Mustard Seed Associates invited me to write an article around the topic of Suburbia and the Missional church. Over the last few months I have started to realize that I needed to take a more positive approach to this topic. This article details a little bit of this shift. You can read the article on the MSA website here.
Missional Living in Suburban America
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I am a pastor at The Well in Bucks County, PA and I am also a freelance web designer.
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Evan said...
1I commented on MSA’s site:
Todd,
Love you and love the article. I remember Brian Walsh talk about something similar once (I also saw you speak about this before). I think a good way to think about how to be missional in suburbia is to be “that place” for the community. For instance, the dad on the block who wants to beat his kid relentlessly because the kid is so darn stubborn – my door should be open to that dad so he has a place to vent and work through those things. Or the kid whose dad is too busy at his Fortune 500 job, my door should be open to play wiffle ball or soccer or Xbox with the kid; to spend time with him or her. This can be done by a suburban congregation or even by individuals.
04/7/09 7:59 PM | Comment Link
Bryan Todd said...
2I’ve been thinking about this stuff (broader concept of missional living in suburbia and specifically about hospitality) for a while. I resonate with the thoughts you present, and I confess that I resemble the critic you described (or maybe you were actually describing me).
I wonder if the ancient practice of hospitality is a “model” of evangelism (creating spaces to connect with God more than the definition/examples of evangelism that make me embarrassed to type the word publicly) for us today? My mind drifts to ideas from a book called Celtic Way of Evangelism by George Hunter.
I wonder if a contemporary discipline of simplicity is needed too? I mean, I got a house that I am hardly at because I’m too freakin’ busy. So… if I invited someone over, I think the hospitable thing to do would to actually be there. But then to schedule my calendar with my wife’s calendar (and the kid’s calendar) with your calendar (and your wife & kids calendars), not to mention work, church, sports, ballet, piano, taking care of the house, 24, Phillies, etc….makes it too much work just to have someone over to play guitar hero world tour.
On this one, my mind drifts to ideas from Richard Foster’s book called Freedom of Simplicity, which was written in 1981, but reads like a blog from yesterday.
On a different note, I think there are some other strengths of the burbs
1. Multi-national cross cultural community – I teach ESL at the library and have had students from over 40 countries participate. That is a lot easier to be hospitable/missional than to fly to all those places.
2. Openness – I have found that the schools, library, police, rec. sports, etc.. have been very open to partnership with me personally and with our church. Doesn’t seem to have the same stigma of separation that I have read about, heard about, and experienced in the past. Maybe because they are hard up for volunteers and will take anyone – ha
3. Herds – there are lots of places people are already gathered at and experiencing community: the bleachers, the bar, and the barista.
4. Margins – seems like the New Testament was written when Christianity was on the margins of culture and it seems like Christianity is on the margins in the burbs. That commonality might be more of a strength than meets the eye.
Thanks for your thoughts.
04/8/09 9:30 AM | Comment Link