FAQ #1: Is the unChurch a commune?? Well, no. But the gentle monks of unChurch Abbey have long pondered the idea of buying some plot of land right in the middle of suburban America, and moving a bunch of families into a condo-like place to share life and resources. You know: lawn mowers, laser printers, baby-sitters and bass guitars. The essentials. Being together, praying together, and having "everything in common." Not a cloister, but more like a community center for the neighborhood. "Missio de San Larry de la Burbia". It's got a nice ring, no?The article that follows is Part 1 of a series begining this week in unChurch Magazine. One of our visitors, Craig, is a long time member of The Work of Christ, a Christian covenant community in Michigan (NOT a "commune"!) His experience is inspiring and instructive. Enjoy the article and then leave your comments about the merits and drawbacks of this type of Christian community. What follows is Craig's story:
- Our community had its beginnings in 1967, at the beginnings of the Catholic charismatic movement. In the very early days, things were pretty ‘wild-and-woolly’ charismatic, as was typical of charismatic stuff in those days, especially in a 1967 college town. A prayer group pretty quickly formed around the whole new charismatic thing, and in the early years, it was pretty informal – folks would just show up in the basement of the Catholic student parish on Wednesday night, and off they’d go. And of course, word got around, and by the early 70s, there were a couple hundred people showing up for the prayer meetings.
There was an openness to new stuff, even pretty wild-and-crazy stuff, that doesn’t just happen anytime and anyplace...but this is 1967 in East Lansing.
With time and growth, a conviction began to grow that God had more for us than a weekly prayer meeting. Of course, by that time, the Word of God community in Ann Arbor (note: also a college town) was world renowned, and had over 1000 members, and most of the folks in the prayer group in East Lansing had visited the community in Ann Arbor at one time or another, and that became a kind of template for us. Some of the prayer group folks (I had not yet arrived) felt the Lord calling them to some kind of community life.
By the early 70s, some folks had moved into ‘households’ together, and were aiming at some manner of daily ‘common life’ – meals and prayers together, and some kind of ‘daily life support’ – rudimentary small groups, and such.
I arrived in town in the fall of ’73, and plans were being solidified for forming a real, honest-to-goodness Christian community. We had a year of instruction (based on the Ann Arbor model) of what Christian community was, how it was put together, the nature of the commitment that was required to make it work, etc, etc. I’m not sure many of us really understood the full import of what we were hearing, or how it differed from the prayer-group life that had been in place for six years, or how challenging it was going to be. But, we wanted to follow Jesus in as radical a way as we could, and this sure seemed to be that.
*It should be noted that Craig was originally the person to recommend to me the Building Christian Communities book that I wrote about last year. The book was a bit of a "manifesto" for building these types of communities back in the day.
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9 comments:
Craig, did you guys have some mechanism for sharing money? Or were you just room mates?
Joe, in the early days, pretty much all of them before we made our original covenant, there were a few households that experimented with common finances, but that wasn't the general rule. It tended to work better when we were all young student-types, and none of us had any money, anyway. Once people started getting real jobs, and there were real 'disparities of income', it got harder to pull off (human nature being what it is). Plus, there was always the question of what happens when someone moves out. . .
I'd want to say that the general arrangement was something more than merely 'roommates' - there was a vision and an expectation that we were taking care of each other, and that we should be generous with each other, but throwing all our paychecks into the same pot proved to be less practical than it seemed at first. . .
Its probably no accident if you are describe a loose sort of monastery arrange. A real monastery you livev all in one place and all money is common.
The problem in monasterys is if the members are swallwed up inside and do nothing outside. Is that a problem in Michigan?
Rennar, it's not really a 'monastery' at all. I'm sure it will become clearer as we go along, and subsequent parts of the story get posted. We don't all live in the same place (altho we do try to live near enough to each other to make our life together practical), and we don't hold all our money in common. Our common life has much more to do with the quality of our relationships.
And I agree with you about the problem if the members never have any contact with the 'outside world'. That is a temptation even for groups of Christians who don't have physical walls between themselves and the world. It is very tempting, even for a community such as ours, to 'turn inward', and look after our 'happy life together' at the expense of interacting with 'The World'.
We do have various outreach efforts, both of an 'evangelistic' and a 'service' nature. And most of us live in neighborhoods, next door and down the block from folks who don't belong to our community. So, as a practical matter, we aren't so 'isolated' as all that. But, if we let our priorities get skewed, we could be. . .
It seems like you are much like our "Life Groups", but instead of a one year commiting you have a lifetime commiting.
You try to live close by each other; is that part of the covenant? Is there anything about not moving away in your covenant? In the suburbs people move all the time. Bigger house, better neighborhood, new job. That could ruin everything. It even ruins our little one-year grupps sometimes!
Without knowing the details of your Life Groups, that sounds like it might well be a fairly apt analogy, Rennar.
There is nothing in covenant per se about living near each other, but it is encouraged. The kind of life we aspire to have together just works way, way better, when we live near each other. Folks have occasionally 'taken a flyer' and moved someplace (maybe, say, 'out in the country'), hoping that others would follow them; sometimes the magic works, and sometimes it doesn't. . .
The 'mobility' factor you describe affects us, too, altho maybe not quite so severely, for the most part. It is true that, to have the kind of life we aspire to, over the long haul, is going to call forth some sacrifices from people. I could write a long list of various sacrifices that various people have made, over the course of 35 years of our community's life. Some guys have passed up better jobs in other states, so they could stay in our community (and right at the moment, the economy being what it is, and Michigan worst of all, there are several of our members wondering what the next few months are gonna hold for us); some (myself among them) accept long commutes for the sake of the community life we have. Some folks have stayed in their urban neighborhoods, so they could keep their relationships close, rather than move to the 'burbs. Etc, etc. But none of it is 'mandatory'; we're an 'intentional' (ie, voluntary) community. Some folks have moved away (altho our covenant says that we would only do that 'with serious prayer and counsel'); some have moved to the 'burbs. Sometimes it works out well for them; sometimes not so much.
We try real hard not to use our covenant as a stick to beat each other with (we tried that years ago; didn't work so well), but we do try to call each other on. It doesn't always work as wonderfully as our vision would have it, but when it does, it's amazing. . .
Back in the days of landline telephones :-), for every 10 phones on desks there are only two trunk lines conncting them to the world. Why? Because everyone is not on the phone at once. The public has 99.999% availablitly, even though they have only 20% connectivity. That's the power of sharing. Sharing resources and sharing risk is the dynamo of civilization. This is also how the world of finance works, whether insurance or investment or lending or even taxation and redistribution.
But all these examples are artificial imitations of the simple dynamic of love.
God's people leave huge dividends of wealth and well-being on the table by
following the individualistic (loveless) ways of the world.
Instead of one phone line for 5 households, we have 1.5 automobiles per driver. 1.3 lawnmowers per lawn. 2.4 hammers per homeowner. Dining rooms and spare bedrooms that are used three times a year, deep-freezes that hum away chilling only last year's turkey broth.
People would think it's creepy sharing that extra room, that pickup truck, that extra whatever. I think it's bizarre that this never occurs to people.
Just a little rant. Sharing creates leverage, hoarding is like burying your master's silver in the ground. Why not share intentionally?
Interesting points, Joe. The equation of 'individualistic' with 'loveless' is extremely provocative. . .
This reminds me of Ecclesiastes 4:9-12; which is often read at weddings, but is really very emblematic of community life. . .
But - what's a spare bedroom? ;)
"But - what's a spare bedroom?" ;)
Well, I happen to have one of those. And if you can ever think of any use for it, considr it your "extra bedroom down the highway."
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