I'm sitting in the local Panera Bread writing this article, munching on a cookie, and sipping the dark roast. There is nothing unusual about my presence here. I'm just the guy sitting by the data port typing on a laptop. I could be doing anything – working on a school paper, writing a novel, checking the basketball scores, chatting with my brother…but that's not my purpose. I am, unbeknownst to these other happy people present, a subversive of the most dangerous kind. My interest, my purpose, is nothing less than a complete upheaval of the values that many of these people hold dear. I wish to see those values sabotaged by the wild and wonderful reign of Jesus Christ and to wake up the sleeping giant that is suburbia.
I like Panera Bread. In my humble opinion, they are better in every way to the evil empire Starbucks. Their coffee is better, their cookies and pastries are better, they don't charge for wifi, they have real food, and I have never once had to wait in line while some oblivious individual orders their triple mocha skim-milk venti frappichino. Strickly speaking as a consumer, Panera Bread makes me happy. Everything about the place screams, "Sit down and take a load off. Eat some carb-laden French bread and have a bowl of the broccoli cheddar. Converse with your friends, drink coffee, take home a few brownies…live a little." As a matter of fact, if I were a single man, I might eat at Panera Bread several times a week.
Such has become the suburban life. We find something we like; we overdose on it until the law of diminishing returns rears its ugly head. In the midst of our search for the next high, we become incapable of being confronted with anything inconvenient or painful. We forget that once there was no such thing as Panera Bread or Starbucks or Pottery Barn. Our story has become a story of accelerating technology, hyper-efficiency, and stifling homogeneity. These and other values have usurped every rivaling story in the suburban context, including the Christian story. Many churches have attempted to walk the tightrope – making every effort to present the way of Christ without offending those values too deeply, even in some cases using those values as a means to discipleship. But I believe there must be another path, one that prophetically challenges those values head-on. It does not look like fundamentalism, railroading others into a systematic worldview of do's and don'ts. It does not look like isolationism, diving beneath the covers in a futile attempt to insulate the faithful from the surrounding wickedness. It does not look like nihilism, decreeing everything in its path corrupt and leaving no hope for reconstruction. No, this path has everything to do with announcing the accessibility of the "kingdom among us" and demonstrating its concrete reality through word and deed. A good biblical model for this kind of announcement can be found in the prophet Jeremiah.
The numbness produced by the kind of values mentioned above can only be broken by an authentic expression of emotions that everyone has but no one is willing to acknowledge. Walter Bruggemann, in his book The Prophetic Imagination, paints a portrait of Jeremiah that stands in contrast to more familiar ones. Living amongst a people who could not and did not want to see that the end was near, he became the symbol of a grieving nation that could not grieve. "[Jeremiah] is a paradigm for those who address the numb and denying posture of people who do not want to know what they have or what their neighbors have. Jeremiah is frequently misunderstood as a doomsday spokesman or a pitiful man who had a grudge and sat around crying; but his public and personal grief was for another reason and served another purpose. Jeremiah embodies the alternative consciousness of Moses in the face of the denying king…He articulated what the community had to deny in order to continue the self-deception of achievable satiation…In his grieving, Jeremiah asked only that the royal community face up to its real experience, so close to the end. What both prophet and king knew was that to experience that reality was in fact to cease to be king." In other words, Jeremiah's prophetic vocation was to do for the people of Judea what they could not do – confess that their prosperity was not infinite and that they would in fact lose their identity, and indeed their own lives, under the judgment of God.
The king in Jeremiah's time wished to "live in an uninterrupted eternal now." But God's people have always and will always live by God's timetable. The king and his establishment seek to live in a world where every question is answered, every concern managed, and every pain comforted. But instead, the prophet asks,
Is there no balm in Gilead?
is there no physician there?
Why then has the health of the daughter of my people
not been restored?
O that my head were waters,
and my eyes a fountain of tears,
That I might weep day and night
for the slain daughter of my people!
O that I had in the desert
a wayfarer's lodging place
That I might leave my people
and go away from them! (Jer. 8:22-9:2)
The prophet is willing to confront the questions that have no easy answers, because that is the only path that might break the numbness. "Now it is time not for answers but for questions that defy answers because the royal answering service no longer functions. Answers from that source presume control and symmetry. And that is gone." With the establishment's set of answers lying in the gutter, the prophet stands as a paradigmatic witness to the perilous narrow road, which is the only way forward.
