“My Suburb” Project: What’s Next? (2/22/21)

As we’ve worked our way through the journeys of Abraham, we’ve seen him attempt to navigate varied circumstances in places where he finds himself to be a stranger and sojourner.

That’s us, too. How many of us parents feel very equipped to raise kids in this world? How many of us feel super confident when our neighbors ask us why we haven’t put up a “love is love” sign in our yards?

We’re wandering like Abraham, trying to faithfully navigate life here.

The Mission

In such a world, we at North Sub have adopted the very oldest mission a church can have. To connect with people at the well, disciple them in the Word, and send them out into the world: this is the great commission Jesus gave us in Matthew 28! It starts with us being discipled, and moves out from us to our neighbors.

The Culture

Both aspects of this process (our own discipleship and reaching our neighbors) require at least some basic knowledge of the world around us.

- In order to make sure we are truly being formed by God’s Word and not by the world around us, we need to understand the ways in which the culture is attempting to shape us.

- In order to effectively communicate the gospel to our neighbors, we need to understand their worldview, their fears, and their idea of the good life.

The Problem

But this is daunting to attempt on our own. It’s a big mission, and the members of our church are spread out all over a twenty-mile radius from our building! So it can feel like we’re all alone trying to understand the culture well enough to fruitfully live out our mission in our individual spheres of influence.

The Project

What if it didn’t have to be that way? What if I wasn’t the only one working on loving my neighbor into the kingdom, because someone else at church who works with him was also sharing the love of Christ with him? What if I wasn’t the only one attempting to minister to a particular grocery cashier, because someone else at church was always choosing her aisle as well?

That may be the way we begin to get serious movement on our mission: to “go local,” to team up, to get concrete about this mission by praying and scheming with others about specific people, specific “Wells,” and concrete strategies.

Yesterday

That project began yesterday by getting us in “rooms” together with the others from our communities (Deerfield, Northbrook, Highland Park/Highwood, New Trier Township, and Buffalo Grove). Trusting that the Holy Spirit who lives in each of us would knit our hearts together, we began to talk about our neighborhoods, our workplaces, and the “third spaces” we inhabit, doing some preliminary “sanctified scheming” together about potential overlap regarding “Well opportunities” among us.

We heard “you know him, too?” “That’s where I shop!” “I love that place!” And God started to stir our hearts toward viewing each other as teammates on mission.

Those Not in a “Zone”

Those not living in Deerfield, Northbrook, Highland Park/Highwood, New Trier Township, or Buffalo Grove unfortunately did not have “critical mass” in your towns to schedule a call. But you can do some of the same work we did yesterday!

- Find a fellow believer in your town

- Schedule a time to talk with them about people you know in common, places you like to go, etc.

- Take a look at the demographic information for your community, especially paying attention to trends

- Start dreaming together about how you can “team up” to concentrate your efforts on one particular person (or on the people in one particular place) so that the mission doesn’t seem so daunting.

The Next 2-3 Months

From now until May, we will continue thinking, praying, and informally scheming together. We’ll pull each other aside after church with ideas, we’ll be observant as we drive around town, we’ll communicate on Realm to ask for prayer for people in our towns whom we love.

We’ll also consider completing this survey, which gives us categories through which to understand our neighbors. There’s no need to fill out the survey in full – just work your way through it, consider the questions, and answer those for which an answer pops out to you. Over the next couple months, those answers will be compiled and analyzed to glean understanding about how our communities are attempting to disciple us… and how we might effectively disciple them in the Word.

In May, we will hold one more call with the same folks you were on the call with yesterday. You will share your observations, pray together, and seek the Lord’s direction toward concrete plans for reaching your town with the gospel.

This Summer

This summer, our churchwide project will be to prayerwalk our towns. You’ll schedule times to walk with fellow North Sub members, praying for your town, your neighborhood, your schools, etc. Who knows what God might do with a group of people who have been praying for your community for months, with eyes wide open to how He is at work?

The Dream

The dream is that, by summer’s end, each of us is able to clearly articulate in a concrete way how we’re hoping to contribute to that Well-Word-World mission in our towns.

- We’ll each have at least one name of a person whom we’re praying for and asking others to pray for.

- We’ll each have at least one place in our town where we intentionally go with other believers, bringing a missional mindset with us.

If that happens, now the mission isn’t some big, abstract, daunting beast! It’s an elephant that (by God's Spirit) can be eaten bite-by-bite.

Thanks for seeking the Lord’s guidance in the next few months alongside your fellow North Sub members from your town!