*Today we make the turn to consider the second of our variables and the most literature intensive: hospitality. The literature is absolutely voluminous…so, I tried to provide a good timeline here and pull a couple or precedents that in turn I am hoping to build on. I absolutely loved this part of my reading. Again, I would appreciate any interaction.

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In I Was a Stranger Arthur Sutherland writes that hospitality is “the practice by which the church stands or falls.” (Sutherland 2006) Hospitality in our day has been greatly been misconstrued to be a means to simply make other feel better about being where they are. With the wide scale advent of hotel, restaurant, conference and event industries a whole culture of business that revolves around making people comfortable has evolved. All of these fall far short though of the biblical understanding of hospitality and place that it has in the “chord of redemption” that runs throughout the scriptures and history (Oden 2001)[1]. Hospitality runs beyond the offerings of food and drink or even entertainment. For true hospitality to occur respect for the other must exist. The problem with much of the modern concept of hospitality is that it depends on the end result – often returning customers but the Biblical view is different. End results are not the goal – entering into each others presence and dwelling there with them and the God who created and loves them and us is the goal (Pohl 2005).

Sutherland would later expand on why hospitality is a must. He notes that as life goes on we become more and more aware of our loneliness and our illusions of what the world could be fade away. This is where God and the Christian community step in. God’s goal for creation is a homecoming (2006: 83). God is giving and gracious. He continually welcomes the stranger and as He does this relieving loneliness and clearing up illusions we too are invited into the process. We do this; we enter in, because it has been done for us. We also live out this role because we know that every human being is created in the imago dei, the image of God. Just as we do, they carry in them a world of possibility and hope that we have an opportunity to help bring out.

In the coming pages, I will show that in the literature reviewed hospitality is very much what Sutherland explained it to be – a must for kingdom expansion. Jean Vanier of L’Arche says that “Welcome is one of the signs that community is alive.” He also states, “A community which refuses to welcome whether through fear, weariness, insecurity, a desire to cling to comfort, or just because it is fed up with visitors is dying spiritually (Pohl 2005) .” A community must be welcoming and hospitable. Part of its DNA must be set on bringing the stranger in so that they can go out as friends. We are God’s earthly hosts welcoming all into his house. Beyond the biblical and theological mandate I will show that hospitality has been a driving force behind church expansion in various eras of history, that there are discernable characteristics of hospitable people and places and that hospitality can and must be a key component of forming effective lifestyles for the formation of missional communities if the exurbs are to be influenced for the Kingdom of God[2].

Hospitality is a theme that is found through out the scriptures occurring direct situations 71 times throughout the biblical story (Alexander and Rosner 2000) . Hospitality literally means “love of strangers” and was a key component in the world of the Jews through out the biblical story and in the cultures of the Mideast (Youngblood et al. 1995) . Much of the ancient world saw hospitality as common good that was demanded of everyone. It was a virtue and those who were virtuous displayed hospitality by honoring guests and strangers.

Israelite hospitality extended beyond this ethic to a place of mandate as they saw in their calling out at Sinai a God given directive protect and go above and beyond in providing hospitality to all. They were to be the model and the launching pad for God’s hospitable gift to the world (Ryken et al. 1998) . Abraham their ancestor had been a sojourner and depended on hospitality and famously gave it. Coming out of Egypt God had provided for the people so they would graciously return the favor that had been placed upon them. They would be challenged to remember and “to know the heart of an alien, for you were once aliens in the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 23:9 NRSV)

Israel’s hospitality went beyond the customary provision and protection of the guest but lived out some basic well-designed ideas of what it meant to receive and send out a guest. The idea was that strangers would be changed to guests (Youngblood et al. 1995) [3]. Guests were welcomed and provided for through the customary washing of feet (Genesis 18:4, 19:2, 24:32) water, lodging and a meal was provided. This was not just a normal meal but also a meal that was the best that the host could provide[4].

The people of God also recognized that very early in their story the patriarch Abraham in Genesis 18 had entertained angels and provided them with provision and honor. He was blessed with the promise of a son within a year because of this action and the people often discussed that maybe sometimes we do entertain the divine. Some times angels visit us and we don’t know it so we should be vigilant (Hebrews 13:2). These divine appointments could be extraordinary and part of god’s redemptive story and the Israelites believed that there were times when divine messages or blessings from God came through strangers or angels (Richards 1997) [5].

Guests also seem to have a role in this relationship. Different than the Greco-Roman idea of hospitality, where I am blessed and bless in hopes of building a network for status and advancement, biblical guests are different. The biblical guest in receiving hospitality allows the host to use his or her gifts. The guest takes on a humble state allowing others to serve him or her. Being a guest is one way that we are taught humility and reminded that we need each other. The guest in the biblical world would receive the evaluation, the welcome rituals, and the sending away as a friend. The guest would show honor to the host by not overstaying their welcome – generally no more than two nights stay. Their ultimate goal was to come into a new strange place and leave as a honored righteous friend who did not disrupt the harmony of the home or community (Ryken et al. 1998) .

Many mobile people in America are tied to numerous relationships. These relationships are often tied to work or third places but in a commuter society where we spend very little time in space that is owned or safe, we don’t have relationships that are tied to our most sacred local (Bellah 1985). That place where God has given us to rest and live with family and friends. The exurb is a place of beauty and order aesthetically but I believe the call upon the Christian is to make it a place of beauty and order through blessing. Kenneth Jackson once wrote,

[a] major casualty of America’s drive-in culture is the weakened “sense of community” which prevails in most metropolitan areas. I refer to a tendency for social life to become “privatized”, and to a reduced feeling of concern and responsibility among families for their neighbors and among suburbanites in general for residents of the inner city…The real shift, however is the way in which our lives are now centered inside the house, rather than on the neighborhood or the community. With increased used of automobiles, the life of the sidewalk and the front yard has largely disappeared, and the social intercourse that used to be the main characteristic of urban life has vanished…There are few places as desolate and lonely as a suburban street on a hot afternoon. (Jackson 1985)

This isolation and loneliness has only increased as people have moved further away from work, more time is spent in cars and the fragmentation due to technology has increased.

