The Tuesday night group had the privilege of eating lunch with Allan and Jeanne Howe over here at WestHaven. Allan and I (joined progressively by the remaining Tuesday nighters) talked some about what our group has learned and done, especially in the past year. For those that don't know, we just finished a "12-week" Bible study on personal/family finances from Crown Ministries... that ended up taking us a year.
The basic purpose of the study is to teach "biblical principles of financial management and stewardship." It takes biblically-minded American Christians from a point where they're driven primarily by greed and "the American Dream" to a point where they take seriously God's call on all our finances, where they think of themselves as stewards more than independent owners and controllers of their lives.
Having found substance in what the Howes had to say during the retreat, I asked Allan if there was a book, website, or other resource that might help guide our group into progressively deeper experiments in intentional community. He said he didn't know of any. What I envisioned was something that was as compelling and practical a resource as the Crown study, perhaps one that would systematically lay out both the biblical basis of intentional community and a gradual, reasonable, practical pathway of steps a group might take towards such community.
I envisioned a study that would take the average well-intentioned, biblically-minded American Christian from a point of individualistic, consumerism to some yet-to-be-determined place farther into the territory of intentional community, much as the Crown study sought to take people from the American Dream towards biblical stewardship. Perhaps not all who read such a resource would end up living in a commune together; but they could embrace smaller expressions of community life, and understand better those who go farther. As I understood him, he said such a resource does not exist.
So, do you know of such a resource? If there is biblical basis and divine calling for intentional community in Christ, if "it saves me from myself," if the concepts and lessons formed at Reba Place and elsewhere can help others, is it not a worthy exercise to shape these ideas in a form that people can better understand and practice them? It doesn't need to be something that is motivated by "angst-ridden guilt." It doesn't need to be something left to folks radical enough to enjoy standing out in our society like the proverbial sore thumb. How many well-meaning Christians have just never been exposed to the ideas in any palatable (read: non-academic, non-preaching-to-the-choir) and practicable form?
Some other random, related (and perhaps redundant) questions lingering in my mind after this weekend:
- What list or arrangement of scriptures most clearly and succinctly makes the case for some form of communal living?
- Which aspects are we called to share control of with our brothers and sisters in Christ?
- How deeply are we called to weave our lives together with our brothers and sisters in Christ?
- In what ways should our lives be connected?
