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. I spoke to my next-door neighbor about three times in three years. The elementary school that was located behind our tract was shut down so my son had to be driven or bussed several miles to the next school. Although I attended the same church where I became a Christian, it had long since given up its Main Street address to relocate to forty acres of agricultural land on the periphery of the city. As a result, it had achieved mega-church status, with over 5,000 weekend attendees. I felt my wife’s pain as she attended week after week enjoying relevant teaching and worship, but not one real conversation, much less the start of any new friendships. It may sound like a “glass half-empty” description, but, in fact, having grown up in Europe and Asia in urban flats, apartments, and townhomes, I felt blessed to have a home like this for my family. However, something was missing from my American Dream.

I have come to understand that something to be a God-wired hunger for community.

THE KIDNAPPING OF COMMUNITY

God is a God of community. Before the beginning, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit “did life together” in community. “In the beginning,” God created a perfect setting for community—Eden—for vertical connection with him, as well as horizontal connection with others. After the cleansing of the flood, God chose a particular people—a community—to tell his story and reveal his ways. And for the past two thousand years, the Bible says that his presence has not been contained by a tent or a building but is somehow found within in Christ-centered community: the church. Humans, made in God’s image and for his purposes, are hard-wired for community.

However, today, the concept of community is being kidnapped from us. To be sure, the word itself is still used at great lengths. We have special interest communities (e.g., the gay community, the evangelical community, etc.). Single-family detached tract residential builders have renamed themselves “Community Builders” and their single use tracts with the minimum required landscaped setbacks are “Master Planned Communities.” And the leading Real Estate Development trade and research association, Urban Land Institute (ULI), defines “Community Centers” as a shopping center anchored by a discount or department store with a typical GLA (gross leasable area) of 150,000 to 300,000 square feet... a.k.a. a “strip center” or “big box center.” But amid so much talk of community, we have lost its true meaning.

The three-car “garagescapes” that have replaced the tree-lined front porch streetscapes of small town America create anonymity and social isolation. Anonymity is also a common critique of the Sunday morning experience in the darkened rows of contemporary mega-churches (many of which actually use the word community in their name). Ironically, in order to achieve mega-church status, many of these “faith communities” are essentially once a week gatherings of dispersed families from the same 20-minute drive radius as a big box retail center. Given the placeless homogeneity of much suburban sprawl (the same big box retailers, tract home builders, gas stations, and “vanilla” office parks), the word seems to be invoked specifically to compensate for the lack of authentic community.

Perhaps the biggest threat to the classic definition of community is technology. The internal combustion engine killed Main Street, Elm Street, and the walkable scale of human settlements and towns. Whereas the “public square,” with its sacred and civic spaces (from the Greek agora, Roman forum, and Italian piazza to the New England village green) was the first and central defining anchor to any community, for the last sixty years the creation of such public spaces is actually prohibited by modern single-use zoning practices. The latest technological shift that is radically transforming the definition of community is online social media, which seems to remove the need for actual physical spaces to connect with others. Are the “real” places becoming obsolete?

All of these changes are demonstrating that when we divorce the word community from the reality of a particular human-scaled place, we fundamentally lose something in the mix. Today, many church planters and next generation Christian leaders feel a calling to be “architects of community” in either urban or suburban settings. However, most are ill equipped to answer this call because they lack a biblical understanding of place and a historical understanding of terms like city and suburb. Without an adequate theology of place, we resort to either devaluing it (throwaway church buildings) or overdoing it (by trying to re-build the temple). And without a greater understanding of how physical human ecologies and environments either facilitate or constrain community, we will fail to be truly present in the places and cities to which God has called us. In light of this, we’ll consider a theology of place first, then explore the tangible challenges we face for creating authentic community in our cities, with a special focus on the suburbs.

A THEOLOGY OF PLACE

Some consider a theology of place to be primarily concerned with religious buildings; they focus on how to create sacred worship space. Church and religious architects would even argue that there are “timeless principles of liturgical design.” I call this the standard bag of tricks. These induce the user through a series of perceptual and physiological manipulations in order to artificially induce a sense of sacred. They include using stairs and ramp for ascension, forcing the “pilgrim” to lower their head through lowered openings or ceiling elements, and then using filtered natural light to “draw the eye heavenward.”

