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Classic JM: Crisis in Generica

Written by Mark Van Steenwyk : December 24, 2007

This was originally posted on July 19, 2006:

As Emergent has emerged, as the missional engage in mission, an already popular sentiment has been growing more popular: the suburbs suck.

I used to agree. Its not that I enjoy the burbs more than I used to (my own pet name for the burbs is “generica”–that vast land of sameness which exists all accross the nation in every metro area.

But I now look at Generica with compassion. After all, Generica is in crisis. America is at the peak of its empire. And few enjoy the fruit from the imperial bounty as much as the residents of Generica. But whatever ailments come from the American Dream have been doubly visited upon the Genericans. They are twice as isolated, twice as empty, twice as fractured, twice as enslaved to consumerism, etc. There is a spiritual hunger–a hunger for freedom and joy and wholeness, and healing–in Generica.

In the aftermath of WWII, families fractured and the “nuclear family” rose to dominance. Instead of families living together. Mom, Dad, and the kids (and their dog spot) moved into their generic suburban homes. Home was no longer the center of community. Now it was a sanctuary, a refuge, from extended family, work, and oftentime neighbors. One now needed a car to go to work, to buy groceries, to visit friends. Suburbia reinforced the growing isolation.

These days, when we think of Genericans, we think of vacuous, vapid, consumers. Lonely plastic-people who pretend that everything is all right. Urban folk, and rural folk, both are suspicious of such plastic people. In our cities and towns the problems are obvious. The poor folk aren’t hidden. Our lives are lived in public. When we go to the streets of Generica (those streets with deceptively pretty names), everything looks the same…the pleasant exteriors betray the brokenness of their residents.

And in response, the Suburban church–the Church of Generica seeks to save these people by catering to their broken impulses. We feed the individualism by giving them individualized sermons (David Fitch can detail this phenomenon much better than I can). We try to attack the isolation by introducing small groups (which are usually pretty anemic and unoffensive…being centered on things like the Purpose Driven Life). And so the Generican Church tends to have the same ailments as the Generican people–and all their blessings as well (like resources and a value of excellence).
A spiritual crisis is growin in Generica. The people are dying there. They have money, but it has secured their sense of disillusionment. Materialism grows, but the people cry out for substance. They moved out to the burbs to find sanctuary, but they crave relationship.

But as missional pioneers emerge–those uniquely envisioned folks that can utter prophetic voice to their brothers and sisters in Generica–they flee to the cities with their obvious problems. Urban has its own challenges, to be sure, but it is easier to be missional in the city, in many ways, than it is to be missional in the burbs. Generica needs missional leaders. Missional leaders who reject the homogeneous unit principle (the idea that folks don’t like crossing cultural boundaries so we should do church in a way that appeals to particular cultures rather than being mulit-ethnic in our approach), who reject consumerism and materialism, who embrace authentic community, who care about the poor and the marginalized should come back to the suburbs and minister there. Generica is growing in its diversity. Generia has its poor. And most of the churches in Generica tend to assume that issues of race and poverty and crime are urban issues. But new churches must come to Generica.

Churches that value social justice.

Churches that cross cultural boundaries.

Churches that challenge consumerism.

Churches that build authentic community amidst fracture.

Who will respond to the cries for healing in the broken land of Generica?

for further reading . . .

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Comments

30 Responses to “Classic JM: Crisis in Generica”

  1. Steve McCoy on July 19th, 2006 7:48 pm

    Thanks for this Mark. Great stuff.

  2. God’s Upside Down Kingdom » Generica-Prophetic utterance from Van S on July 19th, 2006 10:05 pm

    [...] http://missionthink.org/?p=418 Posted in Uncategorized, Groundlevel Theology [...]

  3. rich on July 19th, 2006 10:07 pm

    Prophetic indeed

  4. Michael Foster on July 20th, 2006 11:53 am

    Great post! Seriously, excellent!

  5. Luke on July 20th, 2006 12:21 pm

    just a thought…
    is it possible if we capture the city we will be able to effect the suburbs by the cultural influence of the metropolis?