So what might be the appropriate prophetic response to suburban (which you could also substitute on a wider scale "American" or "Western") values that stand as an affront to the kingdom of God? Brueggeman offers this acknowledgment of what the prophet's true vocation looks like:
"The prophet does not ask if the vision can be implemented, for questions of implementation are of no consequence until the vision can be imagined. The imagination must come before the implementation. Our culture is competent to implement almost anything and to imagine almost nothing."
In response to values that squelch the creative act and substitute management for art, I believe it is time to imagine a community of faith that becomes as "yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough." This is the vocation we must accept to confront and disciple the comfortably numb of suburbia.
Within the conversation relating to the redefinition of church and Christian practice within post-modern culture, there has been much discussion about the efficacy of birthing communities of faith in urban environments. There is plenty of rationale why this is a "more appropriate" environment for what we are trying to do. People in urban environments have a more innate sense of place, their lives are naturally more integrated and seamless, they generally value authenticity in community, and there is a desire for the environment to be maintained through a healthy balance between cities and rural locales. The rationale follows that the alternative community of faith would best thrive where similar values already exist and could be refocused towards the kingdom. I would not argue against this rationale and commend my brothers and sisters who are working out small expressions of kingdom values in urban environments. However, through whatever purposes of God at work that I could not attempt to understand, many others and myself are firmly entrenched in a suburban setting. We too believe that there is an alternative to agreeing with cultural values that stand as an affront to God's kingdom. Whether our job is any harder is not a necessary conversation. Rather, I wish to offer a portrait – to imagine – how a community of faith in suburbia might prophetically act against the destructive values of the status quo.
There is no roadmap to becoming a prophetic community of this kind; it must be an experience home-grown and tailor-made within the unique environment these communities find themselves. However, braving the potential for those who may try and implement ideas without first imagining God's kingdom vision, here are some trails that communities might traverse while on their prophetic journeys. Some of these "trails" were gleaned from conversations with Greg Quiring and Chris Smith, two prophets of the kingdom living it out in suburbia, and from comments posted on our community blog, www.whatischurch.com/weblog.
Trail #1 – Practice Intentional Community – Living with others from your faith community is a powerful, physical representation of the family that is formed as we enter the kingdom. However, there are endless ways to practice intentional community, many of which do not require you to live under the same roof. Its central prophetic element calls into question the notion of "every king must have his castle." Those who wish to challenge that value will aspire to not live in isolation - only venturing out to buy groceries or borrow a lawnmower. Followers of Jesus in suburbia will practice a shared life and will invite others into the same kind of radical sharing.
Trail #2 – Harmonize Work – One of the most insidious values of suburbia is the work schedule that demands the worker be away from their families and communities for 60-80 hours a week. Not only is there a loss of connectedness to family, but the pace of life demanded leaves little room for the sacred. In the lives of those living under such demands, faith can never be more than a managed utility – spiritual valium. The prophetic response is to rearrange work schedules to fit within the rhythms of family and faith community rather than the other way around. In my own experience, I have chosen to work as an engineer on an hourly basis so that I can maintain flexibility and harmony between my other commitments. Others choose to start their own business with similar values driving business decisions rather than profitability and 'growth at all costs'.
Trail #3 – Practice Kingdom Economics – Recently I read through the Gospel of Luke with an eye towards what economics might look like with kingdom values. If you want to be challenged with the way you view the financial plight of those around you, do that study and ask what a kingdom response might be. The typical suburban response to the poor is the giving of resources to fund institutional charities. Although much good is done by those charities to provide for basic needs, it is rare for root causes to be addressed. One of the most thoughtful and mature groups who has dealt with this question is the Church of the Savior in Washington D.C. Although they primarily minister in an urban environment, many of the issues they address would translate in suburbia.
