A friend of mine in the Philly area, Todd Hiestand, was able to put together a really good conference with Al Hsu yesterday called The Church and Suburbia.  Unfortunately, I was unable to go, but Todd’s such a nice guy he’s posting the audio.

I was reading through some blog searches and found a 30’s something lady who happened to attend this conference.  She lives in Bucks County, PA but used to live in New York, and as best I can tell went to Redeemer Church where Tim Keller is pastor.  She made an interesting comparison about community in suburbia vs. the city.  She states:

To start with, suburbia is incredibly insular. By comparison, New York City can also be insular, but I think a greater opportunity exists to interact with one’s community in NYC. For instance, if I needed to go to the store in Manhattan, I would go down the stairs of my 3rd-floor walk-up on East 88th Street and take a stroll over one block and down to 86th to reach the nearest grocery store. While on that walk, I might run into people I knew (that happened more frequently than you’d think), but I would at least be in the company of others walking, some of whom I might even say hi to or ask a question of. A run to the grocery store now means I leave my house, close myself up in my car, drive 2.5 miles to the nearest grocery store. Assuming I manage to avoid getting into a car accident, a trip to the store now involves absolutely zero human contact.

In the city I felt I did more talking, more relationship building, and definitely more walking. My apartment was a shoebox, so I didn’t typically spend a whole lot of time there. Sundays meant walking to church, going out to dinner afterward with friends, and then walking home with some of them because we all lived within a few blocks of each other. Hello community.

Read more of her thoughts.