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pictured here is an old photo of holly park before it was “revitalized” as new holly, my neighborhood community just to the south. unlike older traditional cities like chicago or detroit, seattle doesn’t have any “ghetto” public housing projects (in the way they’re commonly perceived), but the old holly park and rainier vista (where i currently live) are the closest thing. there were no brick towers, but what was once here was the traditional model of public housing in america- a concentrated community of people living at or below the poverty level, dependent on public aid and cloistered in inexpensive housing units. and of course, the populations in these “projects” were almost always predominantly ethnic minorities (big surprise).

so much of my current research is attempting to articulate a theology of place, building on the basic assumption that the places where we live are not value-neutral. rather, the homes and neighborhoods we occupy are part of a much larger system of connected communities that literally rely on one another in a mutually dependent relationship. so often in cities, the unwanted populations- senior citizens, immigrants, resettled refugees, and other minorities or marginalized people groups- are corralled into dilapidated urban areas and expected to stay out of sight. after all, we wouldn’t want those “undesirable people” wandering the streets of our pristine suburbs or hipster retail strips, would we!? their isolation is enforced primarily through economic means, but that’s another conversation…

anyway, i came across this excellent excerpt from bob lupton, a fellow CCDA-er and urban practitioner:

“bloom where you are planted,” the preacher challenged us one sunday morning. it was an important sermon emphasizing the need for christians to be salt and light in their everyday environments… i had heard similar messages before and had been moved by them… this time, however, i felt more troubled [about how] an assumption was being made that God, fate, heredity, or something other than personal choice had placed us where we were living. glancing around the congregation, i began to wonder by what coincidence most of my successful friends owned homes where they did- on the affluent north side of the city. was it god who decided that physicians and bankers should be planted among the wealthy? i had the sinking feeling that where we were living had been determined by a long series of intentional personal choices that were primarily influenced by our earning power.

A major question had been omitted. Neither the preacher nor the listerners were asking, “Why are you planted where you are?” We were simply assuming that the American dream is the guiding standard by which god’s people should locate themselves. I have heard hundreds of sermons on understanding God’s will for my life… try as I may, however, I cannot remember hearing a sermon on God’s will regarding the location of my home… is it because our homes are our sacred cows that no one dare touch?… What good is salt, Jesus said, if it doesn’t preserve or season? Or light, if it is safely shielded from the darkness it is meant to dispel? As the disruptive words of our Lord have penetrated my value system, I have become persuaded that location, location, and location are indeed the critical selection criteria for those who desire to bloom where God wants to plant them. And the underlying values of those who perceive the kingdom will be disclosed in the kinds of questions they ask.

probing questions… questions that my neighbors are asking, in their own non-religious way. what would it look like if more people chose to ask god where they should live? how could it transform mission and community in the local church and beyond? the cynic in me is skeptical about the ability of middle-class christians to resist the allure of market-driven classism and upward mobility. but i’m asking god to help me in my unbelief.