Missional in Suburbia
I pastor a suburban congregation. If you read the most recent Time Magazine you will find an article there that describes my context -- Oakland County, Michigan. My congregation moved from downtown out here to the suburbs 30 years, in large part because the community had changed and they found it difficult if not impossible to connect. So, they found some land, sold the old site to an African-American congregation and tried to set up camp out here. What is interesting is that in reading some old reports of the move, the congregation chose to continue its previous metropolitan ministry, only from a new location. Of course their understanding of metropolitan ministry then and what it might mean today has changed. But, they insisted that they would not become a traditional suburban church. The only problem with this choice is that they didn't find ways of connecting with the neighborhood.
In the year prior to my coming here the congregation got introduced to the idea of being missional. A group went to hear Alan Roxburgh and decided that this is what they needed to become. They are still discovering/discerning what this will mean for them -- but Roxburgh insists that to be missional one must enter and inhabit one's neighborhood. That means that we must minister in the suburbs. That concept has been rattling around in my head these past few days/weeks and low and behold I came across a piece today on the Emergent Village site written by Todd Heistandt that deals with this very issue. Heistandt notes that he had come to believe that if he was going to truly minister he had to do it in the urban context, that the urban community was the god-forsaken place, but he had discovered to his great surprise that behind all the walls of suburbia, there might be a real sense of godforsakenness. Perhaps it is possible for us to be missional in suburbia -- that there is need for reconciliation, healing, and transformation here in the land of SUV's and big lots. Indeed, the recent economic downturn seems to have hit suburbia quite hard.
So, we will seek to discern God's intentions here in suburbia, even as we seek to partner for ministry in the urban areas.
In the year prior to my coming here the congregation got introduced to the idea of being missional. A group went to hear Alan Roxburgh and decided that this is what they needed to become. They are still discovering/discerning what this will mean for them -- but Roxburgh insists that to be missional one must enter and inhabit one's neighborhood. That means that we must minister in the suburbs. That concept has been rattling around in my head these past few days/weeks and low and behold I came across a piece today on the Emergent Village site written by Todd Heistandt that deals with this very issue. Heistandt notes that he had come to believe that if he was going to truly minister he had to do it in the urban context, that the urban community was the god-forsaken place, but he had discovered to his great surprise that behind all the walls of suburbia, there might be a real sense of godforsakenness. Perhaps it is possible for us to be missional in suburbia -- that there is need for reconciliation, healing, and transformation here in the land of SUV's and big lots. Indeed, the recent economic downturn seems to have hit suburbia quite hard.
So, we will seek to discern God's intentions here in suburbia, even as we seek to partner for ministry in the urban areas.
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