City Swagger

If swagger had a real definition, it would be Austin. The quintessential poster child for hip urbanites nationwide would be found right here in the ATX. We breathe up-and-coming new music. We inhale eclectic fusions of global foods. We fight for the rights of local businesses, all without apology and all of us somehow working together.

It may come as a bit of shock to us Austinites, but this isn’t the case in most cities. It could be difficult for us to imagine that elsewhere, outside of the Republic of Texas, there once existed a culture that was largely shifting to suburban dwellings. They traded their massively high rents for a short commute and a fenced-in backyard. Their children grew up in safe public schools, and that phrase didn’t even seem oxymoronic. But that was then, and this is 2011.

The mass exodus of our parents’ generation has long since come and gone. Now we are seeing a huge trend to move back into the once rejected urban cores of American cities. As author Andy Crouch of Christianity Today magazine put, “It is, without a doubt, the most surprising large-scale cultural shift in my lifetime.”[1] To me, it just seems normal.

This undoubtedly has an effect on how churches shape their advertising campaigns, specifically on my generation. We tend to not be family-focused. We sacrifice even the most basic of necessities to make rent in the best of locations. We are constantly bombarded with new information through instant-gratification technologies, and we know no other way.

Churches need not be weary. Look at this from a renewed mindset. Crouch said that “Cities, after all, concentrate more divine image-bearing per square inch than any other form of habitation.” What he means is that the population density that attracts so many to these cultural hubs produces more opportunity in a single city block for change than an entire strategically planned neighborhood outside of the city limits ever could.

If anything, this calls for churches to stay more culturally relevant. It actually helps to create a job for Christian advertisers like myself. No longer can images of white steeples and rows of pews be the norm. Besides, everyone knows that a pew is just a fancy bench anyway.

Austin has it’s own vibe, weird and unique at the same time. People flock to our city to get a taste of what the Austin city limits are all about. Lets use that appeal to develop a new target market of young, city swagger individuals that are seeking to know more and yearning for a relevant relationship. After all, what starts here changes the world, and that goes for Christianity too.

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[1] Crouch, A. (2011, October 28). A new kind of urban ministry. Christianity Today, Retrieved from http://www.christianitytoday.com/thisisourcity/7thcity/urbanministry.html

YouTube Video: What starts here changes the world: Part 8 [Web]. (2008). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQNYmdgny2g