Recently a team from our community visited our friends out in Missouri at Shepherdsfield. Shepherdsfield is another intentional Christian community from whom we’ve learned much over the years. They invited us to participate in a “School For Conversion” which is a conference sponsored by the New Monasticism movement. It was enriching spending time again with fellow community dwellers and interacting with students investigating this life. Also present were members from the Little Portion community in Arkansas, and Tim Otto, a teacher with the New Monasticism and member of Church of the Sojourners community in San Francisco.

I was uplifted by the teachings and interaction with everybody. It’s always fun to spend time with our friends from Shepherdsfield, but the added pleasure of meeting the students and community members from Little Portion and Church of the Sojourners made the weekend a highlight.

Here are the testimonies from the others that went:

Jared Barton

Having five different intentional communities experiences present at the School of Conversion brought out the truth that there is “one body, one Spirit…one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all.”(Eph 4:2) This past weekend was a display of this eternal truth as representatives from five very different communities answered serious questions of the why’s and how’s of community life. I was moved in the spirit by many of the discussions as those in attendance asked meaningful, probing questions.

I so appreciated those in attendance and their desire to find answers. I walked away refreshed and revived in the value of community life and the truth that communities coming together is a powerful testimony and witness of the body principles.

Sarah Harding

I always feel privileged to spend time with our friends of the Shepherdsfield community in Missouri. Their individual and corporate stories inspire each one of us further along the “common way.” I don’t think there has been a visit in which we have not gone away with a deeper appreciation for God’s vision for the body of Christ.

During this particular visit, I spent time with the “Shepherdsfieldians” as they received others into their home to experience their dynamic life together. Visitors from overseas, Canada, and other regions of the Midwest came to see and hear what intentional Christian community looked like for this church in Fulton, Missouri. As guest speakers recounted the Biblical story from Abraham to Pentecost, listeners were invited to ask, “What is God’s vision for his people as narrated in the Bible and what does that mean for the church today?” Some discussed the cost of following in Christ and the disciple’s footsteps while others asked for insight to realize a practical lifetime commitment to a people. Between the experience of both resident members and those they invited, the advice shared was rich in wisdom from a road long traveled.

These discussions deeply rooted in me as I not only listened to the sessions but participated in the daily life of my hosts. The time spent eating excellent food, enjoying company, listening to music or pulling up my sleeves in the kitchen or greenhouse reminded me again and again of the “why” behind the vision we had been discussing. I believe the “why” behind what we do is ultimately personal, that our commitments are realized supremely because of the individual on our right or left hand. I’ve been more than blessed to have grown up in such a person-centered environment. I don’t want to forget just how irreplaceable each individual in our life is.

Timothy Krell

My most cherished part of my trip to Shepherdsfield has to be the time I spent with my friend, Jeffrey. I met Jeffrey when I was eleven during my first trip to his community. The great distance that separates our two communities makes it difficult to interact much, so whenever one of us is visiting I value what time we can spend together. This visit was particularly special since Jeffrey’s family hosted me, and I stayed with him in his room. It is very exciting to befriend someone who has been living in a Christian community similar to my own. We can relate to many of each others experiences, offer insight into each other’s walk with the Lord, and share in the differences that make our respective communities unique.

Shepherdsfield has a very strong culture of socializing with each other, and this comes out in Jeffrey’s openness and wonderful hospitality. One practice that Shepherdsfield uses to foster this spirit is their abstinence of TV watching in the home. They watch movies together as a group, but they have chosen not to watch broadcast television or movies each in their own home. The result of this, I have seen, is a very strong culture of fellowship and hosting of one another during their spare time. At the end of the day, people will invite others to their homes to sit, drink tea or coffee, play a game, and just talk with each other. Jeffrey’s newly married older brother invited Sarah and I to his home Sunday afternoon. I had a wonderful time talking about our lives and sharing our interests. I confess that my default form of entertainment almost always involves a TV, whether it be playing a video game or watching something. My times with Shepherdsfield have helped me understand that what is most valuable and cherished is not the entertainment but the person.

In Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol the hesitant and barely chastened Scrooge, confronting the phantom that was his partner in life, tries to console the guilty and agonized ghost (and himself) with a feeble word of encouragement, “But you were always a good man of business, Jacob.” Immediately, the specter roars out with terrible force, “Business! Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business.”

I will never forget the first time I saw A Christmas Carol portrayed in film. While there has been numerous renditions of this beloved tale, I always cherish the black and white version staring Alastair Sim. The shadowy images, low-tech effects, and the incredible conversion scene win my heart every time. But what about my hands and feet? What will I do with this message?

