For my final summer living in Eugene, Oregon, I started bicycling to church. It is a great blue-collar faith community, but was seven miles away. I went to the 9am service, so it was never too hot by the time I got there. Still, my decision to do this got some attention from fellow churchgoers. Their responses were never mean or discouraging, but they were certainly varied. “Hard ride, huh?” “It isn’t that hot out there already is it? Oh, you biked, I see.” “Why in the world…” “Good for you!” “Sure you don’t want a ride next week? I have room in my truck.” “Sweating already? Worship hasn’t even started yet!” I didn’t mind it, and thankfully it wasn’t a continued point of discussion or anything. I don’t particularly hate living without a car, and this was no different.
Still, it wasn’t too long before I decided I’d much prefer to attend a church closer to home. As much as I loved that church, if I had to bike that far year-round, I’d get pretty tired of it and want to attend somewhere closer. Especially as the Pacific Northwest’s de facto weather, rain, comes back into season this fall and winter. Unfortunately there aren’t many churches that are any closer that I like. They’re too big, or I don’t agree with their theology, or they’re not missional enough, or too Pentecostal, or not Pentecostal enough, or they’re too old, or they get really weird about certain parts of the Bible. Since I knew I’d be moving soon, I easily resolved to continue biking to that church.
But all this got me thinking: the 20th-century American church has been radically changed by the tremendous convenience of the automobile.
Affordable, reliable automobile use has allowed Christians of even meager means to choose precisely the church that matches their checklist. With a car we can find the church we are most precisely drawn to – it’ll be just the right theology, worship style, dress code, and politics for each of us. Thus, in urban and suburban areas, the manifold array of churches is before me like books on Amazon.com or songs on my iPod, and I have the luxury of a Christianity that’s as customizable as my ringtone. Even if that church is 25 miles away and attended mostly by folks who also live 25 miles away from us, the magic of the automobile makes it all okay.
And so, many churches have become Commuter Congregations with little real diversity or geographic proximity. The affinity-as-deciding-factor afforded by the automobile has Commuter Congregation-goers often looking and behaving alike, and even coming from very similar political and economic classes. Commuter Christians have, by the convenience of the automobile, been able to immerse themselves in comfortably similar people, and thus many have sidestepped much of the messiness of relationships that God so likes to show up in the middle of. What’s more, this Ringtone Christianity has left us only really able to love people like ourselves. Yet Christ said “If you are kind to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that.” Diversity in churches breeds dynamism in relationships, which fosters authentic community. Sadly, the lack of diversity afforded by Rintone Christianity has hindered authentic community in the 20th-century church.
Living so far apart from one another has also been an obstacle to community. Our children go to different schools in different school districts. It’s rarely feasible to walk to the house of another person in your congregation. Apropos, this geographic dissonance has compromised collective church action and fellowship (spontaneous and organized alike). Thankfully, home communities have helped mitigate this problem. Still, that dissonance is there on Sunday mornings. Charlie Chaplin said it best: “We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in.”
And this doesn’t just apply to big-box baby-boomer churches. I now attend a nationally-known emergent church, and it’s all there too – the frustrations of geographic dispersal, and the security of relative sameness. It’s a sea of blue-jeans and corduroy instead of khaki and linen, and Donald Miller is on our bookshelves instead of Tim LaHaye. Instead of watching reality TV or Saturday Night Football, we paint or play the djembe. It’s true: being emergent or progressive does not exclude a church from being destructively homogenous.
Now, affinity is certainly not bad – it’s a great thing. I love that people in my faith community have similar political, musical, and lifestyle leanings as me. But I fear that the automobile has allowed us to swing to an extreme of affinity, what I’ve been calling Ringtone Christianity. This has misled us to believe that a culture of affinity, not Christ-through-us, is what makes church comfortable and comforting. Sincere commitment to people in our churches who annoy, challenge, inconvenience, and sin against us can often be starkly lacking. Too much stress or controversy at a church and we can simply start attending somewhere else. And so we miss out on the real spiritual formation so present in messy pre-petrol Christian community.
In nature, too much homogeneity in a species threatens extinction and impedes progress, whereas diversity ensures vibrant, versatile biotic communities. I posit in conclusion that the prevalence of the automobile, and consequently its effects on how we position ourselves in the landscape, has pushed Christianity woefully toward the former.
Friends: the American church is a dangerously homogenous group ill-equipped for a messier faith or more dynamic times.
