David W. Swanson

Pastor and Author

Ten Ways to be the People of God in Suburbia

I’ve bumped into the following list a couple of times over the past few days. A guy named Chris Smith recently put down on paper “ten ways for those called to suburban ministry to be the people of God in radical ways in suburbia.”

Now… note the word “radical.” Some of you will love this whole list. Others of you will like some of it. Others of you might question Chris’ sanity. 🙂 Ah, but what would this blog be without a few rants now and again to make us uncomfortable? Boring, that’s what.

So here you go. Leave a comment should you feel so inclined.

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.

Read the rest of the list (it gets even more interesting!) at the allelon blog. Don’t forget to come back and leave a comment.

David Swanson

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3 responses to “Ten Ways to be the People of God in Suburbia”

  1. E. I. Sanchez Avatar
    E. I. Sanchez

    Working less is one to which I’m totally trying to subdue to.

    As far as #3, I’m definitely keeping my five television sets. 🙂 They make great babysitters.

    Edgar.

    Reply
  2. Larry Eisner Avatar
    Larry Eisner

    To be honest, this is a nice list, but not all that god-inspired. It seems to me that it’s simply a more “green” way to live.

    Commune living would therefore suit this situation best:

    No job, as everyone works for the commune.

    Cars would be very unnecessary, at least in quantity, because why leave the commune?

    Everyone living together? Check. It’s a commune, for pete’s sake!

    Television? I suppose you could fix this by having the commune own one really big TV. I have a feeling you’d all watch less television when the shows were voted on by the commune-at-large…

    Gardening/being outdoors would seem to me to go hand-in-hand with this communal-living philosophy.

    Again, not trying to poke fun at what was obviously intended to be very serious and very insughtful… But while none of these things would be deterrent to Christian living, and loving those around you for Christ… it also strikes me as the very basis of ideas cults are often based around.

    It seems to me that the REAL 10 ways to live as the people of God in Suburbia, would be as follows (as I humbly submit, of course! 🙂 ):

    (1) Try to get out of Suburbia once in a while – This means getting away from the safe, easy lifestyle that eases you into complacency. Get in the inner-cities, meet the homeless, talk to the guy who talks to himself all the time. Show THEM some love.

    (2) Put God first, family second, and all else third – This would obviously include work, and all other distractions like Television… But while we often say we’re putting our families before other things, sometimes we don’t. And more difficult is putting God before our families. Jesus even stated that those he was preaching to were his brother/sister/mother/father instead of his flesh and blood ones… It is his example we should emulate, to be of God.

    (3) Live for God in a public way – Not to say “Hey, everybody! I’m doing God’s work now! Yay for me!” But instead, to not try to hide your church-self from the world. Be unified in face. (That’s just a nice way of saying don’t be two-faced!) Be the same person on Sunday as you are on Monday, or Wednesday, or the day the Bears lose, or the day your boss tells you you’re doing a horrible job, or whatever… Be the person God wants you to be… constantly and consistently. At least strive for it. People will notice. (And the good thing, is they will likely not notice YOU in it so much as they will notice GOD in it…)

    (4) Get to know your neighbors – While I agree that fences don’t help, sometimes they are necessary (Dogs, pools, etc.). So, regardless of your fence-status, be a neighbor. To everyone. Talk to the cat lady across the street. Even talk to the neighbor who is probably writing a letter to the village about your lawn/leaves right at this moment (that’s a little close to home for me). Listen to what they have to say. Don’t try to convert them. That’s God’s job. But love them. Pray for an opportunity to naturally occur for you and that neighbor to discuss things of God. Otherwise, you’re falsely creating a friendship in order to trap your neighbor… and that’s not neighborly. 🙂

    (5) You know what? There’s only four. Ten is excessive. Just be yourself, love your God and love your neighbor. Pray for opportunity to serve and share. That’s being God anywhere. Even in the dreaded “suburbs”.

    Reply
  3. Larry Eisner Avatar
    Larry Eisner

    And just for the record, you did invite rants… 🙂

    Reply

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