• Archive of "urban" Category

    A Place to Lay My Head

    July 18, 2008 // 2 Comments »

    After 4 months of getting to know Memphis, living with various people and in various places, and living out of a suit case, I have found a place to hang my hat – at least for the next year.

    front of house
    here for more pictures (not my stuff in the house)

    Here’s what metropolitan Memphis looks like

    Downtown Memphis is actually to the west of “the loop” between the Mississippi River and 240.  Inside the loop is generally referred to as midtown, though it has more specific designations in certain parts.  To the east of the the loop is Germantown, Cordova, and Collierville.  Piperton, where our church community has purchased land for some future use is a little more east than Collierville.  I considered living in virtually all of these places.

    Living subversively in a suburban context is something I care deeply about and feel like a good portion of my life will probably go to, but for a smattering of reasons, it doesn’t seem that now is the season for that. I mentioned a slew of factors in the decision making process in my post about being scared to live in the suburbs and I don’t really think that any decision I would have made would have been THE right decision, but here’s why I am pretty excited about this place.

    1) Location.  This house puts me within walking distance (less than 1/2 of a mile) of coffee shops, restaurants, shopping, the largest park in the city, the playhouse, and the only theater I am aware of in Memphis that shows Indy films.  Here’s a little map I started to put together of all the stuff I can walk to easily.  There’s a ton more that is easily within biking distance (1-3 miles) such as the YMCA where I’ll work out and my bank.

    2) Set-up.  The house is perfectly set-up to invite others to explore intentional community.  There are 3 huge bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms on the 1st floor as well as a 2 bedroom 1 bathroom apartment with its own kitchen and a separate entrance on top.

    3) Neighborhood.  The neighborhood is both racially and socio-economically diverse and by virtue of living here I will be part of the “Tucker-Jefferson Neighborhood Association,” an active group which aims “to maintain and improve the dignity and integrity of the residences and businesses in the area, to preserve the diversity of the area, to insure orderly an compatible land use in the area, to encourage homeowners living in the area to improve their homes, and to work together on problems and issues of certain concern.”

    4) Opportunity.  Living Hope is a primarily white, affluent, suburban church that is asking God how we might engage and be a blessing to urban Memphis as well as to where we are.  Having more people move into urban parts of the city will inevitably be a big part of that.

    I am truly grateful to have found this place and am really looking forward to having a context to engage on a more constant basis.

    Posted in decisions, intentional community, memphis, suburban, urban

    Truth Be Told, I am Scared to Death to Live in the Suburbs

    July 12, 2008 // 6 Comments »

    Update: Just after I posted this, I happened to come across a few relevant posts on this subject.  Be sure to check out David Fitch’s – “The Middle In: The Unique Missional Opportunity,” and Joe Thorn’s, “I Love the Suburbs” on a brand new blog about the gospel in the suburban context, SubText.

    I hear people talk quite frequently about the “dangers of the city” and how unsafe certain parts of town are.  But if I were being honest, I would tell you that I am far more scared to live in the suburbs than I am to live virtually anywhere else.

    By design, suburbs are places of isolation, disconnection, and compartmentalization.  Their very existence is predicated on cultural values of materialism, consumerism , and individualism.  All of this makes it much harder (not impossible mind you) to follow the way of Jesus – a way of simplicity and interconnectedness with those on the margins of society.

    I bring this up because I will very soon need to decide on a more permanent place to live.  I have been looking in mid-town which is more urban, racially mixed, threatened by crime and violence, accessible to pedestrians, affordable, and artistic.  All of this most naturally appeals to me.

    But, I have also been looking in the Germantown/Collierville area which is suburban, predominantly white, relatively free of crime and violence, necessitates a car to go anywhere, more expensive, and culturally bland.

    Complicating these basic dynamics are factors such as these…

    – most of the folks at Living Hope are suburban people thus I feel I should live among them

    – I am a young adult pastor and mid-town is more attractive to young adults

    – we gave bought land and are discussing the potential of building a gathering place on it even further east from urban Memphis in Piperton

    – the idea of our church planting or having more of a presence in urban Memphis is something we are discussing

    – currently, the people I am aiming to really share life with live predominantly in suburban Memphis

    – it maybe the case that more of our folks would head toward mid-town if a few more folks blazed that trail

    … and I could probably list more.  I have been basically paralyzed by this decision of where to live and why.  Maybe I can just rest in the fact that no matter what, I am looking to rent and not buy, which ties me down probably for a year at the most. On top of this, where ever I wind up, I am seeking to be there with the express purpose of taking Jesus’ command to love my neighbors literally and seriously.  So, whether in mid-town or the burbs, I am sure there will be folks who are hurting and in need, and I find some solace in the primacy of this calling.

