Saving Suburbia: From the Garden to the City

by Mel McGowan

Can it be retrofitted to meet the needs of emerging demographics and the God-wired hunger for community? Can a theology of place exist in Autopia? A movement of planners, government leaders, and architects called the Congress for New Urbanism has demonstrated over the past few decades how “urbanity” can be inserted not only back into major urban cores, but also in suburban city and town centers by taming the car. Rather than building with the assumption that everyone will arrive by car and park separately for each use, we have learned how to “stash” parking in the rear of buildings, on-streets, and in garages. Rather than separating the different land uses miles from each other (as modernist zoning did), we have learned (or re-learned) how to stack multi-family or office space above retail to create active streetscapes that frame outdoor rooms. Former greyfield (parking lots), brownfield (industrial sites) and obsolete retail malls are being redeveloped as vibrant centers within the generic field of suburban sprawl. Unfortunately, what hasn’t been widely understood is how to integrate sacred space and Christian community into the mix.

Just as God called Nehemiah back to restore the city of God, I believe that God is calling Christians today to redeem and restore sustainable Christ-centered community back to the heart of our communities, even where endless agglomerations of suburban subdivisions have never previously had a heart. Every believer can start by following Christ’s command to “love your neighbor” and taking the “neighbor” thing a little more seriously. Don’t settle for a placeless metaphor instead of real community. A neighborhood barbeque is a start. Too many Christians have grown so accustomed to their fellowship with the “equally yoked” that the thought of a neighbor showing up with a cooler of beer sends shivers up their spine. Love someone enough that you still want to be a part of their life if they never go to church!

Choosing your neighborhood is choosing a mission field; prayerfully consider God’s leading in the same way that a missionary would. This singular decision is also the one that will have the greatest impact on our creation care footprint. The choice of where we live in relation to daily life needs: work, school, the grocery store, etc. is the single biggest variable with influence on the economic and environmental sustainability of our communities. One simple benchmark is Walkability.¹⁰ The energy savings and carbon footprint of intelligently sited and integrated neighborhoods that are walkable has been well documented.

Churches can consider their place in the city by defining their community beyond their property lines. In many cases, rather than being an “anchor,” an “asset,” or a “heart” of the neighborhood (as it used to be), churches are perceived as a NIMBY (Not-In-My-Backyard) undesirable use because of the property and sales tax drain and off-site parking and traffic concerns. For the past half-decade I have been engaged in various experiments in integrating faith communities back into the fabric of community cores and what I call Postmodern Agoras. Here are some various strategies for churches to consider:

Develop surplus acreage of surface parking lots into mixed-use community buildings that create a “drawbridge” to the community.
Recast churches as performing arts or community centers that are more readily recognized as “anchors” for retail or town center development.
Pursue joint-development strategies with mixed-use/new town developers which reserve ministry building pads, while minimizing the amount of dedicated Sunday morning parking required (e.g., sharing office/retail parking spaces).
Redevelop obsolete retail/big-box anchors and centers as “Main Streets” or church-anchored “piazzas.”

The challenge can sometimes seem daunting: to create sacred space in the heart(s) of the city, even in the heart of Autopia; to bring a bit of the kingdom of heaven to earth; to build something that just might last the trial by fire. May you follow the God of Nehemiah on the journey to real community.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Have you ever lived in a suburban context? If so, were the defining characteristics similar to what the author described?

2. When choosing where to live, have you ever considered the issue through the lens of a “theology of place”? Why or why not?

3. How does the physical location of where we live, shop, work, or go to school apply to our faith and mission as God’s people?

4. How does the place you live—whether in the suburbs or not—make developing genuine community difficult? What could you do to overcome those barriers?

5. Do you believe your church has a theology of place? If so, how? If not, how might you be a catalyst toward that end?

6. In what ways could your local church serve as a “heart” of community for its physical neighbors?

END NOTES

1. Andy Crouch, Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2008), 112.

2. Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005), 158.

3. Randy Alcorn, Heaven (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, 2004), 357.

4. Albert Wolters, Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1985), 41.

5. Crouch, Culture Making, 117.

6. Eric O. Jacobsen, Sidewalks in the Kingdom: New Urbanism and the Christian Faith (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2003), 44.

7. Crouch, Culture Making, 170.

8. C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle (New York: Collier Books, 1956), 171-181.

9. Bell, Velvet Elvis, 149-150.

10. See the “Walk Score” of any property at http://www.walkscore.com.

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Comments

Gavin Baker

Appreciate you putting this together Mel. I'd agree with your observations that "urban" is trending popular - although as part of the generation that grew up in the suburbs, I long to live somewhere not just with high walkability scores, but in an area that has soul. In a house or area where the trees are older than me and the stories run deep.

Thanks for sharing.

Joel Schuster

Mel, I appreciate your thoughts. I was just having this same conversation over lunch yesterday. Talking with another church leader I was asked my thoughts on some aspects of Church culture that are being developed in our area and the best word I could come up with is "vanilla". In contrast our Church has been talking about the idea of community in relation to the theme of home / peace / rest / feast that you see scattered through out the teaching of Jesus and the broader narrative of scripture. Something in our souls longs for our first home - Eden; where we were in a perfect peaceful relationship with God and there was rest, true rest that is felt to the deepest part of our soul because all is as it was meant to be. It is the ideal in the story of the prodigal, both sons at home both in the feast celebrating as a family together is what the Father ultimately wants. The challenge for the modern day Church is just that, finding home, that true sense of community that has somehow gotten lost along the way.

