Category: Neighbohoods

Wasted Books on my table for the start of 2018

1/3/2018

Here are eight books On My Table for early 2018; the first four listed, I have already begun reading:

Unclean: Meditations on Purity, Hospitality, and Mortality by Richard Beck

Reading the Bible with the Damned by Bob Ekblad

Kierkegaard: A Single Life by Stephen Backhouse

Reframing Paul: Conversations in Grace & Community by Mark Strom

The Embrace of Buildings: A Second Look at Walkable City Neighborhoods by Lee Hardy

The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein

Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business by Danny Meyer (founder and owner of the Shake Shack)

Awaiting the King: Reforming Public Theology (Cultural Liturgies) by James K. A. Smith

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Among your neighbors: This is missional church

12/31/2016

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The local church as the “thin place” and “the space between”: “Thin place,” a sacred place or space where unseen mysteries of the other world (i.e., “the heavenlies”) and the material places of the earth touch. A “thin place” is where one can walk in two worlds at the same time, a place of liminality—a place where the two worlds (seen and unseen) are fused or mingled together, yet where distinctions can be discerned. “A thin place” is where the boundary between heaven and earth is especially narrow, a place where a sense of the divine is more readily perceived. The church (a local church) as God’s household-temple is such a “thin place.” The “space between” is the common or transitional space where boundaries are fluid, a mix of human activity, specifically that space between the build environment. The church (a local church) is such a “space between” [from C. M. Anderson, “The Sacred “Thin” Space Between: (Eph 3:16): The Temple- Church as Revelation of God's Reconciling Mystery and Its Potential for Church Growth Outcomes” (paper)].

“The Greek word anamnēsis in Luke 22:19 and 1 Corinthians 11:24, where Jesus asks the church to ‘remember’ him when they eat the Lord’s Supper, is the cognate root to the verb ‘remember the poor’ in Galatians 2:10. The ana in Jesus’ usage is an intensifier. In Galatians 2:10 then there is the allusion to ‘make oneself present to’ the poor in the same way as we are to make ourselves present to Christ in the Eucharist” (David E. Fitch, Faithful Presence: Seven Disciplines That Shape the Church for Mission, 221, fn14).

“For Christians concerned with economic justice, this means that we should not look for a static solution, one perfect system in which to rest. We have no lasting city [my italics]. Fostering justice requires local and ongoing negotiation, as does the work of meeting human needs. But that is not to say that Christian ethics must resign itself to endless process, nor that Christians can hide behind abstract principles and leave the work of application to others. It means that ethical questions must be situated within specific narratives of human life moving toward its fulfillment” (Kelly S. Johnson, The Fear of Beggars: Stewardship and Poverty in Christian Ethics).

“Loving without agenda: Often our neighborhoods are filled with special interest groups. The church is not a special interest group; rather we have a reconciling mission that seeks unity, that all might flourish. Consider how your faith community can champion what others are already doing” (Paul Sparks, et al., The New Parish: How Neighborhood Churches Are Transforming Mission, Discipleship and Community).

*This is the third instalment of quotes from my presentation on "Church (local), the poor and their neighborhood," which are focused on applying the Bible, especially in the context of "neighborhood." For all the posted "Church (local) quotes >>

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Why suburban and exurban churches tend not to acknowledge the link between the gospel and a neighborhood’s flourishing

6/27/2016

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It is understandable that suburban, exurban, and affluent church congregations, typically, do not see the link between the gospel and the flourishing of their neighborhood. Here’s the problem: Which neighborhood? Whose neighborhood? And, O by the way, our neighborhoods by definition are flourishing.

Suburban and exurban congregations tend to be a mix of like-minded, demographically related, geographically similar people who travel various distances away from their own neighborhoods to a building in an incongruent neighborhood (to most of the congregation), the place of gathered, weekly worship—the building they call “our church.” This is the habitus of Christians within suburban congregations each week. A habit that teaches, forms, and qualifies an understanding of the gospel.

The neighborhood is a space we leave for church, more a concept of social structure rather than a concrete place or association; a place where my house is located, but detached from my church experience and faith. This offers a building-centered church experience that more easily relates to the command to love the Lord your God, but has no real, concrete relationship to love your neighbor(s) as yourself.

In a real way, a suburban church congregation is without a neighborhood—at least without a specific one. There is no neighborhood for the church to ultimately be identified with, for the members are mostly transported from their actual neighbors and family in real neighborhoods to a one-size-fits-all neighborhood that is stuffed inside a building. Rather than a public faith that engages a neighborhood, practicing the second-which-is-like-unto-the-first-command to love one’s neighbor, more affluent and suburban/exurban congregations form a more privatized, truncated, thin faith (i.e., Christian experience) and, as a result, there is a bent toward more cognitive (knowledge-based) and behavioral outputs (i.e., activities) and outcomes. Thus, the church, the gospel, and discipleship are all aligned with a neighborhood-less social grouping, separated from the day to day realities of life in a neighborhood.

Unexpectedly, the early church grew, not because they verbally witnessed, had an outreach program, or held bible studies; but, because they lived their daily lives in contrast to the world around them—their habits were different and their habits were noticed by their neighbors. And, not just in cultured, acceptable behavioral ways, but in concrete, intentional actions. Their discipleship included helping the poor, rescuing exposed (abandoned, thrown away) babies, adopting orphaned children, rescuing prostitutes (temple slavery), and meeting the needs of the widows (who were the most vulnerable and under-resourced population in the empire). This is how the body of Christ, the church, grew. The presence of Jesus was experienced in concrete intentional action through the church—practicing the presence of Christ amid neighbors.

Typically for the non-urban churches, evangelism and mission is understood, not by kingdom righteousness, advocacy for injustice, and social action on behalf of a neighborhood, but by numbers of people funneled into a building for a worship service, a bible study, or special fellowship event—a head count of conversions or transfer growth. Church leadership institutes activities and behaviors to draw the unchurched out (and away) from their neighborhood (without actually going into those neighborhoods) and into the building (they call church), which is neighborhood-less (or at least in a neighborhood that is not their own).

When the liminality of church life is separated from the daily life of a neighborhood, the gospel and its associated outputs (i.e., activities) and outcomes are disconnected from the life of their neighbors. When one’s own neighborhood consists of those who have had the privilege of flourishing and a church congregation is detached from a neighborhood, the Christian experience affirms a gospel unrelated to the flourishing of a neighborhood. Christian behaviors, then, are limited to relationships and social associations that affirm “traditional” cultural values (within that building) rather than including behaviors that understand the dynamic relationship between structures, systems, and people’s well-being within the context of a neighborhood. The gospel of the suburban church is a limited, one dimensional gospel. A one-dimensional gospel indicates solely a person/God dynamic relationship; whereas a multi-dimensional gospel includes the person/God dynamic and, also, creation/God, person/creation, and person/person. The habits of the suburban and exurban church makes it difficult to see the link between the gospel and the flourishing of a neighborhood.

For a more comprehensive study on the relationship between the gospel and social action, please take the time to read through my Wasted Evangelism, an exegetical commentary on Mark's Gospel. I am also working on another volume on Church Growth from an exegetical study in Ephesians, hopefully titled, Not (just) By the Numbers: Getting Beyond Building-Centered Church Growth in Search of Other Biblical Outcomes—a Thesis on Biblical Temple-Church Growth; see some posts related to these studies (evangelism and Not by the Numbers).

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Wasted Books on my table for the start of 2018

Among your neighbors: This is missional church

Why suburban and exurban churches tend not to acknowledge the link between the gospel and a neighborhood’s flourishing

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