    So there ya have it – with all the transparency I can muster, the suburbs scare me.  I would much rather live in a place where I could be shot or robbed than in a place that has the potential to chip away at my soul and spiritual sensibilities every so slowly and subtlety.  I welcome your thoughts.

    Posted in consumerism, culture, decisions, individualism, living hope, memphis, spiritual formation, suburban, urban

    A Bit More on Hospitality: Welcoming the Stranger

    February 15, 2007 // No Comments »

    Not sure why I didn’t think of this the other day, but there is another vital component of what it mean to be the people of God linked to the idea of hospitality – welcoming the stranger.

    Because of their experience in Egypt and God’s deliverance, the nation of Israel was admonished to always welcome the stranger (alien – Gen 15:13, Ex. 23:9). In Luke 10 Jesus sends the disciples out to announce the Kingdom of God and part of their task was to bless those who welcomed them as strangers/aliens.

    Ryan Bolger and Eddie Gibbs note this as a distinctive of the Emerging Churches that they researched and this, at least to my mind, is intrinsic to what it means to be missional.

    Sidenote: I don’t throw that word missional around lightly. As I wrote about here, this word is fast being co-opted by the consumeristic trends of American evangelicals, thus necessitating that we be very deliberate about how we understand, use, and define this word. Being missional stems from a theological revolution resulting in not simply new mediums or methods of communicating the same gospel message, but a fundamentally different, thouroughly biblical, message of the mission of God in the world – the inbreaking of God’s Kingdom in and through Jesus, the way in which this mission of God creates a community called church, whose salvation is experienced here and now for the sake of the world. Being missional (and therefore missional language) is not something which can simply be added to church structures and practices – it either recreates from the inside-out, when rightly understood, or destroys from the outside-in, when wrongly understood.

    Eric Jacobsen in his book, Sidewalks in the Kingdom, also has some great things to say about how the places we live in effect our ability to be the sort of people who are even able to welcome starngers.

    All this to say that being hospitable people is not merely something we can hope to aspire to someday, but is part and parcel of the very identity of the people of God. It’s important.

    Posted in books, church, consumerism, culture, emerging church, evangelicalism, Jesus, kingdom, missional, suburban, theology, urban, western culture

    Two Faces of Being “At Risk”

    October 28, 2006 // 1 Comment »

    I haven’t posted much here about my girlfriend Maria, but I intend to begin remedying that unfortunate situation right now.

    jr and maria flyingThere is so much about Maria that I respect and admire – such as her sense of calling to “at risk” teenagers. Maria has primarily grown up in the city of Oslo in Norway, a city not so unlike major cities in the states in many ways (though quite different in others). So, when she thinks of “at risk” teenagers, she is thinking of kids who have been neglected at home, have experienced abuse or violence, have been victims or users of drugs and alcohol, or are tied up with gang culture. These kids are quite certainly “at risk” in so may ways. Her compassion for teenagers in these situations is both amazing and inspiring. She has been a pioneer in the field of youth ministry in Norway and has had numerous opportunities to speak and write on the subject.

    Our relationship has given me occasion to broaden my perspectives and horizons in countless ways. One of these ways is in terms of rethinking my past experience in youth ministry any my lingering burden for the sorts of people that I have worked with previously. After talking about Maria’s sense of calling with her and getting to see her in action, I have come to realize that my sense of calling is also to people who are “at risk,” but in a much different way.

    Whereas Maria’s draw is to an urban context, mine is more to a suburban one. Teenagers, and people in general, are also “at risk,” but not usually from the sorts of things I mentioned above. Rather, in the suburbs, teenagers are “at risk” from much more subtle and appealing forms of oppression, persecution, and pain. The teens I am used to working with are “at risk” from their parents demands of success and achievement. They are at risk from pressure from peers to fit in, to look a certain way, and act a certain way. They run the risk of being completely overrun by the overwhelming and oh-so-pervasive powers of consumerism, individualism, and materialism. Different than in cities where there is often little church presence or witness, suburbs tend to offer a plethora of church communities in all imaginable varieties. Consequently, suburban teenagers (and everyone else in the suburbs for that matter) are at risk from getting just enough of a dose of church and Christianity so as to inoculate them from the real power of the gospel.

    I suppose when you get right down to it, everyone is “at risk” from something to some extent, but I was just struck by the realistic way in which suburban teenagers may be counted among those who are poor and oppressed on account of the subtle, but evil powers which are mightily and pervasively at work within suburban contexts.

    Back to Maria – I love that we have in common this desire to help people experience the freedom and liberation found in Christ regardless of what they are at risk from or oppressed by.

    Posted in culture, maria, suburban, urban

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