Ok repeat after me "Sid & Jayne have NOT moved out of community". Repeat anytime you hear any rumour or suggestion that we have please. Feel free to blog it, tweet it, FB it or just plain shout it from the roof top of your house. It IS true we have moved AGAIN! So here's the next chapter of the journey and the truth about the move...
We always knew when we arrived at our previous temporary Bugbrooke residence that we were going to need to move. This was at the request of the household elder because they didn't really have much space for us and certainly not for the various waifs, strays, teenagers & alcoholics that are frequently attached to us! However, we knew a move up on to the estate on our own would just look like we were looking for a cosy little scene on our own so we prayed and asked God that if & when it was right he'd send us someone to live with us, preferably a single man, but anyone who was in need of a bit of a refuge... He sent us a young, fairly newly married couple who we knew well, who needed to adjust to married life & find a way forward and a week later we were gifted with a cheeky young scally wag from the Farm who needed family and keeping out of mischief!
So now there are 5 of us in a 4 bedroom house which leaves us one emergency bed or room for visitors to stay. If it wasn't for my husband & I being slightly over 35 it would be a J Gen house & that's certainly part of our vision, to support and nurture a J Gen scene, offer space for young men and hopefully, in time, once things have settled down, rescue the odd visitor in crisis at the Jesus Centre. Ultimately we'd like a another single young man to help the balance but we're leaving it to God to choose who & when that happens.
Ultimately, we hope that the 2 scenes will come together under one big roof but it may be that God will do something different with it all... we really are all leaving it up to him.
Like all new ventures it's exciting & scary. Scary because although we're still very much part of the mother house in terms of meetings & finances we are also branching out & exploring community as a new group together... It's exciting because it offers us a bit of flexibility and scope but I have to admit there are days where I long for the comfort and security of a big mother scene. Still I'm a pioneer at heart... so we've not moved out of community we are simply exploring it in a different place with a different set of people at the request and with the support of the household leadership team..... so now you know!
Monday 6 June 2011
Tuesday 22 March 2011
Chapter 2- The House Family meal
It's been 3 weeks since our community weekend together so 'house family' was a time to reflect on how we were all feeling about the next step. We were joined by a Latvian guy who's staying with us temporarily doing an alcohol de-tox and a young couple who'd come for a think about their way forward in community. I've done small community & big community over the past 18 years and there are swings and roundabouts with both. Last night we were checking out that everyone was coping and still on board with the vision to take, what had been a housefamily of 4 and become a housefamily of 6, then 7 and might possibly become 9 or even 11 before too long, forward towards a bigger community scene to make room for all these people and others to join us. We talked about our vision and where we were 'at' now. Not surprising more than a few of us were suddenly enjoying life in a small cottage in the countryside. But what was encouraging was that everyone wanted to make room for more people to join us, particularly guys like our Latvian guest, who need to step out of situations, reflect and re-focus and find a new way forward for their lives. What became obvious was that even the seasoned community members were feeling like Aspirants again.
However, it's often the practicalities of community living that present the challenges so we talked about a few of those. Is everyone getting their washing back, lost their socks? Are the transport arrangements working out for everyone's needs? Can we help the person preparing the meals by booking us & our friends in or out for meals... Do any of the house chores need re-allocating?
What are people's whereabouts and plans? any significant events diaried? Smaller house families are great because you can sort much of this on a day by day basis. However, as the scene grows it becomes much harder and you have to find other more administrative ways of communicating like meals books & transport books and suddenly it starts to feel like it's getting a bit institutional and the danger is we stop talking to each other and just start leaving each other notes.
Big community's great because there's more people around, more space for the scene to exopand, more shared responsibilities. But it also brings fresh challenges as relationships have to stretch to make room for all the extra people, responsibilities and activities.
We all agreed that this was an important phase of strengthening the core of the house family and build those relationships before we added more people or a bigger scene into the equation.
God is seldom in a hurry www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid...id...
but often we are.... It's important to let the initial excitement fade and give everyone time to wait on God, count the cost so we move forward together.
Next Chapter a community weekend together booked for 8-10th April. This time in the town centre with a weekend of Outreach planned. Meanwhile back to the daily discipline of working out what it means to be a follower of Jesus in our current situation.
However, it's often the practicalities of community living that present the challenges so we talked about a few of those. Is everyone getting their washing back, lost their socks? Are the transport arrangements working out for everyone's needs? Can we help the person preparing the meals by booking us & our friends in or out for meals... Do any of the house chores need re-allocating?