  6. Van S on July 20th, 2006 12:28 pm

    It is possible. As an urban minister, it is what I hope for. But to be honest, most folks that i know in the suburbs (including pastors) are only superficially effected (there are some exceptions to be sure). Many in the burbs care more about social justice and diversity and whatnot, but most of this influence hasn’t affected real change.

  7. toddh on July 20th, 2006 1:35 pm

    I love the post! You have laid out a much needed, challenging agenda for suburban churches.

  8. Robert Campbell on July 20th, 2006 5:53 pm

    Thanks for this! I am a new suburbanitem, pastoring in a suburban church with a responsability to help build authentic community. It is easy to condemn, but much harder to walk along with.

    Please, keep going with these thoughts!

  9. hamo on July 21st, 2006 2:49 am

    i am feeling more and more that my calling is to be salt, light and hope in these generic places.

    a huge challenge!

    thanks for the great thoughts

  10. Surly Dave on July 21st, 2006 5:52 pm

    I haven’t decided whether I’m concvicted or offended. Heck, I’ll go with insulted:)

    Good stuff Mark. Good stuff. I hope that we (Harvest) can begin to make an impact on the ‘burbs.

  11. CP on July 24th, 2006 3:08 pm

    A couple of initial thoughts from a suburban Lutheran Christian:

    This post is offensive to me in many ways. Surely you must know how self-righteous this all sounds. I?m glad that you now look at “generica” with compassion (though it certainly doesn?t sound like it) - but has it ever occurred to you, as someone who lives in an intentional community - what you call a monastic life - that you are as guilty as those you accuse of using home as a sanctuary, refuge and escape from the world? Worse, it is obvious by this post you aim to create the “us and them” - the fractured community - you say that you despise.

    Truth is, there are many things which distract God?s church from its primary purpose (which is to worship God). It is true that Satan is alive and well in the suburbs - but also alive and well in the city and even among those who would take pot shots at other Christians, simply because of where they live. City Christians are not immune from the sin of consumerism or from any of the other sins you mention. Luther said it - and I have quoted it recently: “We are all beggars”.

    God is worshipped in truth in the suburbs, too, and God will be found wherever God is honestly sought.

  12. Van S on July 24th, 2006 3:53 pm

    I’m sorry you feel that way. Sure my post doesn’t make the suburbs sound good–but that is the point. My point is that burbs are every bit as problematic and broken as everywhere else.

    I don’t think suburbs are worse than any other place. My post attempts to capture the frustration many emerging pastors have for the burbs…those who leave the burbs to do ministry in the city. My point is that the burbs have all the brokeness and need for missional leaders to work there…no need to flee “generica” for the urban core.

  13. CP on July 24th, 2006 6:55 pm

    The problem is, you only mentioned the suburbs. So you sure made it sound like you think the suburbs are worse than any other place in the world.

    I am a member of a small, suburban Twin Cities ELCA parish which is ALL of the things you outline: We value social justice, we cross cultural boundaries, we challenge consumerism, and we have built authentic community amidst fracture. But we have done this via our regular gathering around Word and Sacrament - meeting God where God has promised to meet us.

    My question is, who will respond to the call of the Church to be the Church - without worrying about whether we are emergent, purpose-driven, or other such agendas? In such efforts to try and be everything to everyone, to get bodies in the door and money in the coffers, we have just about lost sight of who the Church really is, the Body/Bride of Christ.

    God calls us to be faithful, not to follow trends. God calls us to love one another, not beat one another up. God’s response to humankind is grace and mercy - how dare we respond in any other way?

  14. Van S on July 24th, 2006 10:42 pm

    I agree. God calls us to faithfulness. That is what I am advocating. I can understand why my post offends you. But most of the folks who read my blog have adopted a certain mindset…a mindset that has encouraged folks to draw a line between missional emerging churches (the emerging church is much more than a trend…it is an attempt to recover and celebrate the very sort of things that you affirm) and “compromised” suburban churches. My post is an attempt to show the need for missional churches in the burbs. The reason I single out the suburbs is that 95% of my blog readers don’t need to be told that urban areas are in need of missional churches. They need to be reminded that the suburbs have need of the sort of churches they long to see.

