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Out of the Cities—Reality Check
Presenter: Larry Kirkpatrick
Location: Internet
Delivery: 2005-10-06 13:19Z
Publication: GreatControversy.org 2005-10-06 13:19Z
Type: Article
URL: http://www.greatcontroversy.org/gco/rar/kir-ootc.php
Through revelation, special insight has been given concerning leaving the cities. For Adventists, the issue is not if, but when. Pastor Kevin Paulson’s article (Out of the Cities—When) has addressed the “when” issue. Here, at least briefly, we want to address the issue of expectations.
In just the past couple of years, we have seen several godly Seventh-day Adventists make intelligent, quiet, successful transitions out of the city. Today they are enjoying the blessings of country living.
Unfortunately, there is always a percentage of those who lay hold of the strongest counsel given concerning leaving the cities. These manifest more zeal than patience, and their mistakes discredit a better cause. The counsel of our Lord is, “In your patience possess ye your souls” (Luke 21:19). Too often it is in impatience, even as Christians, that we live our lives. To that end then (that the choices we make with reference to country living would credit the cause of Christ) this article is intended to help those considering the possibility of making such a move. We advocate moving carefully, intelligently, as the Spirit moves. We want to be neither ahead of nor behind the Holy Spirit.
In all that we do, we have not only an experience to guard, but a personal testimony to protect. When people ask us about our Christian walk (and they will ask), we want to be able to represent our faith as that of believers careful to be soundly led of Him—not slapdash, impression-following persons who do not know whether they are coming or going. Nor do we want to move on the basis of a misunderstanding of the inspired writings, such as a mistaken understanding of when the out of the cities cry comes. God is not the Author of confusion, either in His church or in the lives of His followers (1 Corinthians 14:33).
Life in Utopia
Most of my experience in pastoral ministry from 1994 to the present, has been spent in “country living.” But rarely have I lived beyond range of the coyote’s midnight howl. To the urban or suburban reader, it might seem I must then have been living in some kind of idyllic life. Utopia was the word created by Thomas More in 1516 (interestingly, a year before the beginning of the Protestant Reformation) to combine the ideas of “no” and “place” and “good.” Utopia was More’s imagined place where things run extremely well. In his book, he depicts a rationally organized society.
We would all like to live in a place where we are safe, our children protected, and blue skies line the horizon. But none of my living in country places was life in Utopia. Those places were as dysfunctional as every other. In Nevada, there were casinos in every significantly populated place. Purchasing gasoline in places without slot machines was not always possible.
Our church members who worked in Reno often endured commutes of two hours—one way. That meant a considerable time away from their family every day. In some ways, the pressures of life, rather than being alleviated, are shifted from one part of life laterally to another. And, keep in mind that after the long commute, employment options were limited, the wages low. Once you move to the country it may be difficult to correct the move if things have gone astray.
When you drive past the “Sagebrush Ranch,” “Mustang Ranch,” “Moonlight Bunny Ranch,” and all the other “ranches” of a certain immoral sort, try explaining that to your kids. In Nevada, prostitution is legalized except in the cities.
Sometimes you come upon violent people. Following up Bible study interests I discovered persons who urged their pit bulls to attack me, and others who threatened me with firearms.
While living in Utah we discovered that the use of illegal drugs in country areas was as widespread as in urbanized areas. In the cities there are a variety of things for people to do, but in the country, boredom and artificial excitement-seeking reigned. Illicit sexual encounters served to break the monotony. Suicides were occurring continuously. Usually we would hear of a new suicide incident every two or three weeks. (See Utah Violence and Injury prevention Program, Suicides. http://www.health.utah.gov/vipp/suicide/.)
A trip to the local grocery store meant a careful search for healthy food. Not always easy. Standing in the checkout line we saw in the shopping cart just ahead of us beer and ice cream, and in the shopping cart immediately behind us, beer and ice cream. Witnessing opportunities? Yes. But try to catch the folks during the week. Once Friday arrived, it was party time, and sobriety diminished for a few days.
