As you know I’m all about seeing cities renewed whether that be spiritually, socially, or the built environment. There’s nothing more exciting than to see new churches planted in the heart of the city or seeing urban family’s lives renewed as they grow into who God wants them to to be. There’s also something incredibly exciting about seeing old decayed neighborhoods turn around and turn into swank places to live, hang out, or simply visit. There are many aspects of this movement of new urbanism that goes hand-in-hand with not only the way life should be lived but how community is to be formed and expressed in the church. However, sometimes behind the veneer of trendy sushi eateries and coffee shops is something not so pleasant.
I’m all for many of the elements of gentrification as it brings more focus, attention, and investment back into the city. There’s something refreshing and encouraging to see old homes and buildings restored and renewed with a modern twist. Many times such efforts are a hope and an attempt to reverse or curb the flight to the suburbs to bring more people back into the city. I like to use St. Louis as an example because I know they’ve gone from over 800,000 people in 1950 down to 330,000 today within the city limits. More people moving back into the city would be good all around. Sometimes I struggle because usually when we talk about more people moving back into the city usually we’re referring to Whites. A lot of times gentrification pushes ethnic families right out of neighborhoods where they’ve lived for years.
I know many developers who’re involved in the process of renewing neighborhoods do seek to provide affordable housing along with the market rate ones which is a good start. I remember the little town I grew up in and for the most part everyone lived side by side regardless of income or socio-economic status. Sometimes in the suburbs you basically get a slice of one socio-economic level living all together and sending their kids to the same school. One of the gems of things like new urbanism/gentrification is to have a great diversity of ethnicity as well as socio-economic classes all living together, doing life together, and even part of the same church together. That would be a great reflection of the overall church universal and something beautiful.
Some of the downsides of church planting, like trendy gentrified neighborhoods, is where we’re targeting simply one class and if stats hold out it is usually among middle or upper class White suburban families. Sometimes even when church planting is in the city core it is still among trendy White urban hipsters and then the question arises … are gentrified neighborhoods then the new suburbs?
