Friday, Sept. 23

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Friday

I think that life in the suburbs can easily become a barrier to genuine Christian community if we are not careful.  Let me explain why by telling you about two experiences I had while leading students on missions trips many years ago.

The first experience took place when I took a group of students down to the south side of Chicago on a mission trip.  We stayed in the basement of an old church at night and worked in a homeless shelter and on housing projects during the day.  I noticed something very interesting about the houses in this poor inner-city neighborhood that was very different from the houses in the suburbs where I lived – they all had front porches.  The people were “out front” on their porches talking with each other and calling one another by name.  It seemed like just about everybody knew each other and folks spent time just talking with each other out on the front porch.  I couldn’t help thinking about how different this was from my home in the suburbs.  I knew my neighbors names (at least some of them) but we rarely spent time just chatting with each other.  I could drive straight into my attached garage, and walk straight into my house, and even go out onto my back deck without having to even see a neighbor.

The second experience happened on a mission trip with high school students to Ecuador.  As part of our trip, we spent some time in the jungles of the Amazon basin with an indigenous tribe called the Cofan people.  We helped improve their water supply system, worked on their little church building, played games with their children and just spent time being with them.  One of the things I noticed right away, was that the Cofan people did not view home and personal property the same way that we do in America. They had homes of course, but they spent all of their time in what they called the “common building” of the village.  This was a large open structure in which the men gathered to talk, the women prepared large meals, and the children constantly ran in and out laughing and giggling.  As for personal property, the Cofan people saw all of their possessions as resources for the good of the whole village.  About the only thing they didn’t share were the men’s hunting rifles.  This was partly out of necessity for survival of course, but it still caused me to think about how isolated and private everything is in the American suburbs.

Listen again to how the book of Acts describes life among the earliest Chrsitians…

All the believers were together and had everything in common.  Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.  Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.  – Acts 2:44-47

Both the people of the south side of Chicago and the Cofan people in the jungles of Ecuador were extremely poor in terms of their material wealth.  But they were rich in a different way - they were rich in relationships.  Despite their material poverty, there was something attractive about their life together.  When I read the Biblical accounts of the early church, it is clear that there was something deeply attractive about their life together too.  In fact it was this attractive quality of community that God used to draw so many people into His family of faith.

Now, I am not suggesting that in order to obey God we must all build front porches on our houses, or start sharing all of our possessions with those in our neighborhood.  However, I do think we need to seriously consider how our suburban culture of individualism and isolation may be a serious barrier to the kind of ripple effect of spiritual influence that God wants us, as His people, to have in the world. 

Jeff Frazier