The Well – Feasterville, PA » Movie Group Update – 9/24/08 » a Church in Bucks County, Feasterville, PA

Movie Group Update – 9/24/08

School has started, and my life has become very busy very quickly. But that doesn’t mean the films have to stop, at least not yet.

First, I want to recap our last meeting for those who couldn’t make it. On Sept. 6, we watched the indie documentary, The End of Suburbia. The film argues that suburbia, while started with the best of intentions, was a waste of resources (influenced heavily by the auto makers who wanted a car-based society) that established an unsustainable way of life. The basis for the unsustainability of suburbia has to do with the world’s energy crisis, both electric and oil. The film focused most of its attention on the oil crisis, in particular the debate over peak oil, since suburbia was established on the premise of cheap oil. The filmmakers also surveyed alternatives to oil, such as natural gas (on the verge of its own peak), hydrogen (requires more energy to make than what you get out of it), ethanol (ditto), and solar and wind (doesn’t provide enough to keep us living at the pace we’ve been living thus far). Finally, the film looked at recent changes in city planning, such as the “new urbanism,” which transforms old suburban sprawl into multi-use urban-like regions.

Our conversation was wide-ranging, looking at the merits and demerits of the film itself, the problem that we face today, and possible solutions. We felt that the film was a bit too “doom and gloom” and also somewhat dry, due in part to its clearly low budget. It also didn’t always provide the amount of information we felt was necessary to assess the issues. Even so, it raised some very good questions and presents a situation that we have to take seriously. Near the end of our conversation, I suggested that the changing landscape of modern America — the possible “death of suburbia” — may mean that churches will need to do two things: (1) adopt a parish mentality, in which the church exclusively serves the local community (which will already be primarily self-sufficient based on the inability to transport food/goods over long distances), and (2) move away from church buildings altogether, either using local community buildings (multi-use) or meeting in homes (home churches). We talked about a lot of other things as well, but most of it I can’t remember off the top of my head, so apologies to those who said some really profound and interesting things that night!

In any case, our next film is coming up a week from Saturday, on Oct. 4. We are watching the delightful romantic drama-comedy (a dramedy, as they are often called), Punch Drunk Love, which is the previous film by Paul Thomas Anderson, known for Magnolia and, most recently, There Will Be Blood. We will meet at 6:30 pm at The Well, as usual. Feel free to bring drinks and snacks. We’ll have some stuff there already. And bring a date, if you’d like!

Also, please let me know if you’re planning to come. See you then!

David Congon