The Middle In: The Unique Missional Opportunity
Saturday, July 12, 2008
The pastors group at Life on the Vine spent this early morning talking about church planting, spawning communities of mission. We resolved that we would first seek to seed missional communities in places where a.) the gospel is sorely missing (either because churches have closed, left or not yet come), b.) we could live more affordably (so we could all live beneath our means), and c.) where we could live in closer proximity to one another.
Ironically the last two criteria would eliminate the very place Life on the Vine exists. Life on the Vine has faced significant challenges in the NW suburbs regarding the issues of affordability and proximity. We have had to be inventive. The struggle in each of these challenges has just begun. Yet the suburbs cannot be abandoned. We have seen smaller churches (300 and less) close up. The mega churches grow larger. And yet there is little left for those outside the gospel who would never consider darkening the doors of a mega church (which for me includes most post Christendom peoples).
Having said all this, I think we see ourselves as sending people off in groups of ten, as missional orders into places that a.) need the gospel, b.) more affordable, and c.) allow for proximal living. We want to send especially the people who cannot afford to live here.
This gets me to the point of this entire post. In several conversations I have had with missional church planters in the past three weeks, I have discussed what is happening in their towns. They all live in towns of 100,000 or so. In each of these towns the middle to upper classes economically have moved to the outer circle of these cities. Mega churches, in some cases huge mega churches, have sprung up on the outer edges of these towns (we'd call them suburbs in a big city like Chicago.) Meanwhile, from the middle of these little cities in, churches have shrunk, died, been whittled to nothing (many times by these mega churches) left and/or closed up. The outer circle of these towns has plenty of churches and money. Yet in all three of these contexts, "the middle in" is decidedly less middle-to upper class and lacks churches relative to the population. This "middle-in" is struggling with poverty, job loss, gangs, under-education and other things. Here in the "middle-in" parts of these towns are "the poor," the ones most ready and desperate for the gospel. Here lies fertile ground for the gospel.
All this to say, "the middle in" is also a.) very affordable, b.) allows for proximity, and c.) is in need of the gospel. These are the fertile places for the missional orders we are seeking to form at Life on the Vine. We seek to send groups of 10, gifted people for ministry who can get jobs and flourish in these new places for mission. I was stunned to visit one of these places this week and find many young professional Christians, who have good jobs, tired of mega church living, doing this kind of missional living. Wow, it blew my mind.
What do you think about the "middle in" hypothesis? Are you interested? Are you already doing this?
Posted by David Fitch | 11:14 AM
COMMENTS:
There are some real advantages, particularly if you already have relationship with the urban poor. For us, we're considering the move because at the moment whenever we connect with a need we have to hop in the car and drive 15 minutes to the town center. Our town of 100k is somewhat different in that its a holiday destination and there is no cheap housing anywhere. Moving from the edge of town where we live now to the center we will save maybe 10k for a slightly larger home that needs all the renos we have just finished doing to our house.
3:24 PM
Holy cow, are you serious?! Did you see what I just posted today?
http://lifeasmission.com/blog/2008/07/12/truth-be-told-i-am-scared-to-death-to-live-in-the-suburbs/
Good timing David, I think this gives me another way to think about this living decision I need to make.
4:18 PM
dave,
i'm not a Viner, but i dig your vision big time. about three years ago i tried exactly what you just described, for the reasons you listed (and a few others): southwest missouri small city of 150k, moved into an old house less than a mile from town square, got jobs for my wife and i within a couple blocks of home, got on our neighborhood association board (i've told bits and pieces of this story before, i think), started a house church with plans to form a rapid-multiplication house church network and a "third place" as a creative social outlet. did this for a year or so, until God called us to chicago. here was the missing ingredient, though: the 10 person cell group and the sending church. critical mistake. we had 2 or 3 other couples "interested" in starting something... then we moved into the city (put our money where our mouths were), one couple moved to ohio, and the others bailed, leaving us alone. we then met another couple who had a similar vision and heart for the "city", assumed it was a "God thing" and that it would be gold from there. not so. i cannot overstress the need for the core group to be deeply "in love" with one another and committed through thick and thin, and i cannot overstress the vital importance of a strong relationship with a sending church of some sort. with those two things in place, combined with the other basic necessities you've already described, gird up your loins and go for it, man. it's totally doable... not to mention if God's on board with it (bit of an understatement, i know)! hard, and not as glamorous as it might seem. but definitely doable.
rock on, dave.