In contrast, I have come to believe that the most beautiful (not to mention opulent) cathedral can be the site of the most profane acts (e.g., child molestation), and that the smelliest back alley can be the site of the most powerful redeeming act (serving a homeless teen as if she were Jesus). A theology of place needs to be bigger than even the biggest and grandest of church buildings.

The Bible is concerned with place. Indeed, the entire biblical story can be seen as a metanarrative of the journey of God’s people from one place to another, from the Garden to the City. This first place we encounter comes at the culmination of the creation story. It’s a very good place.

Some of our imagery of the Garden of Eden is fuzzy, ranging from an assumption of an abstract metaphor to a literal image of an unending, unspoiled jungle. The actual word Paradise entered European languages from the Persian root word pardis, which referred to a beautifully-tended garden enclosed between walls. The Hebrew word pardes (probably derived from Persian and used in the Jewish Talmud to refer to Eden) could be interpreted as a park, a garden, or an orchard.

This may sound a bit off, but I find it helpful to relate the Garden of Eden to a theme park. Although an angel with a flaming sword is more impressive than a typical minimum wage theme park security guard, the idea of a carefully designed environment in which every detail (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch) is carefully considered and designed for the enjoyment of its denizens is a powerful one. In fact, it is so compelling that Disney’s walled gardens are the top tourism destinations in America, Europe, and Asia. After spending nearly a decade of my life with the Walt Disney Company, I have come to appreciate the intensity and intentionality of the multi-disciplinary design effort that goes into the creation of a theme park.

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Comments

Gavin Baker

Appreciate you putting this together Mel. I'd agree with your observations that "urban" is trending popular - although as part of the generation that grew up in the suburbs, I long to live somewhere not just with high walkability scores, but in an area that has soul. In a house or area where the trees are older than me and the stories run deep.

Thanks for sharing.

Joel Schuster

Mel, I appreciate your thoughts. I was just having this same conversation over lunch yesterday. Talking with another church leader I was asked my thoughts on some aspects of Church culture that are being developed in our area and the best word I could come up with is "vanilla". In contrast our Church has been talking about the idea of community in relation to the theme of home / peace / rest / feast that you see scattered through out the teaching of Jesus and the broader narrative of scripture. Something in our souls longs for our first home - Eden; where we were in a perfect peaceful relationship with God and there was rest, true rest that is felt to the deepest part of our soul because all is as it was meant to be. It is the ideal in the story of the prodigal, both sons at home both in the feast celebrating as a family together is what the Father ultimately wants. The challenge for the modern day Church is just that, finding home, that true sense of community that has somehow gotten lost along the way.

We are in true suburbia just outside of Philly and are wrestling with this exact issue. People travel from miles around yet they have no connection or ownership to their community, they don't really know their neighbor, and frankly I think we may have lost the ability to even know how to truly connect anymore.

Thanks for your thoughts, there is a lot to think about here.

Steve Fridsma

Great thoughts Mel. I wonder about your living situation now - you say you used to live this way. What did you switch into?

We are blessed to live where our kids can play in the street with their neighborhood friends, and we can walk 4 minutes to public transportation, pharmacy, convenience store, video store, coffeeshop, pizza place, dry cleaner, and a salon. Several families on our street share tools and other equipment and help out on projects, pet-sitting, house-sitting, and occassionally get together for meals. Our street has great community, and sometimes an evening conversation in the street will involve four families and at least 3 dogs! All this, and our lot borders an 80-acre nature preserve, so we are blessed with both community and creation. I watched a family of deer walk through my wooded, unmowed backyard moments ago.

A few other thoughts: Technology has not only challenged the need for physical spaces for gathering and discource but has also permitted us to become incredibly rude. People will say things through the computer that they would never say to anyone's face, let alone friends or colleagues. It is far too easy to criticize, judge, over-generalize, condemn, accuse, and mis-characterize people or their positions, even fellow Chrisitans, through online communication. People are much more willing to launch grenades when they cannot see the faces of those they are potentially devastating.