The Hammonton Area Ministerium has partnered together each October for the last several years to participate in an event called, “Crop Walk.” This is a fund raising effort for the poor and needy. Participants walk a ten kilometer route as a way to identify with those who must make such a trek for their daily livelihood. This last year seven Hammonton area churches participated and raised over $2,500 for needs abroad and here at home. The Ministerium uses a part of these donations to fund local food pantries and provide emergency assistance to those in our own town. The remainder of donations go toward relief efforts around the world.

In our small way we are making mankind our business. It won’t solve the world’s problems, and we can do so much more. But like Scrooge, after seeing the darkness and futility of selfishness, we can take small, but sure, steps towards love. This holiday season, let’s all make mankind our business.

As my last few posts reveal, I’ve been reading David Crump’s book, Knocking on Heaven’s Door. I’ve been enjoying the book and want to share some insights I’ve had while reading it.

1. Prayer’s primary purpose is communion with God.

Prayer isn’t just a means to get our needs met. It’s not a heavenly drive-through where we shout our requests at a crackling speaker. Prayer is talking and listening to God. It is the communication conduit with Him. It’s the way we get to know Him. It’s all about relationship.
Imagine talking to your friend or spouse the way we talk to God in prayer sometimes: “Honey, my wonderful wife, thank you for your blessings. Please cook spaghetti tonight for dinner. Help me with our taxes, and show our children the need to clean their room. Amen.” Of course, it is fine and right to share our needs and desires with God, but the real point is contact and presence with Him. He is the object of our love, not His gifts.

2. Prayer isn’t magic, therefore, it isn’t formulaic.

Messages on “The Secrets of Prayer,” or “How to Get Your Prayers Answered,” or “Prevailing with God,” often talk about prayer like a magic spell. If you can just learn the secret formula then you can become an effective prayer warrior. The problem is that this treats prayer and God mechanistically. Many of these messages were popular during the Industrial Revolution and reflected the mechanistic view of life at the time. Civilization was inspired by the advances of the machine and the tendency was to try to explain all of life through this paradigm, including prayer.

The Biblical paradigm, however, is relationship. Jesus taught us to pray, “Our Father.” All of the principles that govern relationships apply: respect, freedom, trust, honesty, and humility. Once we begin to try to use a formula we move from communion to manipulation. Manipulation, by its very definition, is anti-personal and anti-relational. God is not a thing to be handled and managed. He is a person, the most wonderful Person in the universe. Prayer is spending time in fellowship with this Person.

3. Authenticity is what matters, not zeal, passion, persistence, or “great faith.”

Crump does a good job dissecting those biblical passages that on the surface seem to teach that long-term repetition + sufficient fervency = positive result. It’s not that zeal, passion, or persistency are irrelevant, but they aren’t tools or good works to obtain answers in prayer. Remember, everything has to be seen through a relationship paradigm. Right relationships require that we be real and sincere. It’s a matter of motive. If my real agenda is to get something, not know and love the other person, then I am treating them as an object, a living vending machine.

Zeal, passion, and persistency make sense when, in the natural course of life, they express who we are as persons facing the situations we face. They can’t be mustered up and used as magic tokens to get our needs and desires met by God. When people face real problems that have potentially serious consequences they feel passion and have urgent focus. Prayer born out of these kind of experiences is going to reflect that passion and focus. It is simply natural, human, and authentic.

A word on faith: Crump points out that James defines, “asking in faith,” as the opposite of doubt or double-mindedness. He says, “Doubt is not weakness in faith but the attempt to maintain faith in two different things at once – hence, to be double minded.” So, there aren’t levels of faith in prayer, with the idea that the greater the faith the more likely you will be answered. Rather, doubt simply means you are not authentically trusting in God’s character and therefore are not being sincere in your relationship with Him. It’s binary, not analog (sorry my geekness is coming out). The key here is to resolve this conflict in your relationship with God through repentance.

Prayer is an important part of community. In my next post I’ll share other insights I’ve been getting from reading this wonderful book.

“The best answer to every prayer is an expanded awareness of how the Father’s unconditional love, experienced here and now as well as anticipated in his eternal promises, is all we require to sustain us through life.”

Knocking on Heaven’s Door, besides being a song by Bob Dylan and performed by Guns N’ Roses (and others), is a wonderful book by David Crump on prayer. Probably no other book on prayer has affected my idea and practice of prayer like this book.