8:41 AM
i think your idea is really good. it is very similar to what we're up to here in Abilene,Texas. we're not a big urban area like you guys but we still have our "middle in" places.
i like your thinking on sending 10-12 families or individuals in (i suggest reading the celtic way of evangelism by Hunter). we're thinking that we need to live in close proximity to one another (i'm calling it a micro-community) so that we can further reduce our cost of living and at once model how a redemptive community of Jesus lives.
we're planning to start a really big community garden and grocery co-op. we're hoping to even start some micro businesses that would employ people in "the middle". we also want to build other micro-communities throughout our city. our hope is to restore a local economy that is invested in itself and reduce the dependence we have on outside sources of goods and services.
it's a big dream, but i think it's a good one.
peace
8:42 AM
beloved,
you need to hook up with Mark and Katrina Willis in Chicago. they are deeply invested in simple church movements. i think it's def. a connection you'll be glad you made.
check out http://godgrown.net/...
i think you'll fall in love with these two.
also, i think your advice about a core group and a sending community is right on!
peace
8:47 AM
miller,
hunter's book was very formative for my ministry paradigm. i second your commendation.
one other self-disclosure... "preachers" (like myself) don't thrive in simple church settings. facilitating a Bible discussion is like pulling teeth for me (despite having ample training in small group facilitation). exhortation is really awkward and difficult coming from the couch of someone's living room. one of the down sides to simple church is that, while it levels the playing field, so to speak, with regard to participation in worship, the overall structure also (in our experience) stifled certain giftings, such as my more prophetic gifting, but also musical and administrative and artistic giftings in general. the "third place" venue didn't materialize until the weeks before my family moved up here, and we had envisioned that as the primary outlet for these other types of gifting that don't express themselves as well in a "small group" setting.
9:06 AM
BTW, i know people will take me to task on the "music" issue, but try rocking out with a full band... little loud for a house. i know, i know, you can do folk (basically anything not requiring drums or amplified instruments) 'cause it's more communal, but some of us still like to rock out for Jesus.
9:09 AM
beloved,
perhaps this is hi-jacking and if it is my apologies David.
the way we're starting to handle the worship settings that don't really fit in the home is to provide a quarterly "mega" type experience for the network. it's been tried monthly, it's been tried in homes, it's been tried in other ways but the truth is that there's a place for a big quarterly blowout with some good music and some good preaching and a good mega-fellowship experience.
peace
9:43 AM
Hi David,
We've had a lot of success with this starting 3 years ago when 6 families moved into a suburb and things have grown and expanded and we're starting our 4th group now (all in 4 different suburbs).
There are two strategic points where I think we would differ from your vision and those who have posted comments here -
1. We see the mission is discipleship so moving into a poor area in need is not as a high a priority as the question - where can we best make disciples which leads to my second point...
2. When a team with fairly postmodern values chooses to move to a poorer area of town for the sake of demonstrating the gospel I believe they need to understand that they are entering a completely different culture that is 3-4 generations removed from the culture they are in (they were raised in affluence and now searching for meaning vs. the people they are trying to reach - raised in poverty and trying to find stability).
This culture gulf is HUGE and its almost like moving to an African village. So in our experience, many families are unable or unwilling to truly contextualize and adapt to that culture and they bring their latte-sipping, art-loving, blog-reading, community-valuing, mission-minded selves into that neighborhood and there is an enormous cultural disconnect. But if they would had moved to the area of town where their culture is the thickest, what they would have planted would have flourished and many more disciples would have been made.
Both must be done but why not send missionaries into those areas to ONLY train, build-up and resource natives of that area (they will do far better than we can) and at the same time plant your communities where they will actually thrive?
9:57 AM
this blog resonated with me, but also made me uncomfortable in some ways I couldnt articulate. But jeremy's post made a lot of sense.
If this culture is approaching or has already arrived at post-Christendom, isn't the need for the gospel pretty much everywhere? I can see how affluence, especially in the first couple generations, can dull your senses to your spiritual need. And the poor have always been disproportionately blessed by the gospel, but is that the biggest target at this time in this culture? I don't know.
And if affordability and financial pragmatism is a driving factor in ecclesiology and missiology, doesn't that point towards the scale of megachurch where a smaller percentage of the money is spent on staff and facilities even though they are both larger and fancier.
