Comments on: Suburbia – Designed to avoid community?

By: Lon

Lon — Wed, 20 May 2009 16:32:03 +0000

wow, that is so great to hear Ian, thanks for adding your piece to the discussion! it’s hard to go wrong with the smell of BBQ’s!!!

By: Ian Beyer

Ian Beyer — Wed, 20 May 2009 13:58:57 +0000

I think a lot of how suburbia functions depends on where you are. When I lived in Denver, suburbia was much as you describe, with the tall “hate-your-neighbor” fences, and you could live somewhere for years and never know who lives next door.

Here in the suburbs of Kansas City, it was a complete 180 from what I had experienced 600 miles to the west. Our neighborhood is a close community where we can name off virtually everybody and their kids within a couple of blocks, and look out for each other. And this is a common experience around here. The 6-foot fences (which are far from ubiquitous!) are more for keeping things IN the yard, than keeping things out.

The affluent suburban megachurch where I work very much reflects this. Community is strong here. Maybe KC is an anomaly. Maybe it’s the BBQ. When the smell of wood smoke and roasting meat permeates the air, it’s hard not to form community.

By: Lon

Lon — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 20:12:10 +0000

Thanks for the comments folks. Al, that’s an awesome resource! I’ve read one bakke book, and loved it!

Parke, i just recently stumbled on thesubtext as well… will need to explore it more

By: CS

CS — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 19:39:26 +0000

“Enter the whole mega-church nonsense and prosperity gospel junk.”

Check out the work of Justin Peters at http://www.justinpeters.org and be sure to watch the video!

By: Parke

Parke — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 17:19:31 +0000

Some good challenging thoughts here:
http://thesubtext.org/2008/07/16/redemptive-view-of-suburbia/

The core site (thesubtext.org) is a second look at living out faith in suburbia that I think presents at least some healthy ideas for living a godly life in the suburbs.

By: Al

Al — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:24:41 +0000

I had the opportunity to hear Dr. Ray Bakke talk about how the church abandoned the inner city and moved to suburbia. It was part of his whole presentation on having a theology of the city, and comes out of his decades of experience living in Chicago’s inner city. If you have a few hours to listen to the sessions, they are available at: http://www.nexia3.com/podcasts.php
It seems like the church has been at the forefront of ghetto-izing itself. We don’t really want to be a part of the community, so we make our own ‘Christian’ community.
However, we can make a difference. It has to start somewhere, so it might as well start with me! Get involved with something that is already going on, or start something on your own. Others will catch on, because I think many people (Christian and otherwise) recognize the place we must have in each other’s lives.