Death by Suburb: How to Keep the Suburbs from Killing Your Soul

by Dave L. Goetz

Book Overview

A great number of seekers find themselves in the seemingly unreal world of the suburbs. They read spirituality books but find themselves in carpools and coaching soccer, not in monasteries. Dave Goetz, a former pastor, shows that the suburbs are a real world, but a spiritually corrosive one. The land of SUVs and soccer leagues can truly be toxic to the soul. Suburbanites need to understand how the environment affects them and what spiritual disciplines...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060756705
• ISBN13: 9780060756703
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: HarperOne
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Numerous Lessons for any Suburbanite

My church recently featured a series of very effective service messages based on the book Death by Suburb. I figured if the church services were this insightful, well, the book itself must be fantastic. My assumption was right. The subtitle of the book is "How to Keep the Suburbs from Killing Your Soul." While Goetz's message is important to hear it's most effective when you project his observations on your own life. Some of this stuff was pretty darned painful to read but 100% accurate. For example, chapter 6 is called "Shirker Service" and he defines Shirkers as people who "are always on the move for the next spiritual plane." A Shirker tends to say things like: "I want to make a difference with my life. I want to make my life count. I want more from my life than investment banking. I'm weary of making money; I want to help poor people become suburbanites just like I am." He goes on to say that "the Shirker Life is full of service activities, mostly to and with other Shirkers." Ouch. Here are two other nuggets of wisdom that resonated with me: "If you want to be a sweet grandfather and not a bitter old man, then you must learn how to embrace suffering." "Frustration and conflict are the fabric of spiritual development." Those are the kind of statements I have to read several times to truly appreciate them. Putting them in practice and living them are a completely different challenge. This book is full of pearls like this and well worth the reading investment.

Examine yourself

This is a great book the will cause most people who read it (even if they don't live in the burbs)to look deep within to find some motivations that they might not be happy seeing. If you wish to live the self examined life, this is a great book for you.

Hysterical yet truthful dilemma for Christ-seekers living in Cookie-Cutter Suburbia...

Death by Suburb: How to Keep the Suburbs from Killing Your Soul A brave and eye-opening masterpiece written, I thought, directly for me?! At times, I thought the author was actually talking in my ear as I read page after page of classic, honest euphemisms describing Plastic Suburbanized Christians, slammed by birthday parties, after-school athletic activities (like soccer - oh, the pain of familiarity reeks in this book!), and the weekly herding to the nearest House of God. Just the epilogue of this book truly gave me some sort of conviction in my heart that this CONSTANT triangulation of the demands of this world, my self-conscious flesh, and my God-conscious inner spirit IS REAL, and especially more so in suburbia. Great read for Christian Stay-at-Home Suburban Mommies who want to know that "Gee, I am not the only one!"

funny and convicting

This book is unfortunately titled. It is not about the suburbs. It is a funny, yet convicting and provocative, eye-opening relevation of all of American middle/upper class culture. This book applies to all of us in "the city", as much as it does to the suburbs. It tears off our blinders----so we can see the absurdity of: our ego and pride, and how we have been caught up in the values of the materialistic, kid-centric, self-centered, acheivement-oriented culture around us. Don't miss this book. It is great fun and greatly convicting. It will take you from tears of laughter to tears of sadness/remorse and back again......quickly and repeatedly.

The Thicker Life

In My Utmost For His Highest, Oswald Chambers draws a distinction between being of use to God and being of value to God. He describes this distintion as follows: "There are times when it seems as if God watches to see if we will give Him the abandoned tokens of how genuinely we do love Him. Abandon to God is of more value than personal holiness. Personal holiness focuses the eye on our own whiteness; we are greatly concerned about the way we walk and talk and look, fearful lest we offend Him. Perfect love casts out all that when once we are abandoned to God. We have to get rid of this notion - "Am I of any use?" and make up our minds that we are not, and we may be near the truth. It is never a question of being of use, but of being of value to God Himself. When we are abandoned to God, He works through us all the time." It struck me that this distinction is at the core of Death By Suburb and Goetz does an excellent job of teasing this distinction out by illustrating how the suburban facades of perfection and progress tempt many to focus inwardly on their personal holiness and usefulness to God and miss out on what Goetz describes as the "thicker life" - a life focused outwardly, in abandon and dependence on God which is arguably of more value to the community, the Church and to God Himself. Goetz has issued suburbia a challenge and an invitation to enter into the "thicker life" of faith.