And the proximal living relates to the cultural aspects mentioned by jeremy. proximal living is more of a rural or urban practice, while suburbanites will go anywhere for something they value as long as it's in a 30 minute radius.
Even so it is a challenge to be considered even for those of us who are older, more family-dominated, suburbanites.
12:17 PM
I have several concerns:
There needs to be a concrete plan for caring for the children these missionaries have. One of the big reasons people have moved out of urban environments is the safety, educational and social needs of their children. This is a significant problem. It is unfair to hazard our children or to make them the vehicles of outreach.
There are so many needs in the city, that there needs to be a well defined focus. Sometimes the only outreach possible is to just live there,fix up one's house, make friends with the neighbors, and be willing to testify so that justice can occur. Fixing up one's house can take a lot of time. And there aren't a lot of houses there that don't need fixing up. By fixing up one's house, you give the neighbors incentive to care for their places. And by being neighborly, you can help them learn the skills they need to care for their homes.
What about the team plugging into a small struggling church that is already there? I like the idea of coming along side people who are sticking it out, who haven't given up, rather than competing with them to grow a church. It's also more humble. Otherwise the missions efforts look like, 'hey, we're here to show you how to do things right'. The poor need things, but you're not going to get very far if they perceive that you think you're better than they are. If you're going to go into a community like that you need to go with the attitude of one who wants to receive and learn as well as wanting to give.
4:21 PM
man, are you guys listening to yourselves???
yeesh!
5:33 PM
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5:37 PM
jeremy ,,, you said "This culture gulf is HUGE and its almost like moving to an African village." I agree it takes some contextualization ... a long time to listen, be present ... but I have seen younger people, even prfessional inhabit alonsgide the poorer ... and the community is flourishing ,,, indeed it appears to be a matter of attutude, disposition rather than the HUGE gap ...that's what I see ..
Maria... my take on the education of our kids is that we need most of all to live like a community that protects, guides and includes the children ... check on Pernell Goodyear's blog (sidebar) and how he discusses moving his own children into a lower class neighorhood.
As far as the suburbs needing Christ. I have absolutely no disagreement ... however they have become to expensive and too spatialized to allow for comunity and mission for young people who can't afford to live there. Those who can afford to stay, by all means find tactics to be proximal as well as commual and missional. I hope people have seen evidences here on this blog that that is whartwe continue to strive for at LOV. For the young however, who can't make enough money, who can;t afford to live here I offer my suggestion... "the middle in."
Peace ...
6:14 PM
Dave,
At the Evolving Church, Restoring Justice conference last year, Rick Tobias of the Young Street Mission in Toronto noted that most urban centers are being revitalized with expensive "lofts" and trendy apartments and that the poor are being pushed out of the urban areas and into the suburbs. So many of the Poor are being pushed out of downtown Toronto that they are talking of having to relocate/scale back their downtown presence. I have noticed this trend in my city of about 200,000. The center of town is fast becoming too expensive for "the decidedly less middle-to upper class". I read an article recently in CNN (June 16) http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/06/16/suburb.city/?imw=Y&iref=mpstoryemail (ht: Jordan Cooper) about the demise of America's suburban dream. When the poor get pushed to the suburbs they become invisible. It is so easy to hide behind the fences and the facades of wealth. Apparently it is the young middle class that are taking over the urban areas.
So I am not so sure about your premise of "middle in". At present the trend looks more like the center is becoming more affluent but I don't see an increase in the number of churches there. The very outer ring still has the churches and the money. It is the space in between the very outer and the center that I think is or very soon will be the space you are talking about.
6:36 PM
dan j. I quite agree, having lived in Chicago that the same is happening there as in other large metro cities. In fact I have even reported it here on this blog. Indeed there are several suburbs in Chicago where the poor are being pushed. However, in the 100,000 -150,00 type cities .. speciifcally cities like Fort Wayne IN, Peoria IL, Rockford IL, Terra Haute IN ...Lansing Mi ... my reports are that the phenomenon I have described here is firmly in place ...
Hope this clarifies... DF
8:22 PM
There are still pockets of very poor in every city. They just happen to have shootings every other day (or several in one weekend). The neighborhood community center model of church is the best for urban poor areas. It's the only thing that works.
6:44 AM
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