Customer Reviews

Justice in the Burbs: Being the Hands of Jesus Wherever You Live (mersion: Emergent Village resources for communities of faith)

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As a suburbanite who is deeply concerned about social justice, I often felt like a walking oxymoron. Or sometimes, just a moron. In the last year, I've taken a class on urban ministry and racial reconciliation, I've started volunteering at a homeless shelter in a rough neighborhood in the city. I've been wrestling with what it means to "act justly and love mercy." But I felt conflicted when I returned home to my quiet, safe suburban neighborhood. This book offered both healing encouragement and a kick in the behind, and I needed both. It offered hope and insight on how to, as the subtitle says, "be the hands of Jesus wherever you live." In the suburbs, knowing your neighbors' names is counter-cultural. I realized that I not only know my neighbors, I know their families, the details of their lives. I pray for them, specifically. This book challenged me to continue that, in fact, to be more intentional about showing God's love to my neighbors, but also to realize that people in the inner city and all over the world are my neighbors as well. I highly recommend it.

This is a great, multi-facted look at the dilemma suburbanites face when awakening to the fact that God may have a different dream than their culture's picture of the American dream. I was impressed by the different angles that the Samsons are willing to tackle in the book, and I particularly appreciated their broad, 'holistic' perspective that reminds readers to serve their own communities and not just see the "inner-city" people as the only people who need to be served. I also appreciated the emphasis on joining in with ministries already going on and being willing to learn from the people who have been in the trenches rather than starting something new. Too often I hear white people raving (with good intentions, of course) about how they're saving the world, wanting credit for everything they do. But the Samsons really stress the normality of this "new normal" life, and they certainly deserve credit for that in my book! Their humility and authenticity really impressed me.

The fictional account of a suburban family on their journey is really well-written and evocative...very effective. However, there were a few places that were so cheesy and white-man's burden-sounding (particularly the last page) that I just groaned. But the great good in this book far outweighs any of that, and I can see it changing lives...I hope many people will listen to their voices and be moved to think through the hard questions along with those like the Samsons who have already traveled this path.

This books uses every trick but dancing girls and neon lights: There is a fictional narrative alongside the nonfiction teaching, there are "celebrities" offering short responses to each chapter, and there are even two authors writing. Given all these tricks, I was tempted before reading the book to think that the authors didn't have enough to say, or didn't really know how to say it. Thankfully, I was very wrong.

Lisa and Will Samson have a clear and cogent point to make, and they make it masterfully. The fictional narrative was written by Lisa Samson, an accomplished author of several novels. Her skill shows in the deft sketches of real, conflicted, and interesting characters. The teaching ("discourse") , which seems to have been mostly written by Will, is equally clear. Although the writing here does not flow as smoothly as it does in the narrative section, the messages are well delivered and compelling . Will's modesty and sincerity make the reader want to listen closely.

I found the meditations superfluous. They are too short to make much of an impact, especially if you don't know the authors. It seems they were added on for people who already know Brian McLaren and Leonard Sweet's work, and therefore might attach credibility to this book, by association. But Will and Lisa need no such props: their message and delivery are strong enough to stand on their own.

The book starts at the beginning: the first chapter is "Why Read a Book about Justice?" After providing a strong answer to "Why?" (scripture and history), they take the reader gently and clearly through the "how". There are chapters on listening to the voice of justice, how to find time to serve, finding opportunities to serve, and overcoming opposition (both from inside our churches and from the communities in which we choose to serve).

"Justice in the Burbs" avoids saccharine sweetness. Will and Lisa are realistic about the challenges of trying to live a just life. They repeatedly caution that the people we serve may be ungrateful, unaware, and inconvenient. None of that changes our need to follow Jesus in service to others.

This books seems to speak clearly to a particular audience: couples raising children in the suburbs and trying to follow God in the way of Jesus. To them, Will and Lisa speak powerfully, clearly, and in an engaging way. I highly recommend this book. I have read it twice already, and will read it several more times, I'm sure.


[Full disclosure: I'm on the board of Emergent Village, which partners with Baker Books in the publication of this book. However, I had exactly zero to do with any of the writing, editing, or publishing of the book. I bought it from Amazon, and I'm very glad I did!]

