Why Do We Hate the Suburbs?

by Keith Miller

I am prepared to say the unthinkable: suburbs are good. Stay with me now. While suburbs have suffered decades of derogatory propaganda, there is still much to be commended. In fact, I wonder if the only reason we think suburbs are bad is because we were told they were bad and we believed it...

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Public Faith in a Pluralistic Society

by Miroslav Volf

Many Christians argue America (or Europe) needs to return to its Christian roots. Others will contend a secular society is the only truly free one. In this Q talk, Miroslav Volf argues that neither really works—because both stem from misunderstandings about human flourishing, abundant living and co-existing alongside others. He explains how pursuing the common good in a pluralistic context doesn’t mean compromising our deeply held convictions.

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Embracing Vocation in the City

by Amy Sherman

We spend most of our week outside of church—at our jobs, in our neighborhoods, with our families. How do we connect our faith with our vocations—with the work that we do in the world? Too often the church fails to deploy people's unique vocational power strategically, creatively, and effectively. Amy Sherman challenges Christians to embrace a new vision for an everyday, integrated faith that will ultimately change workplaces, cities, industries.

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The Church and The City

by Q Panel

There’s a lot of talk about the Church’s role in advancing the common good, but it often remains theoretical. In Portland, this isn’t just an idea; it’s a case study. Kevin Palau sits down with Portland Mayor Sam Adams, Commissioner Diane McKeel, and Imago Dei Community Pastor Ken Weigal to discuss their partnership. Witness the impact of a church committed to the common good of its city.

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Discipling Urban Youth

by Tyler Staton

While smugly sitting through Bible college, I couldn’t have envisioned my first ministry job in New York City going the way it has. I was confident that my experience in youth group had been far too based on hype and "cool" events; now that I was a youth pastor I was going to somehow figure out high school ministry the “right way.”I was quickly humbled.

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Finding Redemption at Penn State

by Dan Nold

The news trucks have not left our streets since November, since the Penn State child sex abuse scandal broke open and revealed the junk in Happy Valley. For those outside of State College, PA, it’s been a sensational news story. For those in our community, it’s been a gut-wrenching season. The question now before me, a pastor, is the question of redemption. How do we partner with God to live as agents of redemption in our very broken city?

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Announcing Q 2012 | Washington, D.C.

by Gabe Lyons

In a presidential election year, we felt there was no better place for Q to host 700 cultural leaders than our nation’s capital. Q is no ordinary gathering—it is a calling to all Christian leaders to be thoughtful and faithful as we engage a rapidly changing culture. As a part of this community, I hope you’ll seriously consider joining us...

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Postmodern Wells: Creating A Third Place

by Mark Batterson

The church is no longer the center of community life. Rather than admit defeat, Mark Batterson believes the church has an obligation to create new ways to engage our communities. Hear the story of one church that has created new places for their community to connect both with each other, and also with God.

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A Vision for Our Cities

by Al Barth

By 2050, five cities are projected to reach mega-giant status with 40 million people each: Lagos, Karachi, Bombay, Dhaka, and Calcutta. Four of these cities will very likely to be hostile to Christianity. Allan Barth lays the biblical foundation for reaching cities and shaping culture.

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Design Intervention

by Mel McGowan

Model cities like Portland have been touted for an intentional design that naturally intersects citizens with commerce, recreation and informal run-ins—it’s all part of what makes a community thrive. God uses place to shape our relational context with Him and others. Mel McGowan, founder of Visioneering Studios, explains how urban “Design Intervention” has renewed Portland and is embedding the seed of the Kingdom into communities around the world.

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Identifying the Idols of the City

by Leonardo de Chirico

The aesthetics and intrigue of a city’s skyline personify that city. These dazzling towers of concrete and steel, however, aren’t the only skylines we should see in our cities. Leornardo de Chirico, a church planter in Rome, urges us to identify the idols found in our city’s “theological skyline”.

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The Value of Failure

An interview with Henry Petroski

by Henry Petroski

Leaders in all channels of culture wrestle with the fear of failure. But author and engineering professor Henry Petroski says failure is important because of the information is reveals and because it combats the human tendency to grow overconfident. He looks at failure through the lens of urban development and the history of engineering.

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Q Finds Chilly Portland Surprisingly Warm

by Q Ideas

If you live in Portland and read The Oregonian, you'd know that Q had come to town. The city Rush Limbaugh once dubbed “Lib Land” ranks as one of the nation’s top three “least churched” cities and has a long-standing aversion for anything that smacks of religion.Yet Q found this chilly town to be a surprisingly warm city to host its annual gathering.

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How the Church Can Change a City

by Q Ideas

What do a collection of evangelical Christian pastors and the openly gay Mayor of one of America’s most liberal cities have in common? You might think not much at all. Then again, you might be surprised. At Q in Portland, Kevin Palau sat down with a panel comprised of Imago Dei’s Ken Weigel,  Portland Mayor Sam Adams, and Multnomah County Commissioner Diane McKeel to talk about how this question has been answered in their city.

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Q in Portlandia

by Q Ideas

Q is excited to be in Portland today for our fifth annual gathering. We pulled up stakes and headed west this year because we believe this city represents what the future of American social culture might look like. For those who couldn't be with us in Portland this year, we wanted you to catch a glimpse of what we'll be doing and hearing and discussing this week.