Trail #4 – Integrate the Sacred and Secular – Nowhere in western culture is the divide between the "sacred" and "secular" more prevalent than in suburbia. Church is just another product to be consumed; another service to be devoured. There is probably no greater prophetic call for the suburban faith community beyond addressing the divorce between "spiritual" things and "real life". Leaders who continue to believe that people will "get it" simply by having more teaching or by handing out the latest Christian mass-marketed super-book are naïve to the chasm between suburban values and kingdom values. Faith communities who are serious about integration will be forced to make some difficult decisions regarding the nature of their common worship, the activities or services they will provide (if any) as an organization, and in some cases decide if a formal organization is necessary at all. For further exploration and more about how our local community has wrestled with this topic, see an article I co-wrote with T Freeman last February: Word, Work, Worship – Moving Beyond Sunday-Centric Communities.
Trail #5 – Learn Friendship – One of the least threatening yet most powerful arenas for usurping suburban values is within simple friendship. Rodney Clapp, in his book A Peculiar People, offers a short case study on the practice of friendship as an act of "sanctified subversion. Clapp describes how friendship has been co-opted by a managerial worldview that reduces "friendships" between modern people to a product that must be "productive" or it will be "terminated". He provides this comical inner dialogue that typifies suburban friendships:
"I have been struck recently by how much I and other suburbanites worry about keeping 'ledgers' in our friendships. Have we been negligent and not invited Shelley and Kenneth over for too long? Willis and Lisa have now asked us to baby-sit their kids three times to our one – maybe it would be better if they just hired sitters and we stopped trading off. Should I borrow Frank's tools again, or have I done so little for him lately that I'm in danger of sponging?"
The prophetic response to managed friendships is to bring kingdom values into how we treat our neighbors, literally. Instead of focusing on what our friends can provide for us, we can learn how to demonstrate the reality of the kingdom by identifying and blessing what God is doing in their lives. Greg Quiring provided some great thoughts on this kind of friendship in his blog post, 'Burban missional living:
"Friendship.
Sexy? No. Vague? Sure. Hard to "implement?" Absolutely. Something that most of us who have grown up in evangelicalism suck at? Confirmed. Slow in achieving results? Thank God.
I think that there are two points to consider.
One is that we tend to oversimplify being missional. Many reduce friendship to simply "hanging out." While I applaud the attempt at pure relationship in the sentiment, I don't believe that missional living is reduced to just "hanging out." Now, hear me out ... I'm not saying that people are a means to an end (conversion), I am simply saying that I think Kingdom friendship is probably different than what most of us have experienced as "friendship" in life. At least it should be. Which means that we probably need to blow up our current models of "friendship" that most of us inherited in elementary school…
I guess I view hanging out in a missional context as hanging out with a kingdom purpose and intent. I don't "lick my chops" at my neighbors when I see them taking walks in our subdivision, eager to add another notch on my evangelism belt…but I do try to have purpose in how I relate to them. I try to pray for them and ask God to show me what he is doing in their lives. I try to bless what I see and I look for where the kingdom is breaking into their lives. And I try to simply get out of the way and not screw it up!
Less that sound too utilitarian… understand that my "purpose" and "intent" is really…friendship. How about that for serendipity? My purpose is to enjoy them in the moment and be a part of their lives."
Trail #6 – Become a Spiritual Director – With the obvious hunger for the spiritual visible everywhere in the media, there is an enormous need for experienced Christian spiritual directors to take a more central role in the church's evangelistic mission. Could it be that this hunger will not be satisfied by the traditional church structure in future generations? What if a group of spiritual directors made themselves available to the general population with no other agenda than to be with the spiritually poor as fellow seekers instead of church recruiters? Personally, I believe that this trail and the last - authentic friendship - go hand in hand. The best spiritual directors understand their posture as guides "coming along-side" the seeker to help point them in a kingdom direction. A group of "spiritual friends" like this could have considerable subversive influence on suburban culture.
In reality, there are countless trails to explore as communities learn how to act prophetically on behalf of God's kingdom in suburbia. It is my hope to spark, not a revolution of imitators of the latest "technique to win the lost", but a revolution of creativity that can only come from communities pursing their Master and receiving the prophetic call.
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Great thoughts Mike. Jacob Needleman said recently that "narrative community is the new art form of our times". It seems to me that when Jesus taught in parable he fired an image of hope that created a story within a story. Everywhere he went. In my work in addictions I see a growing sense of hopelessness. Not with clients but in a system that moves toward function and replaces imaginal vision. Or, as Illich often noted "forsaking shadow work." Your thoughts on subversive community fits well in the whisper stream of brokeness. Continued blessings
--Marty O'Brien ( obriend at gwi dot net ) on 8/21/2005; 9:43:00 AM
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--anaffronttogod ( satan666 at yahoo dot com ) on 4/13/2005; 9:45:29 AM
Transparency. Man I wish I had thought of that when I was writing the article. Great comment Carolyn.
