Mission to Suburbia Resource Page

I've started a new resource page called Mission to Suburbia (notice a link near the top of the left sidebar of my blog).  There isn't much there yet, but I wanted to mention it to you all and ask for your help in finding missional, theological, statistical resources (books, articles, blogs, posts, etc) that will help those of us who are striving to bring the Gospel to the suburbs/exurbs.  I hope Mission to Suburbia will be a handy tool for pastors, planters, churches and Christians who

Click the email link on my sidebar to email me info or links.  I'd rather not receive links in comments.  Thanks!

Comments

[Tim Etherington]

You might consider adding Todd Hiestand's blog. He doesn't always blog on suburban missions but he does comment on it a lot.

http://www.toddhiestand.com/

[Steve McCoy]

Todd is listed as "Living Missionally in Suburban America." I'll ask him which title he prefers, but the link is there. Thanks Tim.

[Matt Adair]

Steve - this is a fantastic idea and your blog casts a broad enough net to provide all of us with a great resource for an area of ministry that for whatever reason lacks such resources.

[Jason Robertson]

Thanks for this online resource! I was in San Diego a few weeks ago meeting with Dick Kaufmann (from Redeemer Church NY) and 14 other church planters who are in the urban San Diego area. I shared with them that I have been looking for resources to help me with church plants in the suburbs -- most stuff that is being written today is very urban focused. They agreed, and we had a great discussion about the different challenges suburban churches face.

One of the biggest differences is the fact that suburbs do not possess real identities like cities do. People do not have a real pride for the "city" -- infact, they may drive through 5 zip codes just getting to WalMart. In our church people are from at least a half dozen different towns. When you talk to them about their favorite city, they speak of San Diego, Newport, etc. They just don't want to live there. They live in the suburbs so they can have a bigger house, a better school, and less traffic.

So, again, thanks for this resource. I will check back often to gain wisdom/understanding of what suburb church plants are facing.

[Joe Thorn]

Jason,

I would caution against that kind of reductionism, because it's not altogether true, and it contributes to the misconception that the suburbs are one monolithic, and often superficial place.

You said, "One of the biggest differences is the fact that suburbs do not possess real identities like cities do." In fact, I think many suburban communities do have a very clear identity, whether it is the city of Naperville, or the collective cities of a suburban regional area (Fox Valley). Both are Chicago suburbs. There are a lot of problems and obstacles to doing church in the burbs, but things are changing, and people are beginning to take notice. I am actually writing a post on the subject and should post it later tonight.

[michael mcminn]

One of the books that comes to mind right away is Plastic Jesus by Eric Sandras.

I have not read this book, just seen it on the shelves several times on books-a-million. I can't tell if he talks directly about ministering in a suburban setting or more uses suburbia as an analogy for spiritual complacency.

And Mark Priddy's "Moving into the Neighborhood" blog at Allelon has a thread of Suburban topics, as the welcome states: "What does it mean for us to be the hands and feet of Jesus in our local neighborhoods? Who do you know that is creatively engaging their local context (urban, suburban, rural) and seeing missional life emerge?"