The Gospel and Suburban Churches
I recently learned that Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer NYC, has a blog that was 
launched in conjunction with Redeemer’s Vision Campaign. Tim explains that “Redeemer's vision is to build a great city for all people through a gospel movement that brings about personal conversion, community formation, social justice, and cultural renewal in New York and throughout the world.” His church’s strategy flows out of the Apostle Paul’s practice of planting urban churches. He writes, “The greatest missionary in history, St. Paul, had a rather simple, two-fold strategy. First, he went into the largest city of the region (cf. Acts 16:9, 12), and second, he planted churches in each city (cf. Titus 1:5—appoint elders in every town). Once Paul had done that, he could say that he had preached the gospel in a region and that he had no more work to do there (cf. Romans 15:19, 23).” Tim then argues that “the way to most permanently influence a country was through its chief cities,” and “the way to most permanently influence a city was to plant churches in it.”
Tim Keller’s blog provides him the opportunity to answer commonly asked questions regarding Redeemer’s vision for the city, NYC in particular, as Redeemer moves forward with its Vision Campaign. So I thought I would submit a question that addresses a tension I have felt with this emphasis upon the city. I did and he graciously replied. Hopefully my question and his answer will encourage suburban pastors and churches to give this issue serious thought.
My question:
Tim,I have visited Redeemer several times over the past few years and my appreciation for Redeemer's gospel-centered, missional vision continues to grow. I also recognize the importance of planting like-philosophy churches in major cities. But what about churches like mine that have been located in "suburbia" for years. Should there be any differences in the mindset and approach of a gospel-centered suburban church than of a gospel-centered inner-city church like Redeemer?
Dan
Tim’s response:
There will be have to be some necessary differences in mindset between urban and suburban churches because context always affects us deeply. Our own daughter churches in the NYC suburbs have the same theological vision and love of the city, but they simply aren't a) as multi-ethnic and b) as close to the poor--because the zoning laws of the suburbs tend to homogenize things economically and therefore, to some degree, racially. So it is just harder to show how the gospel brings down racial and class barriers in the suburbs. (According to Ephesians 2, that is a major sign of the truth of the gospel.) It doesn't mean that suburban churches are 'inferior' or that it is easier to be a pastor in the suburbs--I actually think it will take more ingenuity and creativity to demonstrate the power of the gospel in the suburbs than it will in the city.
Do any of you blog readers have any ideas about how the suburban church can be creative?
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Tim Keller: The Gospel and Suburban Churches - a question answered Daniel Cruver (eucatastrophe) posed a question to Tim Keller on the Redeemer Vision Blog asking (link to Dan's site and additional thoughts in Part 2):I recently learned that Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer NYC, has a blog that was launched----- PING: TITLE: eucatastrophe » 2006 » January » 12 URL: http://www.eucatastrophe.com/blog/archives/2006/01/12// DATE: 01/12/2006 03:35:02 PM IP: 82.165.193.205 [...] ind Matt Hand’s thoughts on The Gospel and Suburban Churches from the comment section of the original post. Let’s continue to think hard about [...]----- PING: TITLE: eucatastrophe » The Gospel and Suburban Churches (part 2) URL: http://www.eucatastrophe.com/blog/archives/2006/01/12/the-gospel-and-suburban-churches-part-2/ DATE: 01/12/2006 03:33:29 PM IP: 82.165.193.205 [...] ind Matt Hand’s thoughts on The Gospel and Suburban Churches from the comment section of the original post. Let’s continue to think hard about [...]----- PING: TITLE: eucatastrophe » 2006 » January » 12 URL: http://www.eucatastrophe.com/blog/archives/2006/01/12// DATE: 01/12/2006 03:31:07 PM IP: 82.165.193.205 [...] ind Matt Hand’s thoughts on The Gospel and Suburban Churches from the comment section of the original post. Let’s continue to think hard about [...]----- -------- Read More
Dan,
I'm not sure this is "creative" thinking, but...
For a suburban church to be truly gospel-centered, it must be kingdom-minded. We can't miss this connnection between the gospel and the kingdom in Mark 1:14-15 -- "Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the gospel.'" Authentic belief in the gospel of Jesus is inseparable from kingdom living.
