as the American antidote to communism.

Often times we decry the evils of the suburban world without realizing that it developed out of a specific time, place, culture and set of needs. As one reads a fair account of the development of suburban America, it makes sense that people would be seeking refuge, safety, and security. They were simply reacting to the world in which they lived. Of course, this does not mean that suburban development did not come with some major consequences. Andres Dauny in his book, Suburban Nation: the Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream writes:

For the past fifty years, we Americans have been building a national landscape that is largely devoid of places worth caring about. Soulless subdivisions, residential “communities” utterly lacking in communal life, strip shopping centers, “big box” chain stores, and artificially festive malls set within barren seas of parking; antiseptic office parks, ghost towns after 6 p.m.; and mile upon mile of clogged collector roads [are] the only fabric tying our disassociated lives back together”

This individualism and escapism has led to the suburban world’s most powerful religion: Consumerism. Hsu perceptively notes,

“The very housing structures of suburbia itself contribute to consumer culture because of the primacy of the single-family home. Rather than the homestead being a place of production, the single family home is a place of consumption, necessarily fueled by wages to support a consumption-centered lifestyle.”

He goes on to keenly note that since the single-family home is not self-sustaining, it depends on others to produce the goods to keep it going. It is not cost efficient (or possible) to produce things like one’s own eggs, electricity and or milk so we must instead purchase them. The single family home then “because it is dependent on consumption for its continued existence, ensures the endless perpetuation of consumer desire.”

A Christian Response

This is the world in which God has called us to contextualize the hope of the Gospel. So what is the answer for the church in the suburbs? There are at least four main ways the default suburban lifestyle needs to be challenged. First, we need to speak out against the suburban value of extreme individualism and call Christians back to community. Second, we need to deconstruct the value of consumerism in way that leads instead to sacrificial living. Third we need to question the suburban value of safety and comfort and judge it against the call of the gospel. Finally, we need to understand how our individualism and consumerism lead us to neglect the hurting and needy people in our neighborhoods and cities.

Reject Individualism.

We can expect that if we live in an individualized world, we will struggle with having an individualized church. Individualism is extremely hurtful to mission. First of all, the individualism of our culture can lead to an over-individualizing salvation. Darrell Guder in his book The Continuing Conversion of the Church discusses how the church needs to be converted away from a reductionist view of the gospel which uncritically adopts an individualized world view into its theology. Guder writes:

As the gospel proclaimed by the church has been reduced to individual salvation, that salvation itself has become the purpose and program of the church, its worship centered on the message of individual salvation, more and more the clergy became the special caste of Christians who managed everyone else’s individual salvation.

Of course, there is no denying that a major part of salvation is the individual aspect. Because of this, emphasizing the fact that Jesus came to redeem individuals is obviously in and of itself not a problem. However, when we only emphasize the individual nature of the gospel we miss out on the bigger picture of the redemptive narrative of Scripture. Jesus came not only to save individuals, He came to redeem all of creation. Churches that focus primarily on individual salvation tend to lose focus on this aspect of the church’s calling. The church’s call to be a “sign, witness and foretaste” of the coming Kingdom are often overlooked when our only concern is getting people to heaven when they die. Here Jesus’ prayer that the Father’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven can be a real and practical manifestation of the local and global church.

One other way mission suffers from individualism is the loss of an emphasis on our public and unified witness. A simple illustration comes from a song that many young children learn called “Fishers of Men.” Our individualistic worldview is clearly seen in the hand motions that we teach our children. We teach them to fish like we do today. This, of course, is done with a fishing pole a fishing line and flashy lure while standing alone on the shoreline. While this is a completely legitimate way to fish, it is not the kind of fishing that Jesus was referring to when he told his disciples He would make them fishers of men. Fishing in Jesus’ time was much different. In those days, fisherman used large nets instead of poles and lures. From the Biblical narrative we can see that these nets were not the kind that could be lifted by one man who might be fishing all by himself. In fact, these nets could become so heavy that a whole team of fishermen could not even lift them. The most important point to notice here is that fishing in Jesus’ day was inherently a communal venture. Without other fishermen it was almost impossible to take in the catch. This has major implications for how we typically view evangelism in our day. We need to find ways to move from an individualized witness to a more robust and powerful communal witness.

