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.
Tuesday, 22 March 2011
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.
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