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What Skyscrapers Tell Us...About Us

by Jonathan Merritt

Skyscrapers have always been storytellers. Draw up next to a historic building and you’ll hear tales of the time in which they were constructed. You’ll learn about architecture and innovation. But today’s skyscrapers speak about more than a bygone era. They tell us about a people, about ourselves.

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The Five Ministry Fronts in the City

by Tim Keller

The grace and kingdom emphases of the gospel compel us to be city-centric, and no one ministers to the city better than Tim Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian in New York. But what makes this community so successful in a place where others have failed? Tim Keller shares five ministry fronts that have contributed to Redeemer's successes.

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It's All About the Neighborhood

by Aaron Fortner

The Church is abuzz today about reaching cities, but “impacting cities” can sound like an insurmountable task. How can one person or one church shape a bustling metropolis like New York, Atlanta, or Dallas? City planner Aaron Fortner says the secret can be summed up in one word: neighborhoods.

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Ten Most Significant Cultural Trends of the Last Decade

by Andy Crouch

Because there is no year 0, a decade runs from 01/01 - 12/10. As we enter the second decade of the second millennium AD, Q is pausing to look back on the last ten years. In the first of this multi-post series, author Andy Crouch considers the cultural trends that most significantly changed our world.

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Which American Cities are Education Reform-Friendly?

by Q Ideas

We all want better educations for our communities and children. But are some cities more “reform-friendly” than others? A new study by The Thomas B. Fordham Institute in conjunction with the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research says so. Who made it to the top of the list, and what does this mean for restorers and educational entrepreneurs?

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Getting the Portland Vibe

by Tom Krattenmaker and Kevin Palau

If you want to see what the future of American social culture might look like, head west. This presentation brings to you ground zero of our post-Christian culture in the form of Portland, Oregon. Local Portlanders and good friends, Tom Krattenmaker and Kevin Palau, let you in on their private coffee conversations. How is God moving in Portland? What are the dynamics at play that movements in other cities might resemble? Most important, why must we all experience Portland to prepare for future cultural shifts?

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The Church and the City

by Charles Jenkins and JR Kerr

The church should be a positive force for advancing the common good for all people in their city. In Chicago, this kind of work has been happening for over two centuries. From Dwight L. Moody's first efforts to care for the welfare of the port sailors and saloon keepers to today's work by leaders throughout this city of Chicago to restore and renew their society, Chicago is a model city for the conversations taking place at Q. Charles Jenkins is one leader who sits at the nexus of church, government and social action taking place throughout their city.

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One City at a Time

by Q Ideas

The story of how a few churches are impacting their city.

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Saving Suburbia: From the Garden to the City

by Mel McGowan

I once lived the “American Dream.” I had a single-family detached house on a half-acre parcel with a three-car garage in a bedroom suburb of Southern California. In order to afford my piece of the “American Pie,” I commuted to work at least an hour each way, barely making it home in time to tuck in my youngest child each night, and rarely in time to have dinner with the whole family.

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Suburban Addictions

by David Goetz

Poverty is not always financial, it is spiritual too. In Death by Suburb, author David Goetz identifies eight toxins that are plaguing the suburbs. These are the factors that are driving your neighbors to live the life they do. As Christians, it is our responsibility to be aware of these toxins, and their corresponding remedies, so that we can begin to reach out to our neighbors in meaningful ways. Identifying these addictions and offering something counter, something beautiful, will profoundly change the real face of the suburbs.

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Justice in the Suburbs

by Heather Larson

Financial poverty exists everywhere, even in the suburbs. However, to see poverty in the suburbs, you have to look for it. Churches can be unfairly criticized for ignoring the poor in their own back yard. However, Heather Larson is the Associate Director of the Global Connections Ministry at Willow Creek Community Church. Through her long commitment to being an advocate for the poor, and recent shifts in the church's priorities - Heather has found herself as the leader of a movement that garners the power of the mega-church to transform the lives of those around them.

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The Future of the Suburbs

by Joel Kotkin

The suburbs are growing; the sprawl continues. Between 2000 and 2006, 90% of growth in metropolitan areas took place in the suburbs. This continues a long trend of steady growth in suburban areas and this trend is not likely to slow anytime soon. Are the suburbs the "community" of the future? The more we begin to understand the construct of the suburbs and how they are designed the more we can begin to understand the church's mission within them. Joel Kotkin's insight into how the cities of the future may be built will help shape the church's thinking on community, mission and growth.

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Renewing Cities Through Missional Tribes

by Jon Tyson

Developing genuine community is especially challenging in our fast-paced, individualistic culture--particularly in an urban context. In this short, Jon Tyson explores the way people relate in the city and how we should begin looking at social networks differently.

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Re-Urbanization Of The Church

by Jon Tyson

One aspect of our current culture is a rampant individualism that has affected the way we view salvation and mission. Jon Tyson believes that all of culture is renewable and that God wants to use not just individuals, but the community of faith to make a difference.

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A Theology of Place

by Mel McGowan

An individual's theology of space and community really does effect the way we live. Listen as Mel McGowan talks about the necessity of having sacred spaces where genuine community can be fostered.

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Cosmopolitan Intelligence

by Michael Lindsay

Get a glimpse into the lives of our nation's top CEOs, presidents, athletes, writers, educators and pastors. Learn how the power to convene shapes our society and how faith unifies an otherwise diverse group, through Lindsay's report.

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