--Mike Bishop ( bish at whatischurch dot com ) on 5/5/2004; 1:46:51 PM
I found your piece in my in-box ... sent to me out here in suburbia by someone who lives downtown. I was so grateful for so much of what you said. Anyone who both quotes Walter Brueggemann and sites the Church of the Savior is wise in my book.
As a pastor sent to suburbia to start a new church here (a multiethnic one, no less ... God has such a sense of humor), I have been forced to set aside a lot of my preconceptions. I've been challenged by God to learn to pray (and mean it): "Lord, break my heart for these people." Which means not just feeling sorry for them, or sensing their "comfortable numbness" as spiritual depravity, but genuinely loving both those I know and those I don't, respecting their lives as they are before I go judging the value of those lives. For me, it means shutting up about the evil of subdivisions and deciding that a person's worth or integrity is not decided by what street they live on. And for me, it means seeing the brokenness in these people just like I see brokenness in those living in urbania. Taking this road, I am surprised to find a deeper brokenness here, now that I have eyes to see it. The folks who live here have the same history as folks anywhere ... they have been abused by parents, they live with addictions, they struggle to hold finances together, they walk under the weight of consumerism, they fight anger and pain just like anyone. The biggest difference I see is that suburbanites are forced to mask their brokenness while they continue to produce and succeed day in and day out. Maybe what we need to give each other -- no matter what the distance our house is from the Salvation Army -- is a break. Everybody hurts.
Given that, the trail I sense God blazing ahead of me in the midst of this community is the trail of transparency. I believe he is asking me to challenge people to be real with each other -- to share addictions, weaknesses, hang-ups, brokenness -- without fear. And he is asking me to go first, to set the pace by sharing my story then valuing every story I hear in return.
I wonder if story isn't the ultimate answer no matter where you live -- because as we share our stories and value the stories we hear, the Ultimate Story then becomes the healing balm.
--Carolyn ( mosaicumc at bellsouth dot net ) on 4/21/2004; 11:34:12 PM
Mike
some great thoughts. I would have liked to have seen the "friendship" paradigm elaborated also under the authentic community dimension. That is, friendship (perhaps friendship on steroids) in its inward focus (faith community) as well as its outward focus (mission). I think this is partly absorbed in the "spiritual direction" component, but not completely.
Example... I see about a half dozen men each week, face to face. Some I also chat with via email or phone. A couple are beyond me on the journey, but most are a few paces back.
Yet with each I experience friendship. We submit to one another; there is no hierarchy, and while there is intentionality in walking together with Jesus, we are not relating through roles but as disciples to disciples, men to men. We share about our lives as disciples, brothers, husbands and fathers and friends. There is a familial dimension that weaves together what would typically be sacred and secular dimensions, and we share fun times as well as serious ones. We are brothers.
The flexibility and openness to growth that this creates is far beyond what we would experience in a traditional church setting, or if we were relating on the basis of assigned roles (helper and helpee, pastor and disciple, etc etc).
Anyway, some thoughts there. I am thinking also of an article Stephen Shields wrote here a couple years back and can be found also at FAITHMAPS.
Mike, I enjoy your writing! And ain't Brueggemann great eh?
--Len Hjalmarson ( next1 at nextreformation dot com ) on 2/15/2004; 1:49:38 PM
All I can say is thanks...thanks for voicing what I have been feeling and trying to reconcile in this lump of grey matter. How do I apply my need and desire for this kind of community when I am stuck in suburbia? Your insight is extremely helpful, and not accidentally, but prophetically.
--Rick ( rickcwood at msn dot com ) on 2/6/2004; 10:15:00 AM
Wow Indeed! Not just a vision, a new way to intake every breath and exhale every impression. Purer application. - Paige
--Paige ( cpclaus at charter dot net ) on 2/6/2004; 9:13:14 AM
Wow, Mike. Great stuff. Here's to seeing the vision fulfilled...
--Ryan Hale ( ryan dot hale at t1host dot com ) on 2/6/2004; 8:15:17 AM
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