    Having said that, I want to challenge you: is it really possible to challenge these sorts of these things in the suburbs primarily through the gathering around Word and Sacrament? I realize that our ecclesiologies come into tension here. I am anabaptistic in my pursuasion. Coming together around the table needs to move beyond symbol into a grittier reality. I think that centralized gatherings and buildings are over-rated and can even hold the church back from its missional calling. The challenge of the suburbs is that you have to work hard to meet and fellowship with people–in their own contexts and homes–across boundaries.

  15. CP on July 26th, 2006 11:12 am

    “… is it really possible to challenge these sorts of things in the suburbs primarily through the gathering around Word and Sacrament?”

    Answer: Yes

    That you think Holy Communion is merely a symbol leads me to believe that you will never understand why it is possible.

  16. Van S on July 26th, 2006 11:24 am

    CP–

    I’m an anabaptist, so I realize we have different views of the Lord’s Table. The unity of the Lord’s Table is derivative of the unity of the Lord’s body, not the other way around. By no means is it mere symbol–the word “mere” somehow belittles the entire anabaptistic tradition. But Communion is Holy because we, the Body of Christ, are Holy. We don’t meet the presence of Christ in the bread, but in one another, and Jesus shares his meal with us.

    I wrote an article about it here:

    http://www.allelon.org/articles/article.cfm?id=167&page=1

    My point is this: more is required that proclaimation and sacrament. If this weren’t true, then we all wouldn’t be so enamored with St. Francis, who took Christ’s healing presence into the world around him, instead of expecting the broken in the world to come to the Table.

  17. CP on July 26th, 2006 1:19 pm

    From your article:
    “I’ve grown up in Low Church settings, not liturgical settings, so my perspectives on the centrality of the Eucharist and liturgy is biased.”

    Here’s the rub - and the reason why we won’t see eye to eye. The church has one purpose, and that is to worship God. St. Francis, a monk, would have agreed, I think.

  18. Van S on July 26th, 2006 3:05 pm

    CP,

    This has been a very interesting conversation; thank’s for engaging me. Indeed, that IS the rub. It all comes down to definitions. When I think of worship, I turn to Romans 12:1–where our act of worship is that we are to be living sacrifices. I don’t see liturgy as the heart of worship. Not at all. In fact, if I look at the end of Matthew 25, I see serving “the least of these” as an act of worship.

    On top of that, I don’t believe that the one purpose of the Church is to worship God. There is a second, complimentary purpose: to embody Christ’s presence on earth. In our humanity, we worship God. Inasmuch as we are the Body of Christ and filled with the Spirit, we also embody God’s presence in the world. By loving our neighbor, we love God. So any definition of worship that doesn’t include an external movement into the world is an incomplete definition.

  19. CP on July 26th, 2006 4:02 pm

    Interesting discussion, indeed. I won’t bother with the scriptural quotes which support my premise here. Or even some words of St. Francis.

    Too often, in our attempt to “embody Jesus” to those around us, we end up embodying our own sinful and selfish selves, and not Jesus. How can this not happen? Human is what we are, and God is what Jesus is. Church, then, becomes what I think and what I do, and otherwise all about me and what is meaningful to me, and not grateful response (which includes good works) to God’s immeasurable love for us. Our knowledge of this love comes from Word and Sacrament, from being a part of the body of Christ, the Church. And it is through the Church and the Sacraments that God is made known to us.

    I read an interesting quote the other day which said (something to the effect of) “we need to worry less about saving sinners for Jesus and more about saving Jesus for sinners.” I think there’s something to that.

    Thanks for your thoughts on all this.

    A Suburban member of the Bride of Christ

  20. Matt on July 26th, 2006 6:56 pm

    Absolutely awesome post, Van.

  21. Matt Redmond on July 31st, 2006 8:27 am

    What about Churches that actually preach free grace and the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ?

    What about Churches preaching and teching the God-centeredness of God?

    What about churches passionate about the exhibition of the singular value of the God, Who created the Universe?

    What about doctrine?

    These churches hardly exist…Sorry but your list looks like the goal of the United Way.

