Just a quick post to draw attention to a document that Paul Ede has posted on his blog, about his strategy, values and ethos of a proposed church plant that he will be leading in Glasgow. The document is long, but inspiring, well thought out & researched, and worth taking some time to read. Paul was member of Community Church for a number of years, and is a friend (so I am maybe a wee bit biased), but I think he and Esther (with some help from above) will make it work.
Paul is wanting to see a contextualised and indigenous church in Urban Deprived Areas, in this case in Glasgow. These areas are “under-churched”, often inner city, areas of poverty with multiple deprivation. This is a totally different ballgame from ‘gathered’ (or what Paul calls suburban) churches, or even emerging churches (both of which, it seems, are mostly fairly middle class). In fact my only worry is that too many people might find it so inspiring that they all leave churches like ours, and go and join him…
Just saw this post on my wanderings! Thanks for popping this post up Rupert, and for taking the time to read the document – its a real blessing to be encouraged this way. Something I perhaps didn’t emphasise enough in the document is my sense that this type of mission will only be succesful if its done in partnership with the wider body of Christ – the gathered, suburban churches being chief among these. Sometimes its all too easy to polarise distinctions between “urban” and “suburban” churches in a negative manner, without first recognising our oneness in Christ and dependency on one another. Not least in the area of encouragement and support. Building godly partnerships between churches to address poverty is sometimes a difficult thing because wealth and money and poverty can be such emotive issues, even within individual congregations. One thing I do know is that Esther and I couldn’t contemplate what we feel called to do without the encouragement of churches like Community Church. And now we also have support Bishopbriggs Community Church here in Glasgow, like CCE a resource church that is part of the Scottish Network Churches.
Thanks Paul … it is good to working together.
So a question: is urban and suburban the best definition of these different types of churches? Certainly in Edinburgh, those church in the suburbs are in areas of deprivation, whereas all the churches in the urban centre tend to be middle class, afluent, & relatively wealthy.
Any thoughts?
Yep, good point, well made…suddenly we enter the wide realm of urban theory, which I think I tend to simplify too much when I bring it into other disciplines. I tend to bandy around the words suburban and urban but use them in a more specific sense – that of distinct culture rather than geographical location per se. Your point is that “suburbs” can happen geographically anywhere in the city – which I totally agree with. This is also true of “urban” areas (another woefully inadequate term because of its multiple meanings). You can have an urban area in terms of culture anywhere in the city (inner city or outer estate). It all depends on the specific history of the city.
Inner city slums tend to be synonymous with post-industrial cities like Glasgow. In Edinburgh, instead, which has always been a judicial/financial centre the medieval town survived and has been renovated. So the “urban” areas tend to be peripheral. In Paris, its like a donut – the urban/slum areas surround the wealthy core and are in turn surrounded by suburbs. So there are a wide variety of city-scapes shaped by myriad forces.
Anyway, I think of the terms suburban/urban in cultural/economic terms rather than geographic (though often geography can influence them). A guy called William Upski Wimsatt once wrote about “suburbs of the mind” as a way of defining a certain mindset or worldview that defines a suburban dweller as opposed to folk from an “urban” area. Its a worldview rooted in assumptions about choice, wealth and upward mobility which an “urban” dweller usually lacks. Poverty of choice/wealth and the social ills that come with that (housing/drugs/crime) tend to be exacerbated in “urban” cultures (as I use the term). A suburban dweller even in a city like Glasgow can actually experience culture shock when they experience another part of the city that they usually drive past. This is exacerbated if you then actually move in to an area. The mindset of the suburbs in the UK reveals itself in phrases like “amazing how how the other live”, in the often almost racial charicatures of “ned” culture, and the often negatively biased representations of the realities of inner-city life that we see in middle-class media. Everyone defines their identity in terms of other identities that they are not, often denigrating those identities. Our worldviews can be subtly influenced by the culture we live in. As more wealthy Christians in the UK, I think we feel more comfortable with allowing the Jewish culture of 2000 years ago to critique us than the culture of “urban” areas often just next door to our homes. What does the continuing existance of deep poverty in Glasgow and the lack of vibrant churches in these areas actually say about the way we express our faith in the majority (more middle-class) churches? And would the biblical verses on poverty that Dave McNeish listed in his last sermon have a deeper meaning if we actually experienced the poverty of these areas on our doorstep on a daily basis?
I can’t shake the reality of seeing a methadone addict wandering zombe-like in Possil the other day, and the story of a 19 year old boy stabbed to death there because of the drug-wars just a few weeks ago.
Sobering stuff, a real shock to the suburbanisation of my worldview.
Paul – thanks for comment. I can tell you are at Bible Collage
I thought that is how you were using the words urban / suburban – referring to a culture, rather than a geographical location. I suppose i still wonder if there are better terms? But then not sure what they would be!
I really agree that it is really cross culteral mission that you are engaged with! I suspect the culture of the areas you are looking at is as different to mine / ours as trying to plant a church in another country!
Been thinking about Paul’s comment on ‘becoming all things to all people’ over the last few weeks. There is something there about contextualising the gospel in different cultures.