To move into that place where we see, know, serve, bless and love our neighbors we must be intentional about being in the exurbs. Just as intentionally as we moved there, for whatever reason it was, we must with the same passion serve that local to see the kingdom invade it. The exurb is a hard entity to label. As the material presented has been read and processed it is clear that the fringes of metropolitan areas where exurbs exist are different from local to local. Paul Sutton says that “providing a non-controversial definition of “exurbia” is a daunting if not impossible task.” (Sutton 206)
These emerging communities can be upscale or downscale and have everything from super size mansions to trailer parks. The common factor is that they exist on the edge, where the urban fades into the rural and where people have to commute into work (Lang 2006) [1].

People in these areas long for community, but since there is no work close to where they live, they must commute. This presents the conundrum for many and for the church. People move out to the exurb; they move to the appearance of order and serenity and community but when they get here they find that they have no time here. Sadly when many people do have time here, they are so detached from here that they cannot interact without fear.

The exurb is still for most of its inhabitants the place where most of their free time is spent. And often for the wives and children who are left here during the day, this place is the basic community, even if it takes driving to get to. So, how do we leverage time and space to allow people to have the opportunity to enter into and stay involved with a Christian community? I believe it begins with acknowledging that to live in the exurbs is to live in a space that at its core is in opposition to the way were created to live. It is to acknowledge the lie that here is better; it is to find a way to say that we will no longer flee pressure but that we were created and charged to live without fear; we were created to live with presence. We acknowledge that the grass isn’t really greener in the exurbs and that the exurbs have a whole set of problems all of their own, but the exurbs cannot be forsaken. There is a tension here that must be lived with[2].

I agree with Will Samson when he argues that we must regain a theology of place that wherever we are we are there for a reason and that God doesn’t waist resources (Samson and Samson 2007) Our living in the exurbs is part of God’s economy and he has good works for us to do here. Eiesland argued that earlier social theorist had been incorrect when they stated that mass suburbanization had killed opportunity for extensive community (2000) . They argued that loss of the city core as center was coupled with mobility provided no opportunity for people to have common ground to build deep relationships. I agree with her that his is incorrect. The core, the spot of focus, the place just has to be moved and the new local is the exurb. It is the place where the church has an opportunity to turn strangers into friends and help back deck people become front porch people. To do this there are a number of factors that must be addressed at some point like pace of life issues, individualism, and protectionism, but the church has an opportunity to shine in the exurbs if it can create new centers. New places that give exurbanites pause to slow down and be a part and just see who is actually around them.

In the conclusion of this literature review, I will thread together the theology of place with a commitment to hospitality that will in turn point towards principles for the birthing and sustaining of missional communities in the exurbs of America.

The life rhythms of the exurbs present challenges and opportunities for relationships. Will Samson points to the fact that the average American works 2,050 hours per year (that is slightly ahead of a 14^th century miner who worked about 1,980 hours per year) (2007) . This high number of work hours leaves us depleted of time and energy for much else. The work force of the exurb faces a daily commute to the place of employment with a large number making “super-commutes” of upwards of an hour. Robert Putnam in Bowling Alone says that these massive drive times add to the fragmentation between work and home and that for every hour of drive time a person loses 10 percent of their social capital for the day (2000: 214, 391). Upon returning from work, many pull into their garages or into their gated parking areas or alleys never to be seen by others in the neighborhood. They live from the moment they arrive at home until they leave the next morning behind fences and out of sight to those who live around them[1]. This fragmentation is detrimental to all involved as people come to see part of their day as productive and the other part as non-productive. When exurbanites come home they have a tendency to shutdown to be uninvolved with anyone in their orbit. Their social capital for the day has been spent and it has been insulated by drive time, which adds to the separation for communal connection[2]. This fragmentation can be exacerbated when families are split up in the evenings by activities or due to technology that pulls us to different spaces of our homes where we spend time alone (Putnam 2000: 213). Putnam adds that by 1999, 77 percent of sixth graders had a television in their room that they watch regularly. Families are fragmented even when they are in shared space (2000: 213).

These patterns of living also create challenges for organizations in exurban areas, as inhabitants are tired from work and commutes and on average don’t volunteer to participate in clubs, activities, churches or even youth leagues. These organizations all saw massive drops in participation in the latter part of the 20^th century as exurban areas grew (Putnam 2000: 206)[3]. The reverse of this challenge is that the exurbs give those who are present during the day the chance to be known and be involved. Exurban areas generally empty out in the morning creating space for those who are stay at home parents, non-working, tele-commuting or in between jobs the opportunity to be present in schools, coffee shops, and local businesses. Normally a slower more family friendly pace of life characterizes these areas so those who are in the exurb during the day have a greater chance to be involved (Lyman 2005)

Connection with other people is a challenge. For those who commute, the challenge is finding energy and time to be in common spaces with friends and family to build relationships[4]. Lyman sadly points out though that for most exurbanites, life is marked out by time spent in cars (2005)[5].

For those who are not commuting a challenge still exists in that much of the residential space in the exurbs is empty during the day. So to find connection, relationships, one must commute to where people are. With everyone in the house always commuting to get to places and people of value, there is a danger that our sense of “who is my neighbor” get’s distorted.

Next, The Exurbs Part 4 (The Wrap Up)