Comments (5)
Bro, thanks for this - I'm coming from the same place, but in a different region of the world. Question is - how far does this go? I've been involved in a lot of activism over the years social/political/spiritual and often it was on issues that just didn't make sense, like politicians doing crazy things that are only now beginning to make sense when you realise how *afraid* those at the pinnacles of power must be about the great changes that are coming to our world (and by great I don't mean happy)... My question is in part inspired by realising in this last week that this is HUGE and happening NOW... In the UK the Soil Association (which is so middle-ground it's untrue) is warning of large scale civil unrest and rioting once Peak Oil hits the fuel pumps (they believe this will be around 2008) - and many people have warned of the actual collapse of Western Civilisation, ie we'll go back to a pre-industrial model which will be marked for the first generation or so by a huge die-off (the post oil planet simply can't sustain 6 billion+ people without the infrastructure that oil has allowed) and a return to hunter-gatherer type cultures globally. Kind of freaked out (in a conceptual way) by this right now, and wondering what we can be doing to prepare... any ideas?
Peace in Christ,
J 11
PS Had a heads up on this about a year ago, and have started doing all the 'regular' practical things, ie buying food from local growers, growing my own, increasing self-sufficiency in energy etc. My concern is more that we're heading blind into what the UN, James Lovelock and various other observers have termed "a New Dark Ages" characterised by a global outbreak of scarcity and violence, and 99+% of Western citizens have no social, spiritual or physical preparedness for what lies ahead.
Posted by Juan Eleven | October 18, 2006 10:28 AM
Posted on October 18, 2006 10:28
Bro, thanks for this - I'm coming from the same place, but in a different region of the world. Question is - how far does this go? I've been involved in a lot of activism over the years social/political/spiritual and often it was on issues that just didn't make sense, like politicians doing crazy things that are only now beginning to make sense when you realise how *afraid* those at the pinnacles of power must be about the great changes that are coming to our world (and by great I don't mean happy)... My question is in part inspired by realising in this last week that this is HUGE and happening NOW... In the UK the Soil Association (which is so middle-ground it's untrue) is warning of large scale civil unrest and rioting once Peak Oil hits the fuel pumps (they believe this will be around 2008) - and many people have warned of the actual collapse of Western Civilisation, ie we'll go back to a pre-industrial model which will be marked for the first generation or so by a huge die-off (the post oil planet simply can't sustain 6 billion+ people without the infrastructure that oil has allowed) and a return to hunter-gatherer type cultures globally. Kind of freaked out (in a conceptual way) by this right now, and wondering what we can be doing to prepare... any ideas?
Peace in Christ,
J 11
PS Had a heads up on this about a year ago, and have started doing all the 'regular' practical things, ie buying food from local growers, growing my own, increasing self-sufficiency in energy etc. My concern is more that we're heading blind into what the UN, James Lovelock and various other observers have termed "a New Dark Ages" characterised by a global outbreak of scarcity and violence, and 99+% of Western citizens have no social, spiritual or physical preparedness for what lies ahead.
Posted by Juan Eleven | October 18, 2006 10:34 AM
Posted on October 18, 2006 10:34
Hey Juan,
I don't see us going back to hunter-gatherer, though something like it (scavenging) may crop up occassionally in the cities.
"Die-off" isn't a term to use lightly, especially in Christian circles, and especially in those Christian circles that say any sort of voluntary population control is in disobedience to that whole "subdue and fill the earth" thing. While I agree we shiould be careful not to disobey God, I think we've also got to look around with that command in mind and say, "OK, boys: mission accomplished!"
Recommendations for what to do will come in a later post, thanks for underscoring the need for it.
Briefly, if we really believe in a resurrection life after this one, we need to not be afraid to lose our lives to this. Rather than run for the hills, I shudder as I profess that I am committed to living in the city for the long-haul. We need to be light in the coming "New Dark Ages." So in the meantime, cultivating spiritual and social capital in your neighborhoods and communities are the best steps any of us can take in working to make this world slightly more ready for what's ahead.
Posted by Brandon | October 18, 2006 12:34 PM
Posted on October 18, 2006 12:34
God gave us the Sun. Let's use it. The panels on my roof heat my water, and provide electricity for my house and 25 year old electric car. My second car guzzles gas, so it remains mostly parked.
Posted by Anon | October 23, 2006 6:59 PM
Posted on October 23, 2006 18:59
This is a necessary site, and I'm glad you are writing it. The issues you raise are right on and I look forward to reading more of your thoughts.
Thanks for bringing these issues to the fore.
Posted by Kathy McMahon | February 3, 2007 7:25 PM
Posted on February 3, 2007 19:25