Death By Suburb

As a staff, we are all reading different books about the suburbs. When we go to staff meeting today, we will each give a synopsis of what we read in our book and then we'll enter into discussion about our current suburban context. We started this last week and it was a very enlightening conversation. Our Connections Pastor Brandon Baca started doing some great research on our area and brought it to our meeting. It was amazing to hear some of the statistics he shared.

So my reading is from a book called Death By Suburb. Just seeing the cover intrigued me and I was really drawn to dive into it!

So far, I would equate it to a "light" version of the Celebration of Discipline by Foster. It's basically an exploration of how to engage in the spiritual disciplines while living in suburbia.

However, this guy really starts to shine a bright light on the veneer of suburbia. He has no problem calling a spade a spade and including himself in the mix. In fact, he sort of tells on himself the first 3 chapters. He's refreshingly vulnerable.

Here's a great quote from the book. "The suburbs tend to produce inverse spiritual cripples. Suburbia is a flat world, in which the edges are clearly defined and the mysterious ocean is rarely explored. Every decision gets planned out, like the practice of registering at retail stores for one's wedding gifts. Only tragedy truly surprises."

How true is that last statement! We're so prone to predictability in our lives. We're prone to worship safety and accomplishment. We covet the neighbor's house and cars. We compete with each other through the accomplishments of our children. It's only when tragedy comes knocking on the door that we're awakened from our slumber. I like that Goetz is trying to give some avenues for living what he calls "The Thicker Life" in our suburban context.