We are in true suburbia just outside of Philly and are wrestling with this exact issue. People travel from miles around yet they have no connection or ownership to their community, they don't really know their neighbor, and frankly I think we may have lost the ability to even know how to truly connect anymore.

Thanks for your thoughts, there is a lot to think about here.

Steve Fridsma

Great thoughts Mel. I wonder about your living situation now - you say you used to live this way. What did you switch into?

We are blessed to live where our kids can play in the street with their neighborhood friends, and we can walk 4 minutes to public transportation, pharmacy, convenience store, video store, coffeeshop, pizza place, dry cleaner, and a salon. Several families on our street share tools and other equipment and help out on projects, pet-sitting, house-sitting, and occassionally get together for meals. Our street has great community, and sometimes an evening conversation in the street will involve four families and at least 3 dogs! All this, and our lot borders an 80-acre nature preserve, so we are blessed with both community and creation. I watched a family of deer walk through my wooded, unmowed backyard moments ago.

A few other thoughts: Technology has not only challenged the need for physical spaces for gathering and discource but has also permitted us to become incredibly rude. People will say things through the computer that they would never say to anyone's face, let alone friends or colleagues. It is far too easy to criticize, judge, over-generalize, condemn, accuse, and mis-characterize people or their positions, even fellow Chrisitans, through online communication. People are much more willing to launch grenades when they cannot see the faces of those they are potentially devastating.

As a designer, I also very much admire the intentionality of the Disney theme parks, for what they set out to do. They are triumphant examples of multi-disciplinary collaboration and adherence to story-telling and design principles all with users in mind. They seek to be as inclusive as possible, and generally succeed. I've had wonderful family vacations here.

Still, I personally find them a bit stifling and prescriptive. There are plenty of common tropes at Disney as well, i.e. the ride is breaking or something "malfunctioned" or "we're going down the wrong track" but that becomes part of the experience. After a few days there, I must confess that my soul craves going wilderness backpacking like never before. I'd like to hope that there was at least a little chaos and wildness to the natural beauty of Eden.

Mike Haggerty

Excellent article. Well researched, well written. I have thought many of these same things since returning to suburbia after spending a week in Paris and The Hague, NL last spring.

The Dutch, by the way, seem to excel in the art of building in harmony with nature (e.g. windmills, canals, bicycles, 4 story buildings). Perhaps a latent impact of the Dutch Reformed Church?

This article makes me want to convert the bottom floor of my 1920's era foursquare into a pub and move our living quarters upstairs. There, neighbors could gather and talk about these very things over a pint of brew. But, alas, the city zoning and state ABC laws forbid that.

David Mercer

So how is that we can connect in this digital age. Some kids may never leave their room. How do we share? I go to the local gym, attend a mens group supporting mental health and visit my medical centre where I hope to bring some cheer.

I am getting a taxi licence so I can earn a living and talk to people face to face. I like to teach kids as a substitute teacher but that has got limits as the political correctness is skyrocketing.

Every one likes to wear a busy badge and no one has time. Well the floods in Australia has drawn out the community spirit and neigbours helping neigbours, strangers helping others and whole towns pitching in to clear up the mess. Only trouble is the mediadoes not attribute any of this to God. We need to rely onHIM and give him the glory more

David

Brenda Mantel

Thank you for this article, after a career in urban and regional planning, working on Master Planned communities and city redevelopment projects; I too had a sense that the American landscape in the 'American Pie' sense leaves little room for sacred space.

However this next generation of designers because of the forced retirement of the baby-boomer developers, will be creating much more thoughtful spaces. Part of the whole movement of greener development is creating a new character and a more desirable use... and I believe a more soulful response is in the near future. They understand that it takes more than a big box retail center to create community.

What attracts me to this line of work is the way the built environment creates a response in behavior. But I think the trap in creating spaces is assuming that every city and neighborhood would respond to the design in the same manner. I would suggest that the reason for planned communities is because there is a population that thrives in this environment. I would also suggest that the reason for historic urban communities is because there is a population that thrives in that environment as well.

Each of these types of neighborhoods then dictate what form of sacred space will be created or generated. So looking for an archetype that fits all or that would assume be the 'right' or most functional, leaves the process of thoughtful design out of the picture.

But I agree, God did hard-wire us for community and I believe that's why there are a variety of communities out there, it reflects the unique qualities we all contain. Also, when talking about this subject is good to bear in mind all the elements which affect our American communities and their functions, i.e. politics, economics, natural disasters, transportation and other transient affects which leaves its imprint.

Tyler Stephens, AIA

Your time and knowledge of this subject is greatly appreciated. As a fellow architect and life-long Christian, I have been communicating this same message in my local sphere of influence for years. You have stated it much better than I, and I appreciate the backup you have provided. I only wish we could be discussing this in person (in real community) rather than across a computer screen.

I also feel that God really wanted me to read this now as my wife and I have recently been painfully considering leaving the city life we love in order to escape a recent rise in crime, and education costs for our children. It has not felt right to leave, but we are tired. Thank you for the encouragement.

Howard Freeman

Really liked this piece. I especially liked the line, "I believe that God is calling Christians today to redeem and restore sustainable Christ-centered community back to the heart of our communities..."

Thanks for contributing it.

fgdds

Its not the case that reader must be completely agreed with author's views about article. So this is what happened with me, anyways its a good effort, I appreciate it. Thanks

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