The Missio Burb

I was so eager to hear Michael Frost speak. He's an Australian speaker in the missional movement who had a breakout session at a recent conference in KC, and he was scheduled to talk about a missional lifestyle in our neighborhoods. This has been a nebulous goal for us - we're smack dab in the suburbs with a desire to have a positive impact, but have been struggling to know what that might look like.

It's easy to see in the inner city and the urban core how to have impact. The needs are obvious - there's economic poverty, physical homelessness, substance abuse, and broken lives. Even in rural settings, the needs are visible, even if you have to dig a little bit. But in the 'burbs, people have hardly any visible needs. Plus we have our automatic garage doors, air-conditioning, and 6-foot fences, all which minimize natural opportunities to get to know our neighbors. So, Frost's session promised to be enlightening.

The first words out of his mouth were something like, "You Americans. I don't know how to be missional in the suburbs. Now, let's talk about the neighborhood...," as he proceeded to talk about locales where people naturally do life together, go to the same market, eat and drink at the same pub, and don't move away often. In other words, all the things we don't do in the 'burbs. His talk was rich and wonderful, but even he has no clue how to be missional in the 'burbs. But the 'burbs are where we are. We have the missio burb.

The session that followed Frost's was specifically about the 'burbs, and also extremely helpful, led by a couple living in the 'burbs north of Dallas. They introduced some creative, helpful ideas. I also picked up some good nuggets from the plenary sessions that helped me get a better grasp of living life on mission in the 'burbs.

In the 'burbs, we see very little economic poverty. But what we do see is relational poverty. There are many in the 'burbs who do not enough deep, authentic relationships. We are more isolated, we spend more time alone, we immerse ourselves in electronics and social media, and we are hidden behind our 6-foot fences wallowing in relational poverty. We have friends, but we're not rich in authentic friendships.

In the 'burbs, we see very little physical homelessness. But what we do is social homelessness. People in the 'burbs have less sense of "neighborhood," of community, of a sense of "home." We often live hundreds of miles away from family and where we grew up. We have to travel for the holidays. We are like those without a home ... we have a nice shelter over our heads instead of cardboard, but we still feel displaced.

I think there's a powerful effect in using the words poverty and homelessness. They paint wordpictures to describe what many in the 'burbs feel. City dwellers who mock the 'burbs often brag about the sense of community they enjoy. These two words also provoke compassion that we automatically have for their physical counterparts. Our hearts hurt for the poor and homeless, but we have a tougher time feeling that for our neighbors in the 'burbs. And yet there are plenty of "poor" and "homeless" living on our own blocks!

We actually can add value to the 'burbs. Just because our neighbors don't have many visible needs, there are plenty of ways that we can offer relational wealth and a social neighborhood.

Think about your rhythms of life as family. Then think about ways to include your neighbors in some of those rhythms. Add value to your neighborhood. Fight against poverty and homelessness.