  22. Van S on July 31st, 2006 11:12 am

    Matt. I love doctrine. But I can think of at least 20 churches off the top of my head in my city that preach solid doctrine. It is harder to come up with a list the really embodies good doctrine. Read through Paul again and tell me if he ever talks about doctrine without directly tying it to reconciled living–both with God and each other. What you so quaintly call “the goal of the United Way” is the call to live out the gospel. Faith without works is dead. And so is doctrine without living as salt and light. And while I affirm the former, this post is about the latter. Please direct your thoughts and comments to that, please.

  23. cp on August 2nd, 2006 7:57 am

    I would be curious to know of some of these at least 20 churches in town who preach solid doctrine - and then hear some rationale about what you think is solid about it. Can you offer any assistance with this? I live and work in your city (actually, as I mentioned before, I live in a suburb of your city, but I work at a church in S. Mpls.)

    I agree with Matt - the church is not a social service agency and works without faith make the church exactly that and nothing more. From true faith, good works will be a natural by-product.

    We are not saved by our good works, but by God’s grace alone through our faith in God. And we can’t by our own works save anyone else. Saving us (salvation) is God’s job. We are called by God to lives of faith in him, in ALL of the ways that such faith manifests itself.

  24. Van S on August 2nd, 2006 10:50 am

    What I think of as solid doctrine and what you think of as solid doctrine may be two different things…but I’m assuming that you’d think of churches like these as being solid:

    Bethelehem Baptist
    Hope Community Church
    Immanuel Baptist Church
    St. Paul Fellowship
    Mercy Vineyard
    Calvary Baptist Church

    Sure, churches that only do nice things but don’t proclaim the Gospel are simply doing social service. Who the heck every implied anything different? But the idea that if you preach good doctrine, good deeds will flow is naive…unless you acknowledge that teaching a wholistic gospel is Good Doctrine. Jesus’ first call was to follow him…before he ever laid down doctrinal particulars. What we do doesn’t simply flow out of what we believe. Often what we do shapes our belief, or at least prepares us for doctrine.

    Again, who in the world is suggesting that works save anyone? But faith is more than mental affirmation, it is embodied submission.

  25. CP on August 2nd, 2006 2:17 pm

    “What we do doesn?t simply flow out of what we believe. Often what we do shapes our belief, or at least prepares us for doctrine.”

    What we believes does directly influence what we do. If we go about using our own human (and as such, inadequate) actions to shape our beliefs, then we believe in nothing but ourselves - no?

  26. Van S on August 3rd, 2006 4:16 pm

    CP…scripture tells us a way to live, not just a way to believe. If we make statements of belief without following the way of Jesus, then our beliefs mean nothing.

  27. MissionThink.org: Mark Van Steenwyk’s Blog on October 3rd, 2006 5:32 pm

    [...] A while back I posted about the crisis in “Generica” (my tongue-in-cheek name for suburbia). Some folks do paint-by-number church out in Generica. But Generica is one of the most desperately needy contexts in America. Generica requires thoughtful, creative, theologically-deep, missional practitioners to re-imagine what Church ought to be in that cookie-cutter landscape. Our most missionally minded folks often go overseas or to the urban core, but Generical needs missionaries too. Missionaries with a prophetic edge. [...]

  28. Jesus Manifesto::Mark Van Steenwyk’s Weblog » Blog Archive » How I would plant a church in the suburbs… on April 25th, 2007 9:15 am

    [...] Why? Because the suburbs don’t have central meeting places like city neighborhoods. Because suburban church goers don’t live in proximity the way urban dwellers often do. Because injustice and poverty and pain and brokenness are hard to find in the burbs. There are all sorts of reasons why it is hard to live missionally in Generica. [...]

  29. Interesting Stuff 7 « Missio Dei on December 26th, 2007 9:04 am

    [...] Van Steenwyk has a great (old) post about Generica and the cost of living in the suburbs. Hey that’s me. People driving up to [...]

  30. joe troyer on December 28th, 2007 2:24 pm

    As a youth pastor in suburbia, I say preach on Mark. It is hard for us to hold a mirror up to ourselves. Thanks for doing it for us. I have worked in the inner city and now in “generica”. I was born and raised in “generica”. What you say is the truth. I am challenged and convicted.

    Thanks.

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