Suburban Revival: Possible or Dream?

I am a rural Christian who began moving out of rural settings with college at age 23 who now is in a vocation working with suburban Christians and can outwardly begin to call myself one. This blog will focus on the change and also reflect on Hsu’s text The Suburban Christian so that changes like I experienced can be focused and beginning questions can be formed.

Some of my observations in my shift to suburban living are centered on how money is spent. In rural life, money is spent and reinvested into rural living. For example, when my dairy farming family had good years, the money was spent on equipment or livestock upgrades. In suburbia, good years mean more lawn ornaments, new cars, and/or more clothing. One interesting comparison from my perspective is that both contexts do not attempt to pay down debt. I cannot state that spending on a new tractor is better than a new dress but the focus of that spending is different. The tractor has a value in terms of how it can improve work. A new cow has a value in its offspring and its milk (in the case of a dairy farm). I have yet to fully understand the value of a new dress or a desire to impress with a dress. I do not have the experience or possibly the intelligence to understand this desire to have a new outfit. I think I can say that it does not have the same long term use in mind as a cow or a tractor.

In suburban culture, money does seem to be the key and the goal to life. Therefore, showing your money is essential. In rural life that I observed years ago, money was almost embarrassing. You did not want to tell other farmers about a new tractor or show any new items. The value was in preserving old items like how many miles you could get on a farm truck. In suburban culture, this showing seems to be essential. When my current suburban home got new bushes in the front of the house a few years ago, the entire street made a fuss.

My first question related to Hsu’s text is centered on his future hope for suburbia. Can suburbia overcome it obsession with money? If it cannot, then God has no place. Can suburbanites do what Hsu calls them to and see money as extra that can do good locally, in proximity cities, and globally? I am not convinced. Our current economic climate leads these suburbanites to cling even tighter to their money as evidence that they do not see what they have.

Now to get more personal, I struggle with budgeting. I continually find the month to month balancing act to fall off the wrong end. Problems like refrigerators, dishwashers, clothes dryers and clothes washers continually plague our budget on top the regular issues like growing children and the cost of healthy food. I am not ready to give more or ready to give up on our suburban house and suburban life. Therefore, before I can go after those “other” rich suburbanites I need to go after myself.

I relate to most of the Hsu comments in the first part of his text. I also avoid some aspects of suburbia like Wal-Mart and intentionally try to shop locally and even support the local farmers as much as can be done. I have also given myself to the quest for spirituality similar to Hsu. But it is here that I have found more frustration than Hsu seems to express. As a farmer, the dependence on God and nature were hand in hand. The thankful spirit for the rain and the sun just happened naturally. As a suburbanite, these spiritual actions are rather pushed or even fake. The only time God moments are real is when tragedy is involved. A good example just happened Friday afternoon on our way down to EMU for our nephew Miles’ graduation. We just traveled into the state of Virginia when we saw that the state bird is a red Cardinal. In 2006 Miles’ mother (our sister-in-law) died of brain cancer and during her last few weeks of life, red Cardinals visited her and she shared that they were God’s sign to her that she could make it. Back to Friday, we were no more than a mile or two past the state line when Erika saw a red cardinal flying with us along the road. It seemed to be going 70 miles an hour with us for about ten seconds. We all saw it. To us it was God’s sign that we can make it through the weekend.

I try to keep our garden goals moving forward. Each year we till up more grass and grow more garden crops. Last year was the first season where we actually had enough crops to freeze, blanch or can some for the winter. Our kids really get into the work for a few minutes and they love to eat the fresh food. Even the frozen corn or beans they enjoy and spend time talking about how cool it is that they came from our garden. The education is great but the spirituality is hard. The kids realize that if we don’t get a good crop from the garden, we just go the store. The same dependence on God for livelihood is not there.

In conclusion, I am not sure what to tell true suburbanites. I also see some farmers fall off the same deep end of the same money trap. When farms are sold and money is made they change into different people. Status and wealth replace hospitality and community. In other words, money is the root of all evil and God is lost. “God please help us but don’t do it through tragedy”.

Hip-Hop Classroom

The Hip-Hop Culture in the United States is a very powerful force in the lives of the youth at Christopher Dock Mennonite High School. This blog will focus on some ways to connect what Efrem Smith and Phil Jackson reveal in their text titled “The Hip-Hop Church” to my setting.

For those who have not read the text yet, the culture of Hip-Hop needs some brief description. According to Smith and Jackson, Hip-Hop is post-soul, outside civil rights, outside politics, an entire culture, a coping mechanism, and a tool to speak out for justice. It is what most young people listen to and if they don’t listen to it they are inadvertently affected by it. We can see it in the clothing, in the attitude, in the physical posture, and in the way youth sit/slouch in their cars. Many of these components of Hip-Hop culture are well in line with what I see in terms of needs for our church today. But Hip-Hop is also very bold in its style and uses images and language that is offensive. Smith and Jackson are attempting to have the church work with the strength of this cultural movement but not get sucked into the offensive components. The authors work with how successful Hip-Hop is and how unsuccessful the church has been so that they can bring up a need to work within the Hip-Hop culture to incarnate the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The phrase they use is to work toward a “Hip-Hop Church” and both Smith and Jackson have some success stories to share of this avenue for the gospel.

Turning now to my context, the high school classroom, I want to make two observations from last week. Both of these observations are only a beginning for me but I have hope that I can build on this. I want to state up front that a way to work with girls is missing. I am eager and willing to explore this but at present, I have not.

Jared is a junior in my class. He is a Euro-American, middle class, suburban teen that is representing this Hip-Hop culture. He dresses the style, talks the talk, and carries an attitude towards authority. As I was reading the text at home this week I often thought of Jared as a prime example of the influence of Hip-Hop outside of urban life. I decided to give him a challenge for class Thursday and Friday. He was to bring in a song to play for the class that demonstrated a good message for the church. I told him not to worry about language but to focus on the message. I expected him to find a Christian version so that he would not push the limit of the class but that was not the case. I also thought this might be hard for him to pick since most songs (according to me) are negative messages. This also was not the case. I cannot remember the names of the artists or the titles of the songs he chose but for a few minutes my classroom was transformed. Heads bounced, feet tapped and many kids laughed as they waited for the “F Bomb” to come up. These students then began to tell me all about the message of these songs and how they love to play this song in certain situations. One student even shared how he likes to mix this one in when he is deejay at parties (news to me). I found that what Jared brought to class helped my work as an educator. The topic from history I was intending to cover was the changes in place for Luther and the reformation and we spoke about how this Hip-Hop message is speaking to the changes in place today setting up a new form of church now. I also want to note that Jared did not sleep in class and did not try to put up his hood and slide down into his chair. I ran into him at church Sunday and he asked if he can bring in another song after spring break.

Jon is a junior in my class. He is a Central American, adopted, middle class, suburban teen. He also represents Hip-Hop but for him it is a connection with minority persons and the struggle for justice that pulls him in. He is in the same class with Jared and wants to play some of his selections. He said “mine aren’t a nice as Jared’s”. I told him to give it a try so we will see what I am getting into after break. I assume the message will be good but the language will not be. What I do notice is that showing the connection to current challenges of the church helped Jon also get/understand the challenges of the church in the 1500s.

In conclusion, the inclusion of Hip-Hop in class will help build connections/applications. As Smith and Jackson state, the challenge is to clarify what the message is and add prophetic insight from the gospel. We do not need to put down artists but rather work with what they reveal about culture (injustice and frustrations) to help spin a relevant gospel of the good news in Christ.