As a designer, I also very much admire the intentionality of the Disney theme parks, for what they set out to do. They are triumphant examples of multi-disciplinary collaboration and adherence to story-telling and design principles all with users in mind. They seek to be as inclusive as possible, and generally succeed. I've had wonderful family vacations here.

Still, I personally find them a bit stifling and prescriptive. There are plenty of common tropes at Disney as well, i.e. the ride is breaking or something "malfunctioned" or "we're going down the wrong track" but that becomes part of the experience. After a few days there, I must confess that my soul craves going wilderness backpacking like never before. I'd like to hope that there was at least a little chaos and wildness to the natural beauty of Eden.

Mike Haggerty

Excellent article. Well researched, well written. I have thought many of these same things since returning to suburbia after spending a week in Paris and The Hague, NL last spring.

The Dutch, by the way, seem to excel in the art of building in harmony with nature (e.g. windmills, canals, bicycles, 4 story buildings). Perhaps a latent impact of the Dutch Reformed Church?

This article makes me want to convert the bottom floor of my 1920's era foursquare into a pub and move our living quarters upstairs. There, neighbors could gather and talk about these very things over a pint of brew. But, alas, the city zoning and state ABC laws forbid that.

David Mercer

So how is that we can connect in this digital age. Some kids may never leave their room. How do we share? I go to the local gym, attend a mens group supporting mental health and visit my medical centre where I hope to bring some cheer.

I am getting a taxi licence so I can earn a living and talk to people face to face. I like to teach kids as a substitute teacher but that has got limits as the political correctness is skyrocketing.

Every one likes to wear a busy badge and no one has time. Well the floods in Australia has drawn out the community spirit and neigbours helping neigbours, strangers helping others and whole towns pitching in to clear up the mess. Only trouble is the mediadoes not attribute any of this to God. We need to rely onHIM and give him the glory more

David

Brenda Mantel

Thank you for this article, after a career in urban and regional planning, working on Master Planned communities and city redevelopment projects; I too had a sense that the American landscape in the 'American Pie' sense leaves little room for sacred space.

However this next generation of designers because of the forced retirement of the baby-boomer developers, will be creating much more thoughtful spaces. Part of the whole movement of greener development is creating a new character and a more desirable use... and I believe a more soulful response is in the near future. They understand that it takes more than a big box retail center to create community.

What attracts me to this line of work is the way the built environment creates a response in behavior. But I think the trap in creating spaces is assuming that every city and neighborhood would respond to the design in the same manner. I would suggest that the reason for planned communities is because there is a population that thrives in this environment. I would also suggest that the reason for historic urban communities is because there is a population that thrives in that environment as well.

Each of these types of neighborhoods then dictate what form of sacred space will be created or generated. So looking for an archetype that fits all or that would assume be the 'right' or most functional, leaves the process of thoughtful design out of the picture.

But I agree, God did hard-wire us for community and I believe that's why there are a variety of communities out there, it reflects the unique qualities we all contain. Also, when talking about this subject is good to bear in mind all the elements which affect our American communities and their functions, i.e. politics, economics, natural disasters, transportation and other transient affects which leaves its imprint.

Tyler Stephens, AIA

Your time and knowledge of this subject is greatly appreciated. As a fellow architect and life-long Christian, I have been communicating this same message in my local sphere of influence for years. You have stated it much better than I, and I appreciate the backup you have provided. I only wish we could be discussing this in person (in real community) rather than across a computer screen.

I also feel that God really wanted me to read this now as my wife and I have recently been painfully considering leaving the city life we love in order to escape a recent rise in crime, and education costs for our children. It has not felt right to leave, but we are tired. Thank you for the encouragement.

Howard Freeman

Really liked this piece. I especially liked the line, "I believe that God is calling Christians today to redeem and restore sustainable Christ-centered community back to the heart of our communities..."

Thanks for contributing it.