This book is a careful examination of the part we choose to have in our local community. Many people go to work, get home, have dinner, go shoping and maybe attend church. They may give to charity, but most are isolated from their neighbors and others in the community that are in need. It's easy to write a check at church and think they've done their part in 'helping out'. Is that the way to practice what they believe? Is that enough, or are they missing out on something? This book examines a couple that take the next step. They start doing things to help out people in need, carefully and gradually, and they discuss how it affected them and the people around them. They also discuss suburban life and how it got to be the way it is now.

This book will likely make you examine your life, how you are living it, and consider some minor things you could change that could make a world of difference to people that need help.

Where does an ordinary person who wants to live like Jesus start? Some simple ways are discussed in this book. It is an unusual book, interweaving a fictional story about a family who try to live "justly" with observations from the authors' real-life efforts. The type of "justice" described in the book is a strange blend of serving the poor, living frugally, environmentalism and political correctness.

In the introduction, the authors indicate that the issues of justice addressed by the book apply to people who are not Christians, but their reasoning throughout the rest of the book relies exclusively on the teachings of Jesus, leaving the reader wondering whether the authors believe that all religions must teach the same things. The particular actions recommended in the book are: consume less fuel, food, electricity and water; look for ways of serving neighbourhood kids and lonely people, while reducing the time you spend at church, work, and in your children's activities; become involved with organisations which serve the poor; buy used goods, buy less stuff, and recycle; and buy "fair trade" products.

The book tackles some important subjects, and Christians do need to spend more efforts engaging with the poor and disadvantaged, and caring for the environment. The book is reasonably well-written, even if I am not a big fan of the fiction-made-up-to-illustrate-a-point segments. However, I was left with the impression that the authors' message was a collection of loosely-related small ideas, rather than a coherent vision for living justly in suburbia today.

I want to know how to impact my community while living in a place where I don't see my neighbors for months, so I jumped at the chance to read this book. I was hoping for a resource and some thoughts on service in the community. For the most part, I was right.

The book alternates between a fictional story and thoughts on the Samsons' quest for justice in the suburbs. At times, I found the story more compelling. It focuses on a young married couple and their journey toward a more service focused life. The other chapters are interesting, but at times I became disinterested and wanted to move on to the next chapter of the fictional story.

The nonfiction portion of the book delves into the issues people will face when confronting justice in their community. And most of it is great, interspersed with stories from the Samsons' life. It gives you a great picture of what to expect when helping at homeless shelters, soup kitchens, and advocacy programs. There's also a list of resources at the end to help get you started. The only problem is that the prose gets a little boring at times.

But overall, this is a great book that can be a good help for anyone wanting to reach out to those in need.

The book is good. Will and Lisa Samson write an excellent primer on what justice is and could look like in the suburbs and beyond. My only complaint is that it is written more for a soccer mom who has no experience or on-ramp to justice work. So that if you're already practicing or moving in justice streams in the suburbs or city, you won't find anything necessarily new outside of encouragement that you're not alone and that you need soccer-moms to practice beside you as well. The book's strongest asset is that it has a rather likable human nature to it. When writing or talking about justice, it's easy to walk away feeling guilty. Or discouraged. Or overwhelmed. Will & Lisa have written a book that doesn't rely on those "guilt-tactics". Instead they've written a book full of humanity and one that stokes the imagination with old/new ideas and old/new alternatives. Which leads it to be a rather hopeful, encouraging book. A gentle prodding to take a few baby steps in the right direction and then trusting that you will take bigger steps from there. It's definitely a good read.

Award-winning novelist Lisa Samson and her husband, Will, join forces in JUSTICE IN THE BURBS, a call for suburban Christians to rouse themselves from apathy and make a difference in their communities and their world. Think Micah 6:8: "And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." (NIV)

Will's and Lisa's backstories are of growing up in conservative, evangelical Christian homes where attending church was as regular as brushing their teeth, and memorizing scripture was a normal part of everyday life. "Yet neither of us can remember hearing sermons about God's concern for those in need during these formative years," Will writes. Later, Lisa tells of their own early marriage: "...As typical professionals in the suburbs, Will and I found our lives consumed by the kids' school, sports, church, and of course, our careers. We had no time to help out others and felt pretty satisfied with infrequent touches of goodness on our part...."

The Samsons use the spiritual discipline of dislocation or displacement to gain perspective, moving from the suburbs into the city of Lexington, Kentucky, with their family. "We failed to live a life of justice in the suburbs, and this book is, at least in part, our mea culpa --- our confession of insufficiency," Will writes.

Justice, they believe, needs to be based on Biblical ideas: care for the poor and oppressed, concern for the environment, love for foreigners, sharing of wealth, not profiting at the expense of the poor. However, how we have learned to view the Bible, they believe, has given us an overly simplistic understanding of the role it plays in our lives. "The Bible is quoted but rarely understood in its entirety...some really awful things have been justified by a poor understanding of the purpose of Scripture....we need a new view of Scripture."

Lisa, a well-known novelist in inspirational reading circles, creates the fictional suburban characters of Matt and Christine Marshall, whose continuing story illustrates the concepts throughout. Nonfiction passages offer insights about suburban culture and ideas for learning to live a life of justice. Sprinkled throughout the book are various meditations on different aspects of justice by an eclectic group of individuals, including Brian McLaren, Leonard Sweet and Luci Shaw.

An interesting point that the Samsons make is our culture's avoidance of disruption. "Why are we so afraid of disruptions?" they write. "What are we doing that is so completely important we cannot be interrupted?" Fear often keeps us from acting, as does busyness and overwork. "The suburbs seem particularly designed to avoid facing the bigger issues of life," write the Samsons. In her fictional scenes, Lisa illustrates many Christians' unwillingness to get involved with other denominations, to work side by side with those who have different belief systems, and the peer pressure from family and other well-intentioned Christians that may sink good intentions.

The Samsons ask some probing questions. "How do we define God's blessing on the church today? More people, bigger buildings, better programs...What if success in God's economy is more people being fed, less people dying of AIDS, and families restored after years of religious bickering?" As well as theoretical questions, there are also plenty of practical, applicable ideas for Christians to begin making changes that reflect a pursuit of justice.

So, what do we do? According to the Samsons, we start small. But we start where we find ourselves. "Perhaps Jesus lives right next door or down the street. He might even be in your own home." Readers will be encouraged to take the next step on the road to a more justice-oriented faith. And, as the Samsons say, "Kiss normal goodbye."

--- Reviewed by Cindy Crosby

This book is about living the justice life. I want to recommend that you read "Justice in the Burbs" all the way to the end. I almost didn't. I almost put this book down after two chapters. It is co-authored by a husband/wife duo Will & Lisa Sampson. Each chapter has three parts: a narrative section written by Lisa who is a popular fiction writer (essentially a novella divided into 13 short sections), a discourse section authored mostly by Will (I'm guessing), a PhD student in Sociology at Univ. of Kentucky, and a meditation section, each one composed by a different author/thinker/artist within emerging church circles.

I almost put the book down early on because the structure was throwing me off a little and the discourse seemed overly simplistic, the first meditation was lackluster...it just wasn't grabbing me. Then a funny thing happened: the story sucked me in. The truth is that Lisa Sampson is a really good writer - Will is, too. But, I realized how difficult a task she was undertaking - developing plot and characters so quickly, way more quickly than a typical novel, trying to tailor a story to a theological discourse without making the story appear contrived, splitting a short novella into 13 sections all of this while trying to make us care about not only the story but the idea of justice. This is a really difficult task. The truth is, she did great. When really good artists are left to just provoke and preach, it's pretty amazing what they can do. This book is a great example. The story is great. I liked what was happening and I found that the more I cared about it, the more I enjoyed the discourse sections & appreciated the points that were made.

[...]

In the suburban world of nice homes, lawns and new cars it's easy to forget about social justice and brotherly love, but Justice in the Burbs: Being in the Hands of Jesus Wherever You Live shows it is in the suburbs as well as in urban areas, using plenty of case history examples to portray the places God is discovered in the habits of man. Meditations from various authors point to the methods God uses to provide spiritual guidance in all walks of life, making this a fine pick for any general Christian spiritual collection.