Taking the gospel to communities consumed by the here and now.

When I’m at the beach, a phrase I often hear is, “Where else would you rather be?”

For a lot of people, living by the beach is their idea of paradise. There is a strong secular hedonism that is pervasive in the culture around suburban coastal contexts. Gripped by lifestyle and materialism, you get a clear idea of where people’s hearts are, and what their idea of heaven might be (even those far from the beach are gripped and have their own ideas of heaven).

After 15 years of ministry in this context, I see a lot of distraction. People are happy to talk about religious stuff, but anything beyond that is a challenge. There’s so much vying for their attention seven days a week; we can’t just put on programs and think that people will rock up to them.

How can churches break through the spiritual hedonism, and build relationships with people who wouldn’t ordinarily darken the doors of our church? It’s not an easy thing to do.

As part of my research for a book, I interviewed the rectors of nine coastal parishes in the Sydney Diocese, from Palm Beach to Austinmer: a mix of churches – some of whom would consider that they are doing well and others that would say they are struggling – to see what I could learn about sharing Jesus in these contexts.

Parishes doing well tended to be those that got out into their community – and yes, that obviously comes with caveats – but here are some ways for any Christian, anywhere, to take the gospel out of their church and into the suburbs around them.

Faithful presence

Fostering a faithful presence in every sphere of influence, such as community groups, sports clubs and schools. Churches connecting well are engaging with different pockets of their suburb.

That’s what we do in sports chaplaincy. We aim to be a faithful presence and build relationships so that we can have the conversations in the moments that matter, and point people to Jesus. For some people this may feel scary, and that’s okay. It’s realising that I’m in the same place every day, seeing the same people and thinking, “I could get to know them more”.

Reordering disordered loves

Theologian and philosopher James K.A. Smith writes on secular cultural liturgies and observes that, deep down, everyone is a worshipper. Around the beach, there’s a connection people feel from the moment they walk onto the sand to the moment they dive under the waves. Many talk about the surf as being the “blue-green cathedral”.

Smith speaks about reordering people’s disordered loves and pointing them to Jesus. That’s what we are trying to do with the people we meet.

Embracing an urban spirituality

What is God up to in your suburb? What are the touch points, or points of vulnerability, that you see around you? This might mean you have to immerse yourself in the suburb. We are one of many communities within the wider community, but we have something more to offer.

We’ve been doing a prayer walk as a church, walking our suburb and praying for different parts of it. We walk past the school or the retirement village, around the affluent and less affluent areas, and we pray for people. We ask the question: “What is God up to and how can we discern that?”

If God’s mission is to see people drawn to him, this is a way of connecting with people who would not normally walk through the doors of our church but might be keen to engage with different questions.

McCrindle Research’s Faith and Belief survey showed us that Australians highly value the work of churches that seek to look after the disenfranchised and disadvantaged. As our churches are grounded in what Jesus has done for us, that itself translates into what community and lives and loves centred around Jesus look like.

Embracing that urban spirituality, recognising how we reorder people’s disordered loves to point them to Jesus, and fostering that faithful presence in whatever sphere of influence we have – that’s for everyone.