You learn about flies in the country. As a young pastor I went to visit some of my church members who owned horses. It was very hot, and my automobile did not have air conditioning. I left a window rolled down. When I came out to leave, I found the vehicle swarming with flies. As I drove away in the midst of the teaming, buzzing, winged contingent, it sounded to me as if I had a bees’ nest in the back seat.
Meanwhile, we had porcupines—lots of porcupines—living in the canal out behind the house. My dog discovered the porcupines. Again and again. Pulling porcupine quills out of Fido’s snout was never fun for myself or her.
One place we lived had a cement factory just behind our home. It would start up grinding around 4:00 a.m. Ah, utopia!
From where we lived, a trip to the health food store meant a 200 mile round trip northward or a 240 mile round trip southward. Some, to get work commuted over the mountain, and the traffic fatalities were as frequent as the suicides. While working in that place, I was forced off the highway four times by semi-trucks during a two year period. Failure to drive off the road, in each case, would have meant a head on collision with an 18-wheeler.
(To read about this “country” road and its hundreds of traffic fatalities, click on Road of Ruin. http://www.slweekly.com/editorial/2005/feature_2005-08-18.cfm. Unfortunately, several other similar remote locations have dangerous roads and are low on the list of budget priorities.)
Don’t misunderstand; it was our privilege to serve in churches where the people were the very best. We would not trade those years of ministry for anything, and we would not hesitate as God is leading us, to live in the country again; it would be our preference. My point here, very simply, is that country living does not solve all your problems. In fact, it may create some.
From the Country to the City
In 2001, against all our expectations, the Lord sent us a call to work in the Loma Linda area. This would not be country living. California was not calling us, but God was. Reluctantly because of the change it would mean, but obediently because we understood it to be God’s will, we went and made our home under the dome of smog. In the country we had had to wash the dust off of our vehicles; in the city, we wash off the sludgy smog.
Nevertheless, God has people He is calling into His kingdom in the country, in the suburbs, and in the cities. And Adventists must work for souls in the cities too. Our commission is not just to save people in the country.
Into the End-times
We now live in the networked-world. It used to be that I would go into homes in the country where I was pastoring, sometimes to find bare rooms and holes in the floors, but there was always a television and a VCR. But this has changed. Now, the poorest homes often have satellite dishes or are receiving an endless parade of immoral scenes via cable TV. And there is the internet, with its seemingly endless stream of helpful information and all its dirtier, grittier downfalls. Relationships today so often compete with the potential spouse replacement on the other end of the wire where the grass is just so green.
These things need not come into our homes of course. But they will almost always be in your neighbor’s house. Sodom and Gomorrah used to be places you could flee, but today Sodom and Gomorrah have engulfed the world. Every next-door place is Sodom and Gomorrah. The city and the suburbs have no monopoly on evil.
Conclusion
We don’t suggest that you should forget about moving to less populated areas; not at all. My burden in these lines has only been to help you to realize that the stresses you presently have in your life may not disappear through a move to the country. They could even increase.
The successful moves from city to country that I have seen have all been accomplished by people who moved in measured steps, often preparing over a period of one, two, or more years. Hasty movements have been the ones that have turned out poorly.
May God lead and guide each of us so that we, in a way the Spirit can approve, may watch the workings of providence and opportunity to see how Heaven may be leading us, in a steady way, to make a transition so that we may enjoy the benefits of country living. Even so, we recognize that in terms of realism, we must be aware that country living is no cure all, and indeed, will mean not only the adding of a number of blessings in your family, but also several new and sometimes daunting challenges. God will help us plan if we are walking in His Spirit.
If we are moving in the wake of falsely placed steps, if He is not leading, the road ahead will be a very hard one. Let us guard our families and our marriages by having realistic expectations. It is one thing to see colorful PowerPoint slides depicting an idyllic future in sweeping grassy fields beneath towering mountain fastnesses. It is another to live on one scrappy minimal income amidst ticks and mosquitos and the neighbor’s methamphetamine lab. Country living? Yes! But let us move intelligently. Who can not say “Amen” to that? GCO
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