Community-Focused Christian Living
For those who are new to the concept, you need only to Google the phrase “Christian living community” and you’ll learn that people all over are catching onto some very counter-cultural ideas-namely that their possessions are not their own, and value is found in sharing life with others.
Some groups choose to pool their finances totally or partially, join together in daily meals, and focus on social justice causes or developing micro-enterprise. But they all bear in common a desire to live interdependently with each other-a return to the values of the early church in Acts which, when they broke bread, had all things in common.
So�these people are Christian hippies? Sure seems like it. But the undercurrents signal more than a flower-child peace-and-love movement. The demands of community life require sacrifice, radical love and forgiveness, and vulnerability that independent dwellers will not likely have to face.
A Philadelphia-based intentional living community called “The Simple Way” (www.thesimpleway.org) is described in Shane Claiborne’s book The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical. One of the driving values of this community is simplicity and the desire to live with only what one needs, not wants. Non-violence, building relationships, practicing spirituality, and being accountable to the group are foundations of The Simple Way, whose main goal is to be a community that “loves God, loves people, and loves Jesus. We’re giving that our best shot,” their website reads.
By their numbers, Jesus People USA (otherwise known as JPUSA; www.jpusa.org) is a larger intentional-living community based out of Chicago. There, 500 people share a common address and pool their money to be able to better serve the church, the city they live in, and the world. They are supported by self-starters in their midst, as many business ventures crop up locally in areas as diverse as contracting, publishing, the arts, and property maintenance. And one Illinois-based side-project of the JPUSA community is popular in many Christian circles: the Cornerstone Music Festival, held each year since 1984.
“Communities where people whatever their race, culture, abilities or disabilities, can find a place and reveal their gifts to the world.” This is how Jean Vanier described the Parisian L’arche community (www.larche.org), many members of which live with disabilities. The are described as communities of hope where each person, according to his or her vocation, is encouraged to grow in love, self-giving, and wholeness. There is a sense of wisdom and maturity about this community and its members made evident by life lived together.
What is it about community that changes us, matures us, rubs us the wrong way, supports us, and propels us forward? Is this a trend, or a way of the future that simply taps into the roots of our past? In truth, those questions will only be answered as these communities shape and reshape themselves into God’s own church.