One of the main points I’ve been taking away from my reading is the idea that prayer isn’t a “petition machine.” Crump dispels the idea that prayer is formulaic and can be mastered in order to guarantee results. Rather, prayer is the avenue of communion with our loving God. In other words, prayer must be seen in a relational context.

How would it feel if your friend approached you only to make requests, and would employ methods of earnestness and persistence to gain his desire? You would feel manipulated, wouldn’t you? In the same way, prayer can be egocentric and devoid of communion.

Crump writes:

“Prayer, regardless of its specific content, creates an open channel of two-way communication between heaven and earth. Not only is the Father the recipient of our messages, but prayer opens us simultaneously to his.”

Once again, everything goes back to relationship and communion. It’s all about imitating the Trinity in their loving union. God invites us into this fellowship of love, and prayer is the way to enter in.

I’ve never heard Dylan’s song, but I have knocked on heaven’s door many times.

On my birthday I came into my office to find this. Heidi and the kids from the community really brightened my day with fun jokes and lots of love.

Community is something most people desire. It is so desirable that it is often used to promote and sell all kinds of things. In fact, it is treated as a commodity. But true community isn’t something that can be obtained like a consumer good. It requires deep commitment and sincerity. I was excited to find someone else talking about this very thing the other day. Benjamin Sternke’s post about “Community as commodity” captures so many good points I decided to publish it here. Enjoy!

A blog post by David Fitch a few days ago provoked some thoughts for me on the way we bandy the word “community” about.

Everyone loves the idea of community. It’s used to market all kinds of things (including churches!), and it works because people are lonely. We’ve spent the last 200 years asserting our individual right to privacy, and now we find that we’re starved for community (coincidence?).

But while everyone loves the idea of community, we also tend to think that it is something we can get the same way we get breakfast cereal. We want community as a commodity: something we can go pick up at the church store when we feel like it. But then if things get too serious or “heavy,” we can always go back to asserting our right to privacy.

The problem is that community is not a commodity. We can’t just grab some community when we feel like it, like a hamburger. We can’t just walk into a church and expect that “community” will happen automatically because we’d like it to. True community takes a lot of time and effort, and it can’t be condensed into a convenient package that fits your lifestyle. Community requires deep commitment. True community means that others have a “say” about how you live your life and spend your time. It means people will be relying on you to fulfill your responsibilities, and will probably be upset if you don’t. It means laying down your “right” to privacy and realizing that others are going to know the real you. It means taking the huge risk of being known.

Community isn’t just one more thing we can consume when it suits our fancy. It’s not a commodity. It entails huge commitment and breathtaking risk. But the rewards are greater than the risks.

Bret and Gretchen’s new addition, Aimee, came to live among us on August 7th at 7:59 a.m.. She arrived a healthy 7 pounds 3 ounces and 20 1/4 inches bundle of joy. Mom, dad, brothers, grandparents, and all her aunts and uncles in community could not be more delighted!

As a common purse community we’re often asked if we believe that every Christian should live like we do. Does the Bible require every Christian to “hold all things in common?” The short answer to that is, of course, “No.” It is not practical or possible for every Christian to be a part of a income sharing structure. Some Christians are married to unbelievers, some are in a stage of their life that makes this kind of commitment not permissible (like being in the armed services), and others just don’t have the faith (the necessary level of maturity and understanding) or calling (God may not be directing) to live like this. On top of this, one must be able to find a group of Christians they trust enough to share in this way.

This doesn’t mean, however, that the Bible has nothing to say about how we approach our finances. David Crump, in Knocking on Heaven’s Door, writes how the Lord’s Prayer teaches us to live for the honor, praise, and glory of God which includes how we handle our finances:

“The Lord’s Prayer does not require anyone to become a neo-Marxist, a socialist, or even a vegetarian who recycles. The fourth petition [“Give us this day our daily bread”] does not impose a particular political agenda or economic philosophy; it simply requires that one’s material existence be utterly conditioned by the reign of God. Followers of Jesus are to hold on to nothing as tightly as they hold on to their King, and when it comes time to act on their stated values – as it does for all of us every day – they will go anywhere and do anything the Father asks, regardless of the cost, because they know that he will faithfully supply their needs.”

Wanting to love God and our brethren with all our hearts and live out the Sermon on the Mount, we have chosen to create a structure that enables us to share with each other our needs and blessings. Through this we hope to embody, in our small way, the vision of the coming Kingdom. God calls every Christian to find a way, within their means, to do the same.

Discipleship – Allowing God to make us capable of communion.