Middle Class Flight Instead of White Flight?

On Saturday night, I wrote a post about the city of Montgomery, AL (my city) and the white flight that the newspaper says is happening here. I got a few responses on my Facebook page (http://facebook.com/alcross)  that said that what was happening was not white flight, but rather, it was middle class flight. In other words, both white and black middle class people do not want to be in living situations with lower class people and the issues that are connected to poverty, such as crime, family breakdown, drug abuse, poor schools, gangs, etc. I understand the desire to say that leaving a city with problems is not a racial response, but rather, it is a lifestyle and safety response that all people are making no matter their race. Maybe that is true. I'm not saying that it is not. A big problem in the black community for many years has been that when people make it out of urban areas, they tend not to come back or give back to the communities that they came from. Black leaders have been bemoaning this fact for some time. So, whether people are white, black, or other, the issue of people leaving the city has more to do with socio-economic issues than it has to do with race. Culture and economics trumps race, in other words. Okay, I'll give you that and I don't deny it.

But, let's look at this another way:

Aren't we left with the same issues? If it makes us feel better that we are leaving cities behind or engaging in gentrification to remove negative elements from urban centers so that the upwardly mobile can live in chic new areas downtown, doesn't that still leave us with struggling neighbhorhoods and declining social barometers? Doesn't the church (both white and black) still have a responsibility to try and reclaim communities? Since when did it become a godly thing to run away from the problems of our cities? I am not talking about the individual family who has to make a tough decision about where their child goes to school. Sometimes moving to an outlying community is warranted. I do not expect individual families to address the issues of the City by themselves. But, isn't this where the larger church should come in and play a role? We are not told to do everything by ourselves. We are told to live together in community and pray that the Kingdom would come.

I am convinced that the only hope that our cities has is Jesus Christ. But, if the church won't engage the problems of our day but instead runs away to where life is safer and cleaner, then what hope do our cities have? If those with means leave our cities, then what is left? Do we have a responsibility to be salt and light in a decaying and dark world?

The early church got this. When plagues would come, early Christians would move in with pagans and nurse them back to health. They cared for the poor and needy with their own hands. They weren't running away from the battle to live comfortable lives, but rather, they spent themselves on acts of love and good works. They were persecuted for it and many of them lost everything, even their own lives. But, the gospel spread and in 300 years, the Roman Empire was changed. What keeps us from living that way? We say that we want the power of the early church, but we do almost nothing that they did. Power has a price. If we hold onto our lives always protecting what we have, then how can God use us? I understand that educating our children is important. I know that families face tough decisions. The shame of the church, however, is that we have already abandoned the playing field and families who desire to be faithful, both white and black and hispanic and Asian, etc., are having to figure out on their own how to not abandon their cities (or suburbs), follow Christ, and still care for their family. Alone. What if the church, especially in the South - in a city like Montgomery - stopped retreating and turned and faced the issues of our day? What if we provided solutions and worked for the common good in all domains of life? What if we provided a vision for life that was greater than a nice house in an outlying community where life was grand? I am not speaking against that view of life or that lifestyle. God needs to lead each person. But, I am putting in a plug for the church engaging the problems of our city with the power of the gospel instead of running away.

If it is Middle Class flight instead of White Flight, that makes it no more noble. We're still running.  I don't see Jesus running away from the needs and problems of the world. Why do we?

Comments

[Bob Cleveland]

The "middle class" flight is middle class people, not middle class churches. And the reasons for a parent to take their kids to the suburbs to get them out of high crime areas, poor schools, etc are certainly valid.

Owing to the tendency I've seen, for SBC churches to talk about attending a "local" church .. and to plant churches all over, we've set up a "Catch-22" that really doesn't have an answer.

Certainly we need to be about ministering to people in the tougher areas. But if that area won't support a local church, then that seems to be what the church is limited to doing (along with such evangelism as it's led to do). And I'd surmise that most SBC churches aren't used-to-be-urban churches that moved out (ours certainly isn't), and that'd put an entirely different slant on going into urban areas to carry on the work. FBCP has enough to do right where it is.

[Alan Cross]

Bob,

I am not trying to put any kind of undue burden on individual families. I am not saying that people should individually sacrifice their children. I am saying, however, that the gospel is powerful and that we should not just cede other people to the enemy without collective engagement. Do our churches just exist to meet the needs of the people who happen to come? No, I think that we have a bigger purpose than that.

[Bob Cleveland]

Alan,

From what I've seen of Brooklyn Tabernacle, I think the long-term good is going to come from having people who live there involved in a local church that's already there. At Brooklyn Tab, nobody came in to minister to them .. it was a little local storefront church started by people living right there. And when it got going really good, they moved to bigger facilities in the neighborhood, and finally to an old (but huge) theater building right downtown.

The same is true in reverse with Riverchase Baptist here. Several churches tried to "plant a church" there and it didn't work. We finally went and found some folks IN Riverchase who wanted to start a Baptist Church, and formed a Sunday School class just for them.

It worked, albeit Riverchase is an upper-class ghetto.....

[Alan Cross]

Good examples, Bob. I would be willing to guess that the issues that people face in Pelham are not that different from what people face in inner city Birmingham. We just get more accepting of our own sins and don't see them the way that we see the sins of others who might have a different culture or economic status than us. My point is just that the people of God, wherever we find ourselves, must not retreat to places that seem to be more comfortable. We must engage with the world around us and be salt and light. I find it interesting that Jesus called US the light of the world. If we don't shine in dark places, how will people ever see the light?

[Bob Cleveland]

Alan,

100% in agreement.

[Andrew Hicks]

Alan,

I'm coming into this conversation a bit late.
But I think your statement, "we should not just cede other people to the enemy without collective engagement" might be the quote of the year on your blog. It covers this topic (white/middle class flight) as well as missional living, the great commission resurgence, church planting, and overseas missions in general.

Well well put.
"we should not just cede other people to the enemy without collective engagement" -- Alan Cross

I may put that at the bottom of all my e-mails.

[Jordan 5]

very cool space! I love your taste and it looks like it'd be so much fun to poke around in there... I used to live in DE but am now in VA, but if I ever go back that way to visit family I'd love to see it in person :)