Tips for
Small Group Study

1. Use Death by Suburb as an 8-week study on the spiritual disciplines.

2. Each week study one of the 8 chapters that explain the suburban toxins and the spiritual practices that counter them.

3. Download the free discussion guide for a list of questions to guide the discussion for each chapter.

4. Download Dave's Favorite Writers for additional resources on Christian spirituality.

5. Sign up with your email address to receive regular blog updates by the author.

6. Add your suburban story of The Thicker Life to the blog.
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Practice 7

Practice 7

The ENVIRONMENTAL TOXIN: Using relationships (at church, at work, or at the PTA) to position myself in life – I give to get something back – transactional relationships.

The SPIRITUAL PRACTICE: Finding the time to invest in friendships that bring delight and joy to life

KEY QUOTE: In Chapter 8 (Spiritual Friendship), Goetz writes, “Friendship subverts the system of power, how things get done in the ‘burbs and the class system organized around symbols of immortality.”

KEY DISCUSSION POINTS:

* Even deep friendships often begin transactionally – I do something for you, and as a result you do something for me.

* Many suburban relationships are created by our immortality symbols – the house, the SUV, our above-average, athletic kid.

* Churches can unwittingly promote transactional relationships by creating programs that don’t intentionally encourage folks to mix with people of different races and economic stations.


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DeathBySuburb.net
Copyright © 2005 David L. Goetz
Advance Praise for
Death by Suburb

"Death by Suburb ... addresses and overcomes the split in our religion, our lifestyles, and even our consciousness."
—Fr. Richard Rohr, O.F.M., author of Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer

"With a compassion born of his own experiences of suburban unreality and dysfunction, Goetz effectively evokes a thicker sense of our social and religious worlds."
—Leigh Schmidt, Princeton University, author of Restless Souls: The Making of American Spirituality

"Goetz sees the parched lives, the truncated spirits beneath the suburban bliss, and the grace too. In his gracious eyes suburbia begins to look like an outbreak of the Kingdom of God."
—William H. Willimon, author of Sinning Like a Christian