The Suburban Captivity of the Church
CULTURE | Tess Holgate Wednesday 15 October 2014 When Tim Foster made the 15km move from a suburban parish to an urban one, he didn’t anticipate just how much his understanding of the gospel would be challenged. Now the Director of Theological Education and Formation at Ridley College in Melbourne, he has penned his reflections in his new book, The Suburban Captivity of the Church. Aside from all the cultural differences, Tim says he was struck “by how hostile people were to evangelical Christianity and yet how many of their values were familiar to me from the Bible. There was a real concern for the marginalised, for social justice, for the environment, a real desire for community”. Observing this forced Tim to reflect on the way he had understood the gospel: “The gospel as I had come to understand it, aligned itself very strongly with suburban values”. Tim says that the gospel has been so contextualised to the suburban context that the two are inextricably linked. “S...