What are people's whereabouts and plans? any significant events diaried? Smaller house families are great because you can sort much of this on a day by day basis. However, as the scene grows it becomes much harder and you have to find other more administrative ways of communicating like meals books & transport books and suddenly it starts to feel like it's getting a bit institutional and the danger is we stop talking to each other and just start leaving each other notes.
Big community's great because there's more people around, more space for the scene to exopand, more shared responsibilities. But it also brings fresh challenges as relationships have to stretch to make room for all the extra people, responsibilities and activities.
We all agreed that this was an important phase of strengthening the core of the house family and build those relationships before we added more people or a bigger scene into the equation.
God is seldom in a hurry www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid...id...
but often we are.... It's important to let the initial excitement fade and give everyone time to wait on God, count the cost so we move forward together.
Next Chapter a community weekend together booked for 8-10th April. This time in the town centre with a weekend of Outreach planned. Meanwhile back to the daily discipline of working out what it means to be a follower of Jesus in our current situation.
Tuesday 1 March 2011
Chapter 1- The community weekend
We are all on journey. This is about part of my journey. A journey that is shared with a number of fellow travellers who are all exploring what it means to live together 'all things in common' as the early Christians did (see Acts 4:32, The Bible). to find out more see http://www.newcreation.org.uk/
I have been on this journey for 18 years. Like the journey of a river there have been many twists and turns; sometimes meadering along at other times more like a rushing torrent! However, last weekend we (me & my fellow house mates) decided to do something a bit different. We invited any of our friends who we call them non- resident members of the community, to join us for a community weekend. There was one immediate problem which was that there was no room for any of them in our current community home! Undeterred we persuaded a near by large community house, with plenty of spare room to let us lodge with them. There were 14 of us in the end. 6 of them community members, 2 aspirants and associated friends.
The location was significant as it was the first community house bought by the Community back in the mid 70's. It felt like we were joining with the early pioneers (one of our company had lived there as a child) to embark on a journey to re-discover the pioneering spirit that caught the vision for Acts 4 'common purse community' and is still going strong.
The weekend involved communal meal times. Food is an important component to community and our together meal times are vitally important in keeping the heart of community house family life health and in touch with each other. We forget that in this media saturated, fast- food culture communal family meal times are becoming a thing of the past. The was communal gardening and communal times of worship, sharing and reflection. Those who'd been 'doing' comunity along time shared there hopes, fears and dreams for the next phase. Those who were aspiring shared their vision and fears and our friends all gave their support. Everyone had personal prayer and words of encouragement or direction given to them.
At the end of it everyone shared how excited or encouraged they felt. Some of our non- resident members had enjoyed and been amused by seeing some of their community friends first thing in the morning. All of them had enjoyed the experience of being together all the time and we had all gotten to know each other more.
So what next? Well this Saturday we're all together at our local Jesus Centre (www.jesuscentre.org.uk/northampton) working together and after that who knows... after 18 years in community it is good to get excited about it all over again.
I have been on this journey for 18 years. Like the journey of a river there have been many twists and turns; sometimes meadering along at other times more like a rushing torrent! However, last weekend we (me & my fellow house mates) decided to do something a bit different. We invited any of our friends who we call them non- resident members of the community, to join us for a community weekend. There was one immediate problem which was that there was no room for any of them in our current community home! Undeterred we persuaded a near by large community house, with plenty of spare room to let us lodge with them. There were 14 of us in the end. 6 of them community members, 2 aspirants and associated friends.
The location was significant as it was the first community house bought by the Community back in the mid 70's. It felt like we were joining with the early pioneers (one of our company had lived there as a child) to embark on a journey to re-discover the pioneering spirit that caught the vision for Acts 4 'common purse community' and is still going strong.
The weekend involved communal meal times. Food is an important component to community and our together meal times are vitally important in keeping the heart of community house family life health and in touch with each other. We forget that in this media saturated, fast- food culture communal family meal times are becoming a thing of the past. The was communal gardening and communal times of worship, sharing and reflection. Those who'd been 'doing' comunity along time shared there hopes, fears and dreams for the next phase. Those who were aspiring shared their vision and fears and our friends all gave their support. Everyone had personal prayer and words of encouragement or direction given to them.
At the end of it everyone shared how excited or encouraged they felt. Some of our non- resident members had enjoyed and been amused by seeing some of their community friends first thing in the morning. All of them had enjoyed the experience of being together all the time and we had all gotten to know each other more.
So what next? Well this Saturday we're all together at our local Jesus Centre (www.jesuscentre.org.uk/northampton) working together and after that who knows... after 18 years in community it is good to get excited about it all over again.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)