Jesus was not about sending his disciples out by themselves into their individualized world to “share the gospel” so that people could “go to heaven when they die.” Rather, he was sending them out to be a communal, public witness to the Kingdom that he was announcing and inaugurating. If we are going to challenge the individualized nature of suburbia, we are going to have to make some intentional efforts to find ways to be more communal in our witness together as fellow church members and as fellow churches.

Deconstruct Comfort

The second value that we need to think critically about in the suburban world is the value of comfort. Suburbia is set up so that we only need to interact with those whom we desire to interact with, keeping the rest of the evil world at arms length. The suburbs were attractive because they enabled one to leave the poverty and discomfort of the city behind. But is this view of comfort congruent with the gospel? In Luke 9 Jesus says, “Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has no place to lay his head…follow me…no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” This passage serves as a very counter-cultural text for our suburban world. We have already seen how the single-family dwelling is one of the promises of the suburbs that we all pursue. Here we see Jesus challenging us to put our potential home ownership in proper perspective. It would seem a little preposterous to claim that Christians should not own homes. At the same time, we need to reconsider the value we place on the comfort of a home. It is clear from this passage that physical comfort is not a primary value for a follower of Jesus.

We can also see that the early church did not place physical comfort as a primary value. In 2 Corinthians 11, the Apostle Paul writes that he has been in prison, flogged severely, exposed to death, beaten with rods three times, stoned once, shipwrecked, in danger from bandits, not to mention his own countrymen, the sea and false brothers. The poignant part of this passage is Paul’s use of these experiences as examples of how he could boast, if he wanted to. Here Paul is placing a value on these things over and above comfort.

Uncritically accepting comfort and safety affects more than just our personal discipleship and mission. It also has great impact on the mission of our community. Church communities seeking to maintain and find comfort for their members will quickly lose the mission they started with. In his book Exiles, Michael Frost claims:

Timidity squashes our missional impulse. It causes us to withdraw from any grand sense of purpose for fear of upsetting the delicate balance of conflicting egos currently residing in each church. Christians surround themselves with fellow churchgoers, so that their church’s only goal is to maintain equilibrium. Such timidity and anxiety leave the church as nothing more than a retreatist, frightened, ineffective organization.

Churches seeking to maintain safety for their members usually avoid any risk for the sake of the gospel. Because of this, they are unable to think critically about contextualization. Instead, they simply do as they have always been doing. Or, they do mission as it was done in the past despite the fact that the culture has changed. In reality, safety and security are the ultimate goal; mission is secondary at best.

If we are going to find ways to be missional in suburbia, we need to cultivate individuals and communities willing to take risks for the sake of the gospel. We need to tell stories of people who have taken risks for the sake of following Jesus. We need to build into our community an ethos of change, challenge, risk, and perhaps even persecution. Of course, as we do this, we understand that the gospels do talk about Christ taking care of our needs as well as the comfort of our souls. Our communities do need to be places of refuge along with being places of risk. But, if we are never taking risks, a community of refuge is not quite as needed and necessary.

Confront Consumerism

The third suburban value that we need to think critically about is consumerism. The argument could be made that our individualizing and comfort seeking have developed out of the deeper problem of consumerism. Consumerism is a term used to describe the effects of equating personal happiness with purchasing material possessions and consumption. It is easy to see how consumerism works against the gospel. We should equate personal happiness with Jesus Christ, not ourpossessions.

In Luke 9 Jesus tells his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life must lose it and whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet lose or forfeit his very self.” Ron Sider in his book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience argues that consumerism developed because Charles Darwin “convinced the intellectual world that the entire history of life on this planet is simply the result of blind material forces accidentally producing chance mutations that through natural selection produce evolutionary change. Nothing exists but this material world, which we can count and measure.” If we adopt this view, the spiritual things of this world, which cannot be measured, become less valuable.