Local churches (both surburban and urban) are often guilty of losing (or never having) a kingdom mindset. This myoptic worldview is perhaps more clearly recognizable in suburban churches, simply because they tend to grow faster and they tend to own more real property than comparable urban churches. Even a new church can very quickly shift focus from mission to maintainance. The church budget, programs, and even teaching drift from an emphasis on reaching out with the gospel (to make and mature disciples) to maintaining happy church people. While the teaching of the church may still be relatively "gospel-centered, Christ-centered," the applications of the gospel are dangerously limited to the individual or that local church, rather than to the kingdom of God. No amount of this kind of teaching will undo the harm unless the body of Christ re-focuses itself on the broader mission of Christ's good news, which is to draw other sheep that are not of this fold.
Practically, that means suburban churches need to continually "jump the curve" from maintainance back to mission. One way to do this is by gradually eliminating impersonal missions endeavors and, instead, partnering with urban ministries in the area. This breaks down the "us vs. them" mentality of the suburban church toward the urban church and helps members apply the gospel with a view toward the kingdom of God, whose influence extends well beyond any individual or single local church. Partner churches could, on occasion, worship together. They could certainly cooperate in endeavors of mercy on behalf of their city, demonstrating both to members and to the unchurched that the gospel requires selfless participation for the sake of the kingdom.
I agree with Keller, as a pastor in the Chicago suburbs. I think it's very hard work to reach our neighbors here. I'd love to hear more specifics from Tim, but I'm sure he would say that each church and suburban context would be slightly different and would need a slightly different approach. Good question.
I'm not sure that Tim would have much to say as to specifics about ministering in suburbia as much as he does about ministering in, uh, urbia I guess. Someone who might be interesting to hear from would be Scotty Smith, pastor of Christ Community Church in Franklin, TN. He planted that church in suburbia and it has grown. I've read some stuff by him and he is solid too. PCA also, like Keller.
I don't know if Scotty actually has anything to say, but I get the impression that he and Tim are similiar. Maybe I'm wrong, I don't know but it would be interesting to talk with CCC in Franklin to see what they're up to.
Much to my chagrin, I've never attended RPC in NYC (though it is on my to-do list!). Having been to CCC in Franklin a few times, I would venture that the elders would agree that they lack the multi-cultural diversity that Redeemer has.
And Keller's reasoning on the matter is extremely insightful: "Our own daughter churches in the NYC suburbs have the same theological vision and love of the city, but they simply aren’t a) as multi-ethnic and b) as close to the poor–because the zoning laws of the suburbs tend to homogenize things economically and therefore, to some degree, racially."
When you consider that Christ Community's main attendance is from the extremely affluent burbs of Brentwood (and also Franklin) the scope does seem rather limiting. (Okay, so I do feel rather heathen talking about limitations in reference to the Gospel... Where is my Identity again?)
I know that Christ Community has planted another work in East Nashville, an inner city work that was to be launched the beginning of 2004. However, I do not know how it is coming along.
Dan, this is a great question, but I doubt there are easy answers. At the same time, I think we really need to wrestle with it because so many of our churches are located in suburban contexts. On the one hand, we want to be ministering where the harvest is ripe (and I think the fields are certainly ripe in cities, in places where the cultural context is much more postmodern, pro-community, anti-individualistic, anti-suburban, etc - these certainly seem to be the "hot" places to plant churches these days). On the other hand, there are an awful lot of people (a majority?) who live and move in a suburban context. This is particularly relevant for those of us who will be working in the western part of the US, where many of the "cities" are completely suburban (less than 100,000 people, no real "urban centers", etc). At the same time, we see disfunctional broken relationships virtually everywhere in our society, so there are still ample opportunities to pursue "justice and reconciliation" in a suburban context, but the way we contextualize will certainly be different. Just thinking out loud here...
This is one of the most strageic posts that I have read dealing head on -with the issue. Alot of us who have a heart for the poor & the urban live in a sub-urban place due to cost of living or a desire to to subtley live the american dream from a reformed perspective. Being a former inner city yoputh pastor and now part of a reformed church in the suburbs-I desire to see mercy ministries become a larger part of our work. Also I definitely feel that it can be even harder to live the gospel and preach the gospel to our neighbors due to an invention called the garage door clicker.
P.s.I am under the impression that Scotty Smith's church planted a church in the poorer part of Nashville and this is in fact the church that Derek Webb goes to-that is repsonsible for so many calvinists saying that Derek has gone social gospel because he wants to admonish the church to do gospel centered good works(after admonishing the church to get back to the gospel in the first album)