“Buy local” posters were plastered everywhere. Just like you would expect each one was original. Every poster I saw was unique, personal, local, not a national mass media blitz. This was not unique to the city I was passing through; I am starting to see these posters taped on cafe walls and bathroom stalls everywhere I visit. This is bigger than a buying campaign. People are returning to loving a small piece of ground and taking pride in their place.
Our world is localizing. An urban studies theorist named Richard Florida commented about this shift: “The twentieth-century American dream was to move out and move up. The twenty-first-century dream seems to be to put down deeper roots.” I’m no sociologist, but factors like rising gas prices, the rise of local craft commerce, the global economy, cultural exhaustion from suburban sprawl, and urban frontierism have all pushed us to rediscover locality. Some are roots and some are fruits of this subtle explosion of the local, but these signs are showing up in different flavors everywhere. Smaller cities aren’t just growing out; they’re growing up.
There is a rebirth of nearness in relationships, physical space, food, commerce, and even church community. Farmers markets providing local produce are popping up everywhere. “Share boxes” in neighborhoods are a visible sign people want to connect with others around them and repurpose unneeded stuff. Young families are longing for intergenerational relationships with their older neighbors like my family has experienced. Cafe owners and makers of goods are seeking to source products and food as locally as possible. More people are talking about walking to their church gatherings and being part of a neighborhood church. Many folks who used to drive great distances to work and play are peering over handlebars and wearing a helmet instead of a seatbelt. Cities are alive and bursting with color again. I expand on in my new book, but I believe Staying is the New Going.
How does localism affect followers of Jesus?
It reveals hunger. People are hungry to know neighbors again, to push past the awkwardness and see each other’s souls up close. Your neighbors might deny this, but I bet they want you to invite them into something. People are hungry for the ever-overused and ever under-experienced word “community”, to know and be known by those around us. It’s a confusing time with social media and complex cultural issues, but I can tell you there is a simple hunger for relational connection that is off the charts right now.
It gives us opportunities. In light of this cultural shift followers of Jesus must anticipate new opportunities to embody and proclaim Jesus in their neighborhoods and existing relationships. The ground is prepped and the harvest is ready for a rooted, connected and local focus to joining God’s mission. It’s already happening in many places where families and churches are now viewing their neighborhoods as their parish. Here’s the good news: the bar for local connection is low, so if you try something you’re bound to raise the bar. Seize the moments of the warm summer air and try something in your neighborhood.
What is your first step to meaningful connection to those right around you?