Very few Christians, if any at all, would argue that their happiness comes from material things; and they also do not argue that the world has developed from evolution. However, we may have adopted more of this worldview than we realized. Debt, with certain exceptions, can be a decent indicator of the level of consumerism that has influenced a person or family.

Unfortunately, today Christians are in debt as much as the rest of the world. Much of the debt in our lives comes from the “need” for bigger televisions, the newest iPod, the latest designer clothes, or perhaps this year’s newest vehicle. The church needs to be active in calling its members into check if they have uncritically adopted the “you are what you consume” theory of modern, suburban life.

Pursue Justice

The fourth challenge the church has in the suburban world is to radically address issues of poverty and justice. The fact that suburban people do not naturally engage in these issues is congruous with the other three issues already stated. If a suburban Christian’s main focus on salvation is receiving life after death, and if he/she is unknowingly placing physical comfort and materialism above the radical and risky call to follow Jesus, then it is not a surprise that the poor, disenfranchised, and needy are left to fend for themselves. We have come to the suburbs because we did not want to look at the poverty of the city. It has become too easy to ignore the fact that there is poverty all around us, even in suburbia!

A recent study showed that more and more poverty is moving to the suburbs. The study stated, “The suburban poor outnumbered their inner-city counterparts for the first time last year, with more than 12 million suburban residents living in poverty, according to a study of the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas.” This is a startling statistic and the suburban church must take note. We have already argued that the church cannot ignore issues of justice because the gospel is more far-reaching than individual salvation. If the church in the suburbs is truly going to be the church, it must begin to think creatively of ways to serve the needs of today’s “orphans and widows.” It would be helpful for us to think about mission in terms of justice and evangelism together. Ron Sider writes, “think of the impact if evangelical giving to empower the poor here and abroad became so substantial that the first thought that came to people’s minds when they heard the word ‘evangelical’ was ‘Oh, yes, they are the people who are dramatically reducing poverty around the world.” He goes on the say that “evangelism and concern for the poor have gone hand in hand in the great revivals of the past.”

Are we going to stop acting like poverty doesn’t exist? Are we seriously going to argue that we are cannot help the poor when we are the richest people in the world? A family with an income of about $45,000/year is currently in the top 1.75% richest people in the world. Considering that a $45,000 salary will hardly afford someone a typical suburban home in a major metropolitan area, this statistic is very telling. We see again how many of the issues discussed in this paper are distinct but not separate when we realize that even though we make more money than the majority of the world we still find excuses not to help the poor. Perhaps this is because we are so consumed with debt from living individualized and consumer driven lives that we are not able to give to the poor!

What Now?

So what are we to do? Ron Sider states our challenge clearly when he says,

“Precisely because we love culture, we must be counter-cultural. Precisely because we follow Jesus our churches must be loving disrupters of the sinful status quo rather than comfortable clubs of conformity.”

We have a monumental challenge if we are going to contextualize the gospel and live as missional communities of faith throughout suburban America. We cannot flee. We cannot get out of here. This is where we live. This is where God has called us. And this “God-forsaken place” that we have been called to desperately needs the Church to stand up and be the Church. We need to be a Church that truly exists for the sake of others. We need a Church that gives up luxury so that others may have necessity. We need a Church that rejects the lone ranger mentality and lives in sacrificial and compassionate community. We need a Church that views money as a resource of God’s Kingdom and not an object to be consumed. We need a Church that trusts the Spirit and takes risks for the sake of the Gospel. We need a Church that comes together to care for the poor in their backyards as well as those in the city.

Perhaps, if we are careful to listen to the voice of the Spirit’s leading, we will see the power of the cross and the Resurrection can transform a place as cold and hard to the gospel as suburban America.

Bibliography.

Associated Press. “Poverty Moves to the Burbs.” Northwest Herald. 06 Dec 2006. (Link)

Barth, Karl. Church Dogmatics, IV.3.2. The Doctrine of Reconciliation. (New York: T&T Clark, 2004).

Bewley, Joel and Jan Hefler. “Four Killings Put 2006 Over 05″ The Philadelphia Inquirer. 11 Dec. 2006. (Link)

Bosch, David. A Spirituality for the Road. (Eugene: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 1961).

Bosch, David. Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission. (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1991).

Duany, Albert. Suburban Nation: the Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream. (New York: North Point Press, 2000).

Frost, Michael. Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture. (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, 2006).

Gibbs, Eddie and Ryan Bolger. Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Culture. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2005).

Guder, Darrell. The Continuing Conversion of the Church. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000).

Hirsh, Alan & Michael Frost. The Shaping of Things to Come. (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, 2004).

Hsu, Albert Y. The Suburban Christian. (Downers Grove: IVP Books, 2006).

Martin, Allie. “Burkett Says Misplaced Priorities at Crux of Debt Problem.” Agape Press. 14 Aug. 2001. <ttp://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/8/142001g.asp>.

Sider, Ron. The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience: Why Are Christians Living Just Like the Rest of the World?. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2005).

The Matrix. Dir. Andy Wachiwski, Larry Wachowski. Keanu Reeves, Hugo Weaving and Laurence Fishburne. 1999.

www.wikipedia.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumerism

<www. globalrichlist.com>

Posted in General, Suburbia |
30 Comments »

Missional in Suburbia - Part…uh..not sure

ToddJanuary 12, 2006

I have been a big fan of anyone who is asking the question, “what does it mean to be missional in suburbia.” With all the talk about being missional, I am personally think the suburbs get the least attention. The challage is great and the need for missional christians in the burbs is just great (if not greater) as those in urban settings.

I have been working out some thoughts as to what it would mean to create an ethos of missional living in our community. The thing I keep on coming back to is the question: “what are the practices / values that we commit to that teach us and help us live counter-culturally?”

I am convinced that unless we are able to say “This is the way we live and these are the things that we do that are counter to the suburban culture” we will get stuck in the values of a consumeristic soceity. For me, these practices arise out of the value of our culture that need deconstruction. This would include our culture’s (suburban culture specifically) view of Money, Isolation, our fast-paced life style, and our inabilty to adequately address issues of justice.

I have been collecting links for discussions on missionality in suburubia, here’s what i have found:

- Missional Christians should always read the local paper

- Tim Keller on Suburban missional churches

- The Gospel and Suburban Churches Part I, Part II

- Preaching Jesus Up Against the Jesus of Suburbia

- The way of Suburbia vs. the way of Christ

- Six Convictions and Practices for Leading Missional Innovation

- Kingdom Agenda - Thoughts on mission in suburbia here and here

- A Mind Awake - Further thoughts on being missional in suburbia

Here are some of my thoughts so far:
- My posts on suburbia and missional living

Posted in General, Suburbia |
6 Comments »

Missional In Suburbia - The Need for a Prophetic Voice

ToddNovember 22, 2005

In recent years there has been a lot written on the “missional church.” Often I think the way we explain it is kind of vague and we speak of it in too general of terms. It’s really easy to talk about the ecclesiology of what it means to be missional, but not necessarily the practical ways we can live more missional lives. (I think the reason for this is essentially that the second part is the hard part!)

In an effort to think through some of these questions, Brad and I have been doing some brainstorming on what it means for us to be and lead a community, to be missional in our suburban context. After working out the big ideas, the big question that we have come to at the end is:

“what are the intentional practices we participate in as missional followers of Jesus.”

While processing brainstorming, (the results of which I will post sometime soon) I am starting to realize that there is a great need for there to be some prophetic voices to the churches and Christians in the burbs.

We need some people to stand up and say “you’ve heard it said ____, well the Jesus calls us to ______.”

For example:

• You’ve heard it said that you’ve got to look out for number one. Well Jesus says whoever gains his life will lose it and who ever loses his life will gain it.
• You’ve heard it said that its important to be safe and secure your portfolio. Jesus says if you want to live you must deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Him.

Anyone else have some other examples?

Posted in General, Suburbia, The Church |
3 Comments »