SUB urban culture

Key Ideas Urban culture is distinctive from suburban culture in terms of demographics and values Conservative Christianity has been shaped by suburban values In rejecting suburban values, urbanites reject conservative Christianity.

Age Profiles – Urban Contexts

Age Profiles – Urban & Suburban Contexts

Age Profiles – Urban & Suburban Contexts

PART ONE THE VISION OF SUBURBIA

The 18th Century City

Evangelical Values Domestic happiness, thou only bliss Of Paradise that hast survived the fall!... God made the country and man made the town. What wonder then that health and virtue, gifts That can alone make sweet the bitter draught That life holds out to all, should most abound And least be threaten’d in the fields and groves Possess ye, therefore,…your element. William Cowper, The Task (1785)--'The Sofa' (Book I, lines 749-54)

The 18th Century Suburb

The 18th Century Suburb

Suburban Values Domesticity of Women

Suburban Values Domesticity of Women Man for the field and women for the hearth; Men for the sword and for the needle she; Man with the head and woman with the heart; Man to command and woman to obey; All else confusion. Lord Tennyson

Suburban Values Domesticity of Women Family First

Suburban Values Domesticity of Women Family First Homogeneity

Suburban Values Domesticity of Women Family First Homogeneity Aspiration

Suburban Values Domesticity of Women Family First Homogeneity Aspiration Ordered Environment

PART TWO THE URBAN VISION

You Find It Ugly… …I Find It Lovely

Urban Values: Secular?

Urban Values Ecology

Urban Values Ecology Community

Urban Values Ecology Community Connection

Urban Values Ecology Community Connection

Urban Values Ecology Community Transcendence Peace & Justice

Values

PART THREE THE URBAN CHURCH

Towards an Urban Gospel Recover a holistic gospel The truncated, individualistic gospel addresses issues that concern suburban people including fear and personal security The gospel, understood holistically, addresses many issues that concern urban people: Community Ecology Justice

Towards and Urban Gospel Suburban Christianity is future focussed Recover a holistic mission Salvation is present & future; Jesus is Lord – NOW! the victory and lordship of Jesus addresses issues in the present: race, terrorism, economics, power, injustice, poverty The church’s mission is to demonstrate the coming kingdom in word, deed and our communal life

Towards an Urban Gospel Recover a holistic mission Word: creative and multi-sensory proclamation that both affirms and subverts the longings and hopes of urban people. Deed: active engagement in the community and the world as a sign and foretaste of Jesus’ reign Community: real communal life that embodies key kingdom values including love, forgiveness, generosity, hospitality, diversity

Towards an Urban Gospel Develop an Urban Apologetic addressing the difficulties urban people have with Christianity: Women Sexuality Environment Reconciliation